Themed Portrait - Now and Forever

Morning All!

I've got another portrait commission for you today with a rather familiar theme!
Harkening back to my first blog post of the year, this bookends my current run of commissions quite nicely.

Yes, its another Nightmare Before Christmas themed portrait for another newlywed couple!
Dearest friends Dawn and Mark, who are also fans of the Tim Burton film, it's as plain as anyone can see you guys were simply meant to be! I hope you both like it!

 

This commission is A4 portrait in size and coloured using Copic Markers.

Are there any more NBC fans our there? Would you like to see yourselves as you favourite characters? Just drop me an email: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Pet Portraits - Peanix

Hey everyone!

I've another pet portrait commission to share with you today.
This piece is the latest in a series of commissions I've been asked to provide for one particular animal lover who has a penchant for pet name puns!

You may remember previous posts featuring furry felines; The Goblin King and Batroc the Leaper. And feathered fowls Hawkeye and Peckasus. (okay, thats enough with the alliteration..)

Yes, Paul with his amazing menagerie is back with a new addition; a beautiful Peahen called Peanix!

This commission of Peanix is A3 in size and coloured using Copic Markers. The text is also hand drawn and rendered in the style of the classic X-Men comic logo.

If you'd like to check out more of my commissioned Pet Portraits, be they caricatured like this one or more traditional in style, click here!

But if this has inspired you with a portrait idea for your pet, then just drop me an email: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Themed Portrait - Cheers

For Valentine's day this year I was commissioned to do this really fun piece!

For those of you who aren't familiar with my other work, here's some context to explain the idea behind this commission. So along with MULP: Sceptre of the Sun, an anthropomorphic pulp adventure comic published by Improper Books, I also illustrate a semi-autobiographical comic which was also anthropomorphised! This comic is called Paws for Thawt!

Paws for Thawt is a slice of life comic, taking scenes and moments I've experienced with people I know but casting them as animal characters! It became quite a fun exercise to cast my friends and family as animals that best suit their personalities and a good few people joined in the fun!

Including Malwina and Ben! Here we see them as their chosen anthropomorphised characters, an Otter and a Giraffe, toasting each other with their favourite beverages at a swanky bar.

This commission is A4 portrait in size and coloured using Copic Markers.

If you'd like to learn more about my other work mentioned in this post you can check out MULP: Sceptre of the Sun here where you can read free previews of each issue: mulpcomic.com
and you can read all of Paws for Thawt here: pawsforthawt.tumblr.com

If this has inspired you to join in and cast yourself as an animal that suits your personality, get in touch and I can make it happen! sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Pet Portraits - Group Portrait, pt.2

Hello there pet lovers!

This morning I'm going to be sharing the second half of the process behind a very special Pet Portrait which was commissioned last year.

This Portrait features beloved pets; Ollie, Bubble, Bailey and Suzy. The completed commission measures 50cm x 50cm and is a mixed media piece combining Watercolour and Pencil colours.

When I posted last I had just shown you the completed watercolour backgrounds for each section of the portrait (if you missed this, then catch up here!)

Today I'm going to continue where I left off and share the colouring process for each animal.

Step 5: Another Watercolour Wash

Because each individual portrait measured 25cm x 25cm, I decided to lay a watercolour wash as a base layer to work on with the coloured pencils, thereby giving an even covering and ensuring that no part would be left patchy over such a large surface area.
This also gave me an idea of how each of the animals individual colouring and marking would sit upon the watercolour background behind them, and a projected view of the completed piece!

Step 6: Pencil colour 

The next step was just a matter of using the photo reference my client provided and building up the layers of colour that make up each animal's markings and fur, starting with lighter tones and then defining markings and waves in the fur with darker pencils and bolder strokes.

Step 7: Finished!

All that remained to do is to add the finishing touches!
The whiskers I painted on using white acrylic and a fine brush, then I worked back into them with a pencil to add definition and mass. I also took a colouring pencil to the watercolour backgrounds behind each pet, adding a bit of subtle cross hatching to lift the animal from the two-dimensional backdrop.

And there you have it! One 50cm x 50cm group pet portrait, framed and ready to go to it's forever home! Thank you so much for commissioning this Mo, I really did have a lot of fun with what is easily my largest portrait commission to date! And I hope the rest of you enjoyed these posts showing the process.

If there is anyone out there who would like a portrait like this of their beloved pet then email me at: sara_dunkerton@hotmail.com

Pet Portraits - Group portrait, pt.1

Hey everyone!

