Nos. 318 & 319: The "Family" Portrait(s)

The buyer of this giant collage of pets calls it "The Family Portrait."
Indeed, our pets are family.



Let us introduce you to the horses: Nick, Hannah, Geronimo, Mack and Sam.  We added a sixth, Audie, separately.
And the dogs: Kimber, Ruger and Barrett.
And cats: Gator, Felicity, Alli and Coleman.

These cuties have been under wraps since January and were gifted just Saturday (April 16) from a guy to his gal. These are all of her critters.

"Had the manager bring them out to her after dinner today. Was absolutely unprepared for this, totally caught off guard. Brought quite a few tears -- fell in love with the animal likenesses. ... Your work made her very happy."

It all started in a Youngstown hair salon, with one guy asking the barber, who new another guy -- my boss -- if anyone knew someone who did animal portraits. So a phone number was provided to me and I called.
Truthfully this is a drawing that, at first, I really didn't want to do.
Too many faces, too big, and too crowded. And who puts lettering on a portrait?
Sheesh.

But this guy was Sofa King persistent, and eventually we jointly hatched on the concept. He was directly involved in the photo choices and lettering selection.  We must have exchanged 100 emails -- many animal photos. We even exchanged a "map" of sorts, positioning each animal by name.
The names were then hand-lettered.

The end result is, I think, a little crowded -- by design.  That's a lot of fur, but we wanted them close-knit. The dark mat and the wood frame are beautiful and set off the blacks and grays of the pencils.
This one exhausted me, taking weeks to do, but it's so unique and special.
All of the planning and effort were really worth it.

The sixth horse, Audie, came home right after the big picture had been completed. I was asked if she could be added and I had to say no. 
So we hatched a separate drawing of Audie running in a ring, and I found a unique sea-green piece of glass for the oak frame.  I've never seen anything like it.

This is the result of collaboration and letting imaginations run free. I reigned in a few wild hairs but basically these are the customer's vision, from the very beginning.
It's a happy family portrait. Long may they run.

But wait! There's MORE!

Meet the newest member of the 'family,' handsome Marcel!
This time a head and chest portrait was requested, and I obliged.
We wrapped this one up in late April and I will deliver it upon framing.
We're not horsing around here!