About the Commission of Monty and Duffy
Elizabeth and her sister contacted me in 2012 to commission a pencil portrait of their mum’s two horses in time for her **60th birthday**. The horses were called Monty and Duffy. Elizabeth and her sister provided me with a range of photos to work from, which was perfect. I used two separate photos for Monty and Duffy, which is often preferable to using a single photo with multiple subjects, as I can see much more detail within each photo.
The portrait was completed as a **16 x 12 inch drawing**, and I also added a very subtle outdoor background scene behind them to give the impression that both horses were in the same space. By shading the background, this allowed Duffy to stand out on the paper—being a white horse, it helped me depict the sunlight within the scene and on both horses' heads.
Once the drawing was complete, Elizabeth very kindly sent a wonderful photo of the portrait once it had been framed and presented to her mum.