Today I'm going to begin to share with you a very special Pet Portrait which I completed before the New Year!
I was commissioned by Mo to produce a large watercolour and pencil colour piece, measuring 50cm x 50cm, featuring her beloved pets; Ollie the King Charles Spaniel, Bubbles the Tortoiseshell, Bailey the Persian and Suzy the Tabby.

This commission took me quite a while to do due to the size and the complexity, not to mention I was in the process of moving whilst working on it! All the while I kept my client up to date with progress photos taken from my phone (so apologies in advance for the quality of some, the commission was just much to large for my scanner!) and I've decided to share the whole process with you here!

So this will be part 1 of a 2 part post featuring the process behind this commission!

Step 1: Photoshop mock up

After discussing Mo's idea I put together a series of rough mock ups in photoshop in order to best illustrate the concept before putting pencil to paper. This allowed me to make quick edits to the composition, colour and photographic reference until we were happy to go ahead.

Step 2 : Pencils

Next step was to draw out the grid and each of the animals.
(Again sorry for the quality of the photos!)

Step 3: Watercolour wash

Now before this step I would have liked to have stretched the paper onto an art board before applying any watercolour, this would have prevented the paper from crinkling! But I simply did not have an art board large enough to accommodate the size of this commission! So I had to be very careful to not saturate the paper too much during this and the following stage.

Step 4: Building up the Watercolour background

After applying a base wash with watercolour paint I began to build up layers of pain drips, splatters and texture to the backgrounds of each section. As before the tricky part here was preventing the paper from crinkling too much and stopping the colours of each segment overlapping!

In my next post I'll show you how I coloured Ollie, Bubbles, Bailey and Suzy using a blend of more Watercolour and Coloured Pencils!

Stay Tuned!!

*** EDIT ***

Check out part 2 of the behind the scene process behind this commission here

If you would like a portrait of your furry friends then please drop me an email: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

Themed Portrait - Simply Meant to Be

To say I've fallen behind in keeping this blog updated over the last 6 months or so is an understatement, and definitely something I'm going to try and get back into the habit of making time for!
My most sincerest of apologies to anyone who looks for these posts and updates. Catching up with the workload after the house buy and the move has given me quite a backlog of bloggable material, so I hope I can make it up to you all with posts to come!

This first one being a Themed Portrait from last year. Commissioned as a wedding present to a lovely couple who are fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas!
Josh and Kirsty, may they live like Jack and Sally now and forever!

 

This commission is A4 portrait in size and coloured using Copic Markers.

If you know a couple who would like to see themselves as their favourite fictional characters then drop me an email: sara-dunkerton@hotmail.com

MULP: Sceptre of the Sun Issue #5 Progress

Hey MULP fans!

If you saw one of my previous posts you'll know that lately life has been keeping me rather busy!
For those of you who missed that then the gist of it was that I've gone and bought a house, moved, started a new job, turned 30, had my Macbook break down on me and got it repaired!! Phew!

Unfortunately this has meant that progress on the final issue of MULP has been fragmented in the snatched moments when my studio wasn't packed up in boxes and while my laptop was working!

However I have some sneak peeks and updates for those anticipating the conclusion to our mousey adventure!

All 23 pages of issue #5 are pencilled and inked! The images which are scattered throughout this post show various work in progress sneak peeks taken throughout the inking process. These were posted up along with a few more on my instagram, so be sure to give me a follow if you want to stay updated!

Not only has all the traditional work for this issue been completed, but since my laptop got repaired I've been cracking on with the colouring stages too!

As some of you may know, MULP is actually coloured digitally using photoshop!
The pencils and inks are inks are drawn traditionally then scanned into Photoshop. Next I apply the background textures, these are several paper/paint textures blended and layered together underneath the inks, to create the base palette for each page.

In fact, this is how the full Issue #5 is currently looking!
(but with the ink layers turned off to avoid spoilers!)

These background textures are essentially my (not so flat) flats, which I then use as a base to digitally paint in the details.

If you're interested in my colouring process and would like to know in more detail what it takes to create a page of MULP, you can find a two part step by step guide of how I created the cover for MULP #1!

How I Make Comics, part 1

How I Make Comics, part 2

For the next few weeks or so I will be attempting to make fast progress on completing the colouring for this, the last issue of MULP: Sceptre of the Sun!

Be sure to keep and eye out on my social media for sneaky peeks and works in progress throughout the colouring process!

You can find me on:
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr

Watch this space for more MULP news, reviews and updates!