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