Hey, I'm Anna

Hey, I'm Anna. I'm a Chicago-based illustrator and this Sunday from 11 to 2, I'll be at Stolen Saddle with 312 Markets doing their Yappy Hour event. And I'll be drawing live pet portraits. So let me show you how I do it. Okay, so we start with a completely blank canvas. I can either draw from life if you have your pet with you or from a photo if you don't. I'm drawing my sister's dog Napa, she's my little model for this example, but I draw dogs and cats, one time someone even had me draw their pet squirrel, so, you know, nothing is off limits here. But these are just 4x6 inch heavy cardstock sheets of paper. And then I go in with an ink pen starting with the nose and eyebrows. The eyebrows are my favorite part to draw. And then I use alcohol ink markers to give these little washes of color. My portraits are very colorful. I use almost no natural color. I like it that way. So here I am just adding in some shadows and added dimension. And I shouldn't mention, these portraits take about 5 minutes. They're very quick, but here's the finished product. And I'll see you on Sunday.