Commission Hand Drawn People Portraits & Family Paintings, By Robert Shirt.

Choosing the right surface for your hand drawn family portrait.

Choosing the right surface for your hand-drawn or painted portrait is crucial for quality and durability. The best materials include top choices for paper and canvas. Whether using graphite, coloured pencils, or acrylics, understanding the ideal surfaces is essential. This section highlights the recommended paper and canvas types.

1. Paper Stonehenge Papers (100% Cotton) Stonehenge papers are a superb choice for hand drawn people portraits, offering excellent quality and durability. These papers are included in the price of a hand drawn family portrait and come in various shades to suit different needs:

• Pearl Grey: Ideal for creating highlights, especially in light or white-coloured areas of a pet portrait.
• Fawn: Great for making certain elements stand out and pairs well with oak frames.
• White: Perfect for all pencil-based mediums, particularly for graphite drawings.

Features of Stonehenge Papers:

• 100% Cotton
• Acid-Free
• Chlorine-Free
• Buffered with calcium carbonate

Best Mediums for Stonehenge Paper:

• Graphite: Excellent for detailed and monochromatic drawings.
• Coloured Pencils (Prismacolor): Prismacolor pencils are highly regarded for their vibrant colours, layering ability, and lightfastness, making them ideal for detailed subjects like pet and people portraits.

2. Canvas Windsor & Newton Professional Canvas For painted portraits, Windsor & Newton Professional Canvas is my go-to choice. These canvases feature an innovative pro-stretcher™ device and professionally constructed frames made from kiln-dried solid wood stretcher bars, ensuring durability and resistance to warping. I may use other brands in certain circumstances, but Windsor & Newton is a top preference.

Choosing the right medium 

I use various mediums to create your hand-drawn and painted family portraits, including graphite, coloured pencils, and acrylics on canvas. Graphite offers precision, coloured pencils provide vibrant hues, and acrylics deliver depth and boldness. Each medium ensures your custom portrait achieves the perfect look and feel.

Graphite Drawings Graphite is perfect for detailed and monochromatic hand-drawn portraits. Its ability to capture fine details and create a range of tones makes it ideal for realistic and beautiful hand drawn pencil portraits.

Coloured Pencils (Prismacolor) Prismacolor pencils are highly regarded in the art community, particularly for drawing pet portraits and other detailed subjects. Here’s why they are a great choice:

• Layering Ability: These pencils layer exceptionally well, enabling artists to build up layers of colour to create depth and dimension, crucial for rendering lifelike portraits.
• Lightfastness: Many Prismacolor pencils are lightfast, meaning the colours are resistant to fading over time, ensuring that the portraits remain vibrant and true to colour for years to come.

Acrylic Paintings

Winsor & Newton Professional Acrylics are the brightest acrylic paints available, using advanced resin technology for unmatched brilliance. These paints offer rich, intense, and deep colours, ensuring vibrant and durable portraits.

Choosing the right size.

Here, I will outline all the mediums and processes I use to create your beautifully hand-drawn and painted family portraits. These mediums include graphite drawings, colored pencil family drawings, and acrylic paintings on stretched canvas.

Choosing the Size

For Hand Drawn Family Portraits

• A4: A compact size suitable for individual portraits. Easy to frame and display on walls or mantels.
• 10×13: Offers more room to capture finer details, striking a balance between display space and ease of hanging. Ideal for 1-2 subjects.
• A3: Provides ample space for significant detail, ideal for creating statement pieces in prominent areas. Suitable for 1-4 subjects.
• A2: Offers even more room for impactful displays, great for larger spaces or creating focal points. Suitable for family compilation drawings of up to 7 subjects.
• A2 – 420 × 594 mm / 16.5 × 23.4 inches
• A3 – 297 × 420 mm / 11.7 × 16.5 inches
• A4 – 210 × 297 mm / 8.3 × 11.7 inches
•  

For Painted Portraits on Canvas

• 18″x14″ Small: Ideal for 1 subject, head and shoulders style.
• 20″x16″ Medium: Ideal for 1 subject, full body or head and shoulders style.
• 24″x20″ Large: Suitable for 1-2 subjects.
• 30″x24″ Larger: Suitable for 1-4 subjects.