Come with me on a journey through the year 2022! Order your calendar via mail.

Limited edition wall calendar with German holidays, DIN A4, printed on 300g/m² cardboard for 19,90€ incl. shipping in the EU

The global Corona crisis affects everyone. Many of us are staying home in order to slow down new infections while others are out there working and by that risking their own health for the wellbeing of us all. It’s a time full of new anxieties and challenges which require us to rethink terms like solidarity and how to be there for each other without being physically close.
Since writing letters and cards can be a meaningful way of communicating appreciation and support I decided to offer a 30% discount on my postcards. If you can’t meet up with your friends or (elderly) family members, I am sure they would love to receive a card.
Also, I edited some of my drawings from my dog breed chart and turned them into a coloring sheet which you can now download for free in my shop. Maybe your children are as crazy about dogs as I always have been and will enjoy coloring them. Of course, if you are an adult and would like to color them, you should absolutely go for it as well! 🙂

I sincerely hope to brighten up your day with my way of saying “hang in there”! Stay safe <3
Rike

French Bulldog Erna is part of a triple dog portrait I drew in pencil. This video gives a small insight in how I shade and layer when drawing pencil portraits. I often begin with the eyes of the subject because an animal’s facial expression is mainly determined by its eyes. This is why I very carefully observe the reflections, light to dark gradients and any other particular features of the eyes. Once the eyes are completed I move over to lay down base layers of grey and later add more contrast and details. I tend to work on the same areas of a drawing many times until I feel they are all harmoniously incorporated. Completing Erna’s portrait took me about 12 hours of focused work. A lot of time and love squeezed into the finished portrait of three fabulous friends!

Sometimes people ask me if I can also draw portraits using low quality reference pictures – the answer is yes!😊 Here you see Bamse. Some of you may recognize her as I have shared her portrait earlier on my IG account. As you can see the picture is small and blurry but since Bamse sadly has passed away, I had to work with it and I’m still happy with how the drawing turned out. I used many photos of other Bernese Mountain Dogs in order to get a feeling for the coat’s texture and the direction of hair growth while still capturing Bamse’s unique face and expression.
In general, I’d say that the better the reference picture is the better the drawing will turn out. But I know that in some cases there are no photos of good quality of a beloved pet and I can absolutely work with those, too!
I will always do my best to capture the texture of the animal’s coat and the uniqueness of its features. In fact, the drawing usually still turns out to have a wonderful hd effect 😊
So don’t hesitate to contact me if you want to purchase a customized pet portrait even though you might only have a blurry photo to work with ♥