I was recently asked to do some pencil drawings of a 1995 Corvette and I thought I’d share them with you. These were my first ever Corvette drawings and I’m very pleased to say that the client loved them.

The Corvette drawing was a gift for a client’s boyfriend (who owns the car) and happens to restore classic cars for a living, so as you can imagine I was eager to do a good job!

1995 Corvette Drawings

Corvette Sketch / Sketches

During our initial discussions on how it should look, the client explained that she would like a number of Corvette sketches to be arranged together in a collage style.

The client sent me some photographs of the car from various angels for me to do each Corvette sketch and we also decided to add the emblem and logo to finish it off nicely.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out and the client was too!

Other Pencil Drawings of Cars

I would love to do more pencil drawings of cars for clients in future and I’m always happy to discuss what kind of arrangement will work best for them. Whatever make and model you like, modern or classic, I’ll do my best to do it justice.

So if you know someone who is passionate about cars, why not get them a really original and personal gift to show them how much you care? Just send me an email and we can discuss what you think they’d like.

Every little girl wants to be a fairy, so I thought I’d share with you how I can turn your daughter into a fairy, in the form of a pencil drawing. To give you an idea of what the finished result can look like, here is the first of the pencil drawings of fairies I’ve drawn recently.

Pencil Drawings of Fairies

Turn your Daughter into a Fairy

To turn your little girl into a fairy, all you have to do is send me a photograph of her (that shows her head and shoulders – as that’s where her wings will be attached), let me know the size you would like and I’ll get straight back to you.

If your looking for an original gift to give to someone special for a Birthday or even Christmas (thinking ahead!), personalised pencil drawings of fairies make great gift ideas too!

So if you know of a special little lady who wishes she was a fairy, why not make her dream come true? Send me an email and I’ll do the rest.

Young Marlon Brando - On the Waterfront

Young Marlon Brando – On the Waterfront

There are many famous images of the Marlon Brando from his illustrious film career, but I was informed that the recipient’s favourite is ‘On the Waterfront’, so I chose this iconic shot of the young Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, the ex-prize fighting dock worker.

A Special Leaving Present

The pencil portrait, which was drawn 8″ x 12″ (A4) and came with a black card mount, was presented to a Manager who was moving on to a new location by his staff as a very special leaving present. He was apparently very moved by the thoughtful gift, so much so in fact that he had to borrow a tissue to wipe a away some tears that were apparently caused by some ‘dust’ that got into his eyes.

So if you’re looking for an original and thoughtful leaving present to give to a special someone, why not get them something that really shows how much you care and that they can cherish for years to come.

Just an thought…

Personalised Birthday Gifts - A Special Family Portrait

A special Family Portrait

For this family portrait I was asked to take four separate photographs of the children and put them together in a collage style. As you may me able to tell from the hairstyles, there is quite an age gap between one of the boys and the other three siblings – I leave it to you to try and guess which brother is younger.

The photographs were also quite old and faded, so the biggest challenge was restoring the detail in the faces that was lost to the years on the old photographs. That said, I love the cheeky expressions on the children’s faces and think that this is what really brings this portrait to life!

Pencil Portraits make Perfect Personalised Birthday Gifts

Pencil portraits like this make perfect personalised birthday gifts for family and friends and I always enjoy the positive comments I get from the people involved. I was told that the brother that received it was particularly touched by it as he has so few photographs of all them all together.

So if you’re looking for personalised birthday gifts for someone special in your life, now you know where to come!

Five Tips for Taking a Better Portrait Photograph

I’m assuming that you (like me) are not a photographic enthusiast (or expert) and that you’re probably using a compact digital camera and not an SLR (one of those ones with a removable lens). Also, this is not ‘Artistic’ advice (I’m not David Bailey), these tips are purely intended to help you get better quality results and make my life easier by giving me more detail to work from in your photographs.

These five quick tips require no special equipment so anyone can try them and will make a big difference to the quality of the portraits photographs you take.

