Realistic Pencil Portraits – Engagement Portrait Gift Certificate

Realistic pencil portraits are a perfect way to capture the special events in our lives in a unique and beautiful way.  For example, a few years ago, I was struggling to come up with ideas for a wedding present for a very special niece who was getting married soon.

I thought about all the usual stuff… practical household items, home decor, things “girls” like, $$$ and on and on. Truthfully, I didn’t have any idea what they would like, want or need.

So, after giving it some thought and talking to my hubby (who made the suggestion) I decided to send her a gift certificate for a wedding portrait pencil drawing.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to the wedding.  But Mandy sent us a very nice “thank you” card in the mail shortly after…

But then, when I didn’t hear from her for a while, I didn’t know if she actually liked the idea of a pencil drawing portrait or if the idea had bombed… Or if she was just busy setting up their new household and getting into the groove of “married Life”.

Eventually, though, we discussed the pencil drawing via FaceBook and email. She narrowed her choices down to three or four different reference photos (they had from a pre-wedding photo shoot) that she liked the best and eventually decided on the final reference photo…

During the drawing process, I printed a very large color reference photo and a black and white reference photo of the same pose.  Being able to look at both helped me to identify different details in each of the photos as I was drawing.

Original Reference Photo                                          Finished Pencil Drawing

I chose to lighten Mike and Mandy so that they didn’t appear to be as shaded (as they did in the reference photo) which helped bring more focus to them in the pencil portrait.  This also gave the drawing a little softer feeling.

The finished pencil portrait.

Commission realistic pencil portraits here.