I was contacted by two sisters from Scotland in August this year. They were enquiring about commissioning a very specific portrait of their three shetland sheepdogs. Marianne and Wendy liked my previous coloured pencil drawings of shelties and wanted something similar for themselves. Over the years, the sisters owned a few of these gorgeous dogs and showed a few too.
The dogs were Nikki, Skye and Becca. The last one, Becca, died only earlier this year. Nikki and Skye sadly passed a few years before then. I had a few photos to work from. I arranged the dogs according to their age. Nikki’s photo was the oldest, a scanned hard copy photo and I placed it on the very left.
The background is a beach setting and I purposefully made it quite gentle on the eye so as not to take away from the main characters in the drawing.
Marianne and Wendy were very happy with the finished drawing. They emailed me again when they received the drawing in the post last week:
Hi Ivana! Just to let you know that our package arrived safely late this afternoon. We are absolutely delighted with the finished result, to see our 3 girls together was a very emotional moment for us. Thank you so much for all your hard work and effort to make this so lifelike for us, we could never have dreamed that it would turn out so well. Best Wishes, have a lovely Christmas and New Year, Wendy & Marianne xx
Marianne and Wendy after they received their coloured pencil pet portrait, Scotland, November 2025
I used Faber-Castell Polychromos coloured pencils