1. Let there be light (go outside) – Good lighting is really important and indoor lights are often insufficient to properly light the subject for a photograph. If you can’t go outside, make sure you have as much light as possible in the room, make sure curtains are open and turn on all the lights, don’t just rely on the camera flash.
2. Put the Sun to one side – If you have managed to get outside and it’s a nice sunny day try to arrange it so that the sun is to one side (not directly behind you or your subject). If the sun is behind you, your subject may squint at you (not the best ‘look’ for them) and if it’s behind them, they may look very dark in the shot as your camera tries to compensate for the bright sun in the lens. If the light is behind your subject you could try using the camera flash as this can ‘balance’ the light and give nice highlights to the subjects eyes.
3. Steady the camera – Not everyone’s got a tripod, but keeping the camera steady when taking the shot will they really make a difference to the outcome. There are cheap options such as mini (bendy) tripods that can stand the camera up on a table etc. but if you don’t have anything just try resting your camera on something solid (e.g. back of sofa, chair, table, fence of wall), anything that keeps the camera still when the shot is taken will improve the result.
4. Set details levels to maximum – Most digital cameras have a setting that allows you to change the detail level of each shot taken. This may seem like obvious advice, but make sure that your camera’s it set to maximum quality. Memory cards are cheap these days so get a bigger one if you need to.
5. Take lots of pics – unlike the ‘old days’ of camera film and prints, a digital photograph costs you nothing to take, so take lots! For any pose, position or camera angle, take several photographs each time. Sometimes people blink, move or you may nudge the camera spoiling that shot, but if you have a few to choose from it won’t matter. You may find that you capture the perfect ‘moment’ only on the third of forth shot, so don’t be shy, just snap away until the memory card is full, then simply put them on your PC, choose the best of the bunch and you can delete the rest.

Remember, sometimes you only get one chance to capture a special ‘moment’ so make sure that the photo you take is the best it can be – then obviously, just send it to me and I’ll turn it into a work of art for you .

Pencil Drawing of Shih Tzu Bichon Frise Cross

Shih Tzu Pictures

I was asked to draw this lovely little chap, who’s called ‘Harry’ by the way, by the owner’s son as a birthday present for his Dad, “a present for the man who has everything” as his son told me.

I love doing pencil drawings of dogs and this Shih Tzu Bichon Frise cross portrait was no exception. Harry has such an inquisitive yet cheeky expression on his face and apparently his appearance matches his character too!

The A4 pencil drawing of Harry included a nice mount to complement the portrait and the owner, who loved his birthday gift, kindly gave me his permission to use it on my pet portraits in pencil page.

If you know a dog owner with a birthday coming up, or you just feel like treating yourself, a hand-drawn pencil portrait of a dog makes a very special and personal gift that shows how much you care. Plus, I get the pleasure of drawing another beautiful dog!

1st (Paper) Wedding Anniversary Gift Pencil Portrait

The portrait original was 16″ x 12″ (~A3) and included a romantic message to his wife which I wrote in a artistic script and added in the top left corner (I’ve removed the message for their privacy). I think they make a really lovely couple and I’d like to take this opportunity to wish them the best of luck in their future together.

A pencil portrait like this makes a great gift idea for anyone looking for a special and original way to mark the end of a first year of marriage, so make note husbands if you want to earn some serious brownie points!

In case you don’t already know, I’m Angela, a 30-something pencil portrait artist living in Milton Keynes (UK) with my Husband and little boy and I hand-draw and sell pencil portraits from photos sent to me.

Firstly, if you’ve already been kind enough to follow my previous blog over on blogspot.com then thank you and I hope you’ll continue to follow me here at my Blog’s new home.

If you’re new then welcome on-board, I hope you’ll think that the content I add here is interesting, informative and most importantly fun to read.

Also, please feel free to offer your comments on anything I post here, you thoughts really do matter to me and I’m always interested to know what people think about my site and my work.

So finally, I’d like to ask you for your requests, whether it be help, advice, topics for discussions or just more information, please let me know if there is anything you’d like me to cover here and I will  do my best to accommodate you.

That’s it for now, more to come very soon.

Many thanks, Angela. x