I finished this A3 graphite drawing of Aimee the lovely Beagle last week. Sadly, Aimee is no longer with us and her family miss her dearly. The portrait means an awful lot to the her mum. She sent me a message saying she can’t wait for the portrait to be home so that Aimee is back home where she should be. That really touched me and every hour I spend on them makes it so worth while knowing they mean so much to my clients.
In the reference photo, Aimee’s paw was missing from the photo. In some instances I would be able to add elements like this but as majority of her foot was missing we decided the best option was to draw her to the edge of the paper and have her fill as much of the page as possible. My concern was that drawing her smaller and fading out that foot just past the dew claw would look like she didn’t have a paw there at all. So this was the best way of getting the most from the reference to create a balanced portrait. She was laying on carpet with her paw overhanging one of the steps. Her owner didnt want the distraction of the carpet to draw attention away from Aimee so a subtle shadow was added instead.