Portraits

Timing is everything. 

I've been thinking about drawing portraits for the last few months, figuring out how I would go about selling them, and, more importantly, whether anyone would be interested. Then out of the blue Chantal from Kin phoned to ask whether I'd do portraits of everyone at the shop!

We gathered photos and I set to work.

This is probably the most fun drawing job I've had in ages! 

Everyone sent two or three photos, and rather than copying a single picture I took a hairstyle from one, a smile from another, till I had a drawing that looked not exactly like any one photo, but like all of them put together. It was fascinating, working out how to get the drawing just right.

Eddie, of course, only needed one photo, because he simply always looks perfect:

Now I don't want to stop!

So I'll be launching my portrait service in the next week or two, and to celebrate I'll give away one free A5 black and white portrait. Just leave a comment on this post, and I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner on the 7th of July, next Monday. 

The winner must be able to send me a photo to work from (and more than one if you can), and allow me to post the finished portrait on my blog; I'll send a small scan for approval before I declare the portrait finished, and mail you the final drawing. The giveaway is open to anyone from anywhere, so bear in mind that international shipping can take up to ten days, and I'll need a few days to actually do the drawing as well (just in case you decide that this would make a perfect birthday gift for someone, and the birthday is very soon.)

You can read all about the folk from Kin on their blog, and don't forget to have a look around their online shop.