How do I draw highly detailed portraits from poor reference photos?

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 ♥