Holiday Commissions Revealed, Part 2: Family Sketches

All right, lets take a look at the next category of commissions from the holiday season! In Part 1, I shared three Pet Portraits with you, and today, we're looking at a few family "portraits"...

Each of these drawings were done from client-provided pics + lots of feedback from the commissioner. The process is pretty straightforward: once I receive all of the pictures, I do a pencil sketch of the piece. I then send that pencil sketch over to the commissioner for their thoughts, and together, we go back-and-forth making tweaks until we've got it right. Once we do, I go over the pencil lines in ink and voila, we're done! 

I'm not including any images of this creation process because it doesn't involve as many interesting layers and stages as a painting does, but I have included a little note about who commissioned each gift, because I love a good backstory ;) 

Above: A Christmas gift from a mother to her son + daughter-in-law. Obviously, this is their little family (freaking adorable, right?). 

Below: A gift from a girlfriend to her boyfriend; it's the couple and their sweet cat, Merlin. My first cat in a family sketch! So fun. 

Below: A wedding gift from a sister to her brother and his wife--their dog, Darwin, is in the middle. I was nervous about this one because the wife (figure on left) is an artist and graphic designer {the pressure was ON!}, but I hear they really liked it, so that's good ;) 

There you have it! Simple + sweet ;) Isn't it great how just the outline of someone's head can say everything you need to say about who it is? Pretty remarkable. 

Thanks to those who commissioned these fun little pieces! I absolutely love creating them. 

Interested in commissioning your own family sketch? Learn more here {and view more past family sketches here}.