Commissioning a Portrait

I always work from photographs and ask the person to send me as many photos of themselves or their families that they really like, and then we discuss what would make the best painting.

Often the paintings are a composite of several photos, and the faces need to be as clear as possible in the photos. I can improvise a lot more with changing clothes, colours etc. If you are happy to proceed I ask for a deposit of half and then do a preliminary line drawing.

I shade the drawing a little to give an idea of what the final portrait would look like, show it to you on zoom, or we can arrange to meet up ,  and we discuss the colour scheme. You are welcome to suggest any amendments to the drawing at that stage, and then I go ahead and paint the final work. I paint primarily in watercolour, but am also happy to work in pencil, coloured pencil, pastel, gouache, or charcoal.