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How It Works! |
| If you are looking to commission a portrait of your pet from either Nick or myself, this page should give you some idea of how the process works. If, once you have read this page, you would like to ask us any questions please don't hesitate to contact us at any time. |
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| The Photos |
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We like to see a range of photos to get an overall idea of the size, colouring, coat texture of your pet, however we usually work from one single photo for the main pose. As you can see above, the client supplied us with two specific photos she wanted us to work with, however she sent around 15 other images of Stig too. Good quality photos are imperative. If you have more than one pet you would like us to paint we prefer to see single photos of each pet along with a few of them together to see the size relationships between them. View a perfect photo for a portrait....>> |
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| The Mock-up |
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Once we have looked through your photos we create what we call a 'mock-up'. A mock-up help us and the client visualize the final painting. Using photo editing software (Photoshop), we can place the animal in a different scene or on a neutral background.
Using the photo of Stig taken in the clients garden, we removed the background and some of the grass area. We then placed him on a new grass photo and placed the clients background photo behind, to complete the mock-up. Quite often we can create up to 8 or so mock-ups to make sure we get the right background / photo / composition for the portrait. Clients will hopefully be admiring the painting for many years to come, so this stage is very important, it has to be right.
We supplied the client with a portrait orientation and a landscape orientation version of the mock-up and the client choose to have the portrait orientation as seen left. |
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| Payment and our client list |
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Once the client is happy with the composite, payment can be made very simply on our website using our secure online shopping cart, using either a debit or credit card, or via Paypal.
The majority of commissions are paid in full, however larger portraits can be paid with a deposit of approximately half of the total cost of the portrait. The remainder is paid when we start the portrait.
As soon as clients have made payment, the photo/composite will be added to our client list on our 'portraits in progress blog'. You can view our client list at all times on the left hand side of the portraits in progress blog page. Clients are able to watch their composite rise to the top, and as soon as its there - we will start your portrait.
Once we have started we like to take photos of your portrait as we are painting or drawing and add these progress photos to the blog either daily or every other day until its the portrait is complete. Often we show photos of our hands with brush, pastel or pencil working on the painting too.
We then add a final scan or photo of the portrait with close up detail photos onto the blog and also email these to you, so that you can see if any changes need to be made. |
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| Watching your portraits progress |
| As you can see from the stages below, these are the images the client saw while Nick was painting their portrait of Stig. Clients can use the 'comment' facility on the blog to comment at any time. We love to hear feedback as we are working. |
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| Prints of your Portrait |
If you would like us to create prints of your portrait for family or friends, or even for your office, we can do this for you. We have a lovely lady who creates all of our giclee prints for us to any size.
Our local framer can frame them for you too and if you would like us to send them direct to the recipient we can also do this too.
Just let us know your requirements when you are ordering, or during the progress.
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| Framing your Portrait |
| While the painting is being created we will often chat with the client about the framing of their portrait. We work with a lovely local framer who is able to supply us with a wide variety of mouldings to suit most decors and tastes and this is an optional service we provide. We generally advise clients who order pastel portraits to have their portrait framed as its safer and more protected going through the postal system. All pastel and pencil portraits are framed under glass.
We have dedicated mouldings for our oil portraits on canvas with slightly deeper rebates than the mouldings we use for our pastel and pencil portraits. Our oil paintings are painted on professionally stretched 19mm linen canvas. Both the framer and ourselves take great pride in the presentation of the paintings. We always make sure the mouldings cover the depth of the canvas and that the framing is perfect. |
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| Presentation and Packaging |
Once the portrait is ready to send, we flat pack our portraits very safely and securely. We take pride in our packaging, its almost as important as the contents. We have had 16 years of experience packing portraits and have used many tried and tested methods to send our paintings many miles around the world. We also try to use environmentally friendly products and packaging, and those that haven't yet been made biodegradable I am hoping our clients will reuse them. Everything we send our portraits out in, should be able to be reused or recycled.
Our packing methods are usually two sheets of hardboard that sandwich the portrait together to protect it from sharp objects in the postal system. Many layers of bubblewrap protect the portrait if it is dropped during the mailing system, plus a waterproof outer packing to protect it from the elements. We cover all our bases!
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| Sending Your Portrait |
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| Below is an image of a portrait packed and ready to go. We either have the Parcel Force courier to collect the parcel from our door - the friendly driver knows us pretty well now, or we take the portraits to our local post office..who also know us very well : )
We like to use bright waterproof mailing bags for high visibility in the postal system, which if you have read above are biodegradable. We also match the packaging with fragile tape both sides, front and back, so that it can be clearly seen as a fragile parcel. The recipients name and address is clearly printed on the front, along with our address too. There is no promotional text on the front of the parcel so that if the portrait is being sent a gift, the recipient will not know what is inside. |
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The cost of the portrait does not include delivery. Due to the time spent on each drawing and painting and the value of each portrait, we have tried and tested many delivery methods. We feel we have come up with the most safe and secure way of sending our portraits worldwide. We use the following services for posting our portraits, depending on the size of the portrait its destination - Special delivery, Parcel Force, International Signed For and Global Express Parcel Force. We use professional Courier companies who take great care of the artwork in transit. This, coupled with our years of experience in packaging our portraits, means we are confident that your portrait will arrive to you in pristine condition. Delivery prices vary on the size of your portrait and this can be chosen when ordering. |
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| The Portrait Arrived! |
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Below is an image the client took when the portrait arrived. You can see Stig with the print and the painting - along with all the copious amounts of packaging too! |
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