Although I can just as easily put “your dog”  in any position, for this commission I imitated the pose in the photo.

Here is the image I referenced :

I can proudly say that Kristen is my first official Sweet Pencil portrait client and I can only hope for more just like her. I love drawing even more than I usually do when I know the final result is going to mean a lot to the person it’s for. I don’t care if millions of people see my work or not (though admittedly that would be quite, quite lovely). I relish in the detail, the personal thought that I am allowed to pour into commissions and the fact that someone is really going to love it. Kristen was super super happy with it and I do have to say that was reassuring. I mean…here I am drawing her precious kid as a sort of out-of-the-norm stylized (I hate saying cartoon, cause really, it is not cartoonish at all) character and it could really end up looking nothing like him, or being nothing like she imagined, or being weird or whatever…but I have faith in myself. I think I know what I’m doing and what people want (of course it is easier with a friend I have known for 10 years but still, if I don’t know you…just expect me to ask a lot more questions!).

I’m babbling. Point is…this is what I want to do for people…so there! Can my freelance career take off now? Hehe just kidding. Nothing is that easy, but I’ve got a start and I hope it takes me somewhere!

Happy Mother’s Day! Even though it was yesterday. I brought my Mom a Derby pie from Louisville and ice cream from UDF (I like delivering sweetness) and this illustration that I made for her. The quote, “There is no distance on this earth as far away as yesterday.” went well with the image of the bicycle (a sort of symbol in my Mom’s life) and represents how both my Mom and I need to realize that each moment is new. Yesterday is far away; it doesn’t even exist anymore so keep moving forward and don’t let the past dictate your future. Also, the dog in the basket is Kirby, underbite and all. So cute and goofy looking with his curly hair and white teeth.

After finishing this image by coloring with in the lines, I turned of the layer of line-art and thought the resulting color was pretty interesting. More painterly and texturized. I still prefer the lines in my image (because of the soft colors) but thought I would post the non-line image as well just to see what everyone thinks of it. So…which one do you like? lines or no lines?