A dog portrait in the Sketch style
Charcoal and pencil on warm white paper — strong darks, soft smudged tone and the paper left bare in the lights, from $69.
What Sketch does with a dog. Charcoal and pencil in black and white: strong darks in the eyes and the nose, soft smudged tone through the coat, and the paper left bare for the highlights. Color casts and a messy background stop mattering, which makes it a good choice for an old or imperfect photo. The markings are kept.
The photo. Daylight, eyes in focus, taken at the dog's own eye level rather than from above. A three-quarter view paints better than straight on. For a black dog, skip the flash — the highlights do the work.
The size. 16×20 in a hallway or beside a bookshelf; 24×36 above the sofa. Big dogs look right big.
How to start. Upload one photo and see it painted in Sketch free, in about 20 seconds. Your first three paintings are free; leave an email for as many more as you like, and change up to five details free. A person checks the full-resolution proof, and you see it before anything prints; if it isn't right, we repaint it until it is.