Baby and Dog Group Custom Portrait from Photos

Custom Portrait from Photos

First custom portrait of this holiday season was of two little guys, one a brand new baby, one a more mature canine!  As usual, I have to apologise for my photo skills, I can't seem to get details and the transition to those cute pink cheeks is not that dramatic!  But you get the idea.

My client gave this as a gift for the grandparents of both of them.  Since the child and the dog live miles apart, I needed to work with separate photos.  And for a background, we used the quilt that my client had made especially for the baby!  I toned it down a bit, that gorgeous quilt could have been a portrait all its own.  My favorite part?  Doing the fuzzball head!  I forgot how downy and fuzzy those little guy's hair can be!

Portrait of a Little Girl with a lot of Flair!

Here's the portrait of a little girl I have been working on off and on for a while.  I did her sisters portrait months ago, but before my Christmas rush.

For you artists, here's my skin color palette info...prismacolors and colorsofts in pinks, peaches, yellows, whites, tans, lavenders, reds and blues.  No "clay rose" or any other greyed color.  I found that they just deadened skin unbelievably.  The blues and lavendars did the job with the shadow sides without making it look pasty and unnatural.

I also didn't copy the photo, it was shot indoors in the shade, so the skin color was way duskier than it really is.  I am lucky that I had an array of photos to consult and could bring out the sunny and youthful skin color.

I am hoping to get my children's portraits out there to the real live public, not just online.  I have two more samples I want to do to be able to take with me to shows...a tiny tot ballerina and a teenaged hockey player.  Of course, I accept commissions online, too, I just want to expand my audience.  Come visit my site full of samples of my pet and childrens portraits!  You can also order via my email, and here's where you can see my animal paintings

My Little Botticelli - Portrait of a little girl

When I saw this photo sent to me by her grandmother, I knew it might be a little tough because the angle was a little unusual for a portrait.  She was looking up at the camera. But I loved the way her hair chunked up and blew off to the side, it reminded me of Botticelli's Birth of Venus a little and I decided to give it a whirl.  And

I'm glad I did!  I wanted to keep her hair that way because I think it conveys the gleeful action expressed on her darling face.  The angle turned out to not be a problem when I opted for a pretty plain background and close crop.

I started out with a honey colored pastel paper, and used professional grade colored pencils...a mix of brands.  I like the harder prismacolors for the bottom layers and the softer ones to even things out.l  There wasn't much contrast in the photo, so I really had to search hard for the subtle shadowing and color transitions.

The size is approximately 7.5 inches square.  I like this size and this shape and think I'll offer it as a suggestion more often.  It's just large enough to show enough detail, yet would look awesome in a display with the same size of portraits of her siblings.  I hope you will feel free to comment!  Next up artwise is a portrait of a kitty lying, in all things, in a potful of peppermint...the herb type, not the candy type!  And I have some interesting dog things coming up as well.  Thanks for visiting!  Robin

I'm American Artist, Robin Zebley.  My site is HERE robinzebley.com, and is primarily of my pet portraits, but I'm adding children's portraits often (a high school hockey player is coming up soon!).  If you'd like to follow my blog, click on that button to your right.  To read my whole blog, click on the banner at the top.  Thanks for visiting and please feel free to contact me privately if you wish at robinzebleyartist@gmail.com.  Robin

Little Boy Portrait

Just wanted to show you what I have been working on...it's a portrait of a little guy in colored pencil. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed working on children's portraits this week!

As much as I've been joking that I have to remember...it's a "nose", not a "snout", I'm just drawing/painting what I see. I have especially enjoyed studying the hues of skintones and picking up the subtle transitions from the warm pinks and yellows to the cool blues and violets.

I didn't do much to change the composition of the photo of this little one that I took from a copyright free site where photographers offer their work free for the taking for artists to use. I wanted a very dark haired child, since I know I have several very fair skinned kids coming up so I would have some variety for my portfolio. When I was starting out in dog portraits, I had a run of golden retrievers. I think I did 9 in a row! Same thing, I don't want to only have blue eyed blonde girls in my "human" portfolio!

This portrait took about a third of the time it took me to do the little girls. I learned sooo much with that one. This time, although also lit darkly, not in bright sunshine, I started out with an almost light valued blue paper. It definitely helped to have that as the undertone, especially with this particular child's coloring.

I hope you like it! Next on tap will be another child, I am on a roll! Hopefully I'll have another one to show you in a few days.

I'm pet (and children!) artist, Robin Zebley. My portrait and woodblock print site is HERE Would you like to follow my blog? Click on "follow" to the right. To read my whole blog, just click on the banner at the top. Have a comment? I'd love to hear it! Thanks for visiting! Robin

Children's Portrait - Two Little Girls

I love the pose of these girls, love how the light shines on their beautiful faces. In real life, the portraits are much darker on the dark side. I will try and get better photos, but have taken a hundred and they still don't really show the details and coloring exactly right.

This is colored pencil on dark red Mi Teintes pastel paper. I love this paper personally, and chose it because it's almost black but warmer and I think it works with dramatically lit subjects.

I had a question from a tweetpal who wanted to know how I blend the colored pencil so you don't see the pencil strokes? Here's my answer. The way I like to do that is with a lot of layers, and I do mean a lot in some spots. I also use a cut stencil brush to polish the skin and push it right into the pits of the paper so no paper shows. I use dull "points" to glaze color on. I also love to use the sides of the pencil "lead". It makes it nice and subtle...a nice light touch. I only use sharp points at the end for details, which don't even show in this photo...the eyelashes, the transitions in colors...

Anyway, I spent about 10 times on this as I do a dog portrait! I learned a lot that I will be able to use in my next human portrait! I hope you enjoy it! Robin
I'm artist, Robin Zebley. I've done hundreds of pet portraits over the past 8 years and now am building my portfolio of "human" portraits! My site is "http://robinzebley.com