I should make more of these really! Just so you can see what I have worked from and the realism I strive to achieve in each portrait.
A good photo is key..
One of the key things to creating a highly detailed and realistic portrait is the reference you are working from. As an artist who is always wanting to capture the personality and character of each of my subjects this is always more achievable with a good quality photograph to work from. Lily is a prime example. Her owner provided my with an excellent photo taken on his DSLR camera. Nowadays, so many mobile phones have superb cameras which take exceptional photos. I always say that as long as I can see the fur direction I can normally work from the photograph.
There are times when the pet has sadly passed away and the photographs the owners have are not good quality. I always try to still work with these and enhance them and make the portrait more realistic and detailed than the actual photo itself. Tomorrow’s blog post will go into this in more detail and I will share with you an example where I improved on the reference and made a portrait that was more realistic.