Family Pawtrait Competition Winner

IllustrationPet PortraitsCompetition / winIllustratorCustom and Unique ArtworkIllustrating the Importance of Pets

25 Mar

Personalised Pet and Family Portrait by Oldmangrey Illustration. Digital drawing of Elaine with blonde hair and wearing a green top and her black cat Gareth with bright yellow eyes. Both set against a warm orange yellow background with white graffiti

Everyone loves a freebie don’t they?!

To celebrate my new commission style for 2022 - my ‘Family Pawtraits’ - I offered my Facebook and Instagram followers a chance to win a free illustration of both their human and furry family together :)

Win a Family Pawtrait by professional artist Graeme Clark aka Oldmangrey Illustration. A mock up of drawing of two heads and shoulders of humans and the head and shoulders of their brown dog.

To enter, a human had to comment with the name(s) of the animals in their pack. We had 17 entries in total, and the lovely Elaine and her black cat Gareth were the lucky winners. Elaine’s a social worker and volunteer befriender for children and young people, so I couldn’t be more delighted to offer her this prize. Gareth is a friendly rescue cat who loves his bed and snacks - a guy after my own heart! - with really amazing yellow-green eyes.

Photographs of competition winners Elaine and black cat Gareth. Used as the basis for my digital illustration family pet portrait.

Elaine sent photos and descriptions of her and Gareth’s favourite things and colours for me to use as inspiration to create their commissioned piece.

Using the iPad app Procreate, and a mixture of brushes, including some of my own, I created the various strokes in the piece. Starting with flat colour as a backdrop, I then drew the outlines from reference images. The next step was to work in the detailed colour work, brushing layers of contrast into the image to get the balance of light and shade correct. The background to the image is inspired by graffiti, using the personality traits supplied by the client. This gives the background a more dynamic feel, whilst allowing the client to have some involvement in the content of the commission. I find this to be a fun way to involve the client and also get to know them a bit better before I start the piece.