Have you ever wanted to create your own unique piece of art? I’m Sarah, an artist from Melbourne. I’ve been drawing and selling custom portraits for 7 years and sold over 600 portraits. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of drawing a pet portrait step-by-step, so you can create a stunning work of art that captures your pet's unique personality and features.

Part 1: Preparation

1. Choose a photo of your fluffy/furry friend to draw. For more tips on choosing a photo see this blog post

2. Print the photo on A4 paper in black and white, making sure the photo fills up most of the page (this can be done in paint>page preview)

3. Using a ruler, rule 1cm spaced grid lines on the printed photo

4. Lightly rule up corresponding gridlines on a blank, A4 piece of paper, using a HB pencil

Part 2: Drawing

1. Draw the outlines of your pet, using the grid as a guide. Slowly focus on one grid square at a time. Draw details such as the eyes, mouth, nose, and the outline of any prominent shadows/patches 

2. Erase the gridlines from your drawing

3. Using the photo of your pet on your phone/computer as a guide, shade in the darkest areas of the pet portrait using your charcoal pencil- this may be the eyes, the nose. Fill out the details on the rest of your portrait. For the darkest shades use your charcoal pencil, for the lightest shades use your HB pencil. 

4. When you have filled in as much detail as you can and shaded your whole portrait, use your blending stick or cotton bud to blend darkly shaded areas. You may also wish to blend areas of fur- to do this use your blending stick as if it were a pencil and you were drawing fur lines.

5. Use your eraser to remove any smudge marks on the blank areas of your paper.

CONGRATULATIONS! Now that your inner artist is unleashed…

Remember practice makes perfect. Using this method with practice, you can create your own realistic pet portraits just like you see above! The above drawing is using mostly charcoal sticks and pencils. I have been selling pet portraits for 7 years- that’s a lot of practice! If you would like to see more examples of finished pet portraits of different dog breeds, check out my previous works.

If you would like TIPS about how to improve your drawing, message your finished drawing to me on my Facebook or Instagram. I would love to see what you have created!