Vintage wedding portrait

This custom pencil portrait was commissioned as a Christmas present for the customer's mother (the bride in the picture). The customer originally contacted me about doing this portrait back in September! Wow! That's planning ahead!

When she received the drawing, the customer left this feedback on my shop page: "I absolutely love the drawing (Kelley) did of my parents' wedding picture. They had spent 50 years together before my dad passed away. We thought we would surprise my mom for Christmas with the drawing. When it came it more than met my expectations. Even though I was able to see previews as she was drawing the picture, I was even that much more happy when we received the drawing!"

This photograph looks very, very similar to another vintage wedding portrait I did last year. Seems like those cat-eye glasses were all the rage back then!

The faces were quite a challenge! Although the portrait is a large 11x14 size, because this is a full-body portrait, each face is only about the size of a quarter! So every tiny little pencil stroke really makes a difference. 

Memorial portrait

Recently I was honored to receive a commission for a memorial pencil portrait. The customer's grandmother, above, passed away at the age of 99 - wow!

"Here is the photo we all love of her," the customer said. Usually I do not recommend using faded vintage photos like this one, so the customer and I went through many other photos of her grandmother. However, in the end it was clear that this picture best captures her warm personality, so I did the best I could to reflect that in my drawing.

60th anniversary portrait!!

I had the honor of drawing a portrait of this lovely newlywed couple as a gift for their 60th anniversary. See those dates on the bottom of the drawing? 60 years, people!! Next week I am going to be celebrating my 3-year anniversary, which is cool and all, but I'd say that as far as anniversaries go, this couple wins.

The couple, who live in the Netherlands, will be receiving their portrait pretty soon. Congratulations, Afra and Gerard! You are an inspiration to everyone.

BFFs portrait, finished

Phew! It's finished! I have to admit I really struggled to get this drawing right, because of the darkly lit photo. I wanted the drawing to look like the photograph, of course, but I also wanted it to look brighter and clearer. The customer gave me some tips along the way, and I think the two ladies' happy expressions comes through in the finished product.

I'm pretty sure that one of the ladies in the photo is going to receive the drawing as a gift, but I'm not sure which one. I hope she likes it!

Vintage Couple portrait, finished!

I am really, really happy with how this came out. I wish you could see it in person; the scan didn't capture all the details.

The lace on the dress took a lot of patience. I drew it while watching an entire season of The Office (the UK version); it helped keep myself from getting bored while drawing and shading and erasing and shading and drawing all those tiny little patterns.

It was worth it, though. Once she received this, the customer told me, "I've been showing alot of people your drawing & they can't get over the detail. They love it!"

See this drawing in progress: part 1 and part 2.

Vintage couple drawing, part 2

Still working on the drawing of this lovely vintage couple. The lace overlay of the wedding dress is definitely presenting me with a challenge. Not only is there a floral pattern, but there seem to be multiple layers and they're all casting shadows on each other.

I want the finished wedding dress to look convincing, not confusing. I know I can do it, it's just going to take some time and a lot of careful shading.

I'm back!

I'm back from a long haitus! We moved to a new apartment, which as you know is an exhausting process. Since then, I've been suffering from a malady almost every blogger experiences at some point - the "why-do-I-even-bother-no-one-cares-what-I-write-except-my-parents" bug.

Now I have a new Etsy commission that I'm excited to share with...uh, whoever is out there.

This sweet couple is the customer's parents. That's quite a dress, isn't it? I really like the way the bottom part looks. Drawing the lace is going to be a challenge because it will mean a lot of negative drawing (drawing around white space). Luckily the customer ordered a large 11x14 size, so I have plenty of room for all this detail. I've already off to a good start on the couple's faces.

Each of their faces is only 1 inch wide!

(By the way, thanks for your feedback on a fabric for my cubicle. I chose a fabric and put it up, and I'll take a picture of it soon!)

Mother's Love portrait, finished!

Do you remember the drawing from a vintage photo that I've been working on? I showed the customer this almost-finished image, and she said, "I wanted to know if it would be possible to make her look like she was in heaven with your shading?"

Can do.

 

"It brought tears to my eyes," the customer responded. I'm pretty sure she meant that in a good way.

This drawing took 8.5 hours. Time to start the next one, which I'm pretty excited about because it has pretty dresses.

Mother's Love portrait, part 1

Okay, so the photo on the left is the one I'm drawing from - and it's a good example of a vintage photo that I would normally consider too faded and blurry to use. That's what the photo on the right is for - a reference to help me understand what the woman's face looks like.

The baby in the photo is the customer's husband. The woman, obviously, is his mother, who recently passed away. This drawing will be a special Christmas gift for the customer's husband. Despite being blurry and faded, there's a lot of emotion and love in the vintage photo. This drawing is meant as something of a memorial, and I want to make sure that all that love really comes through in the drawing. Here's what I've got so far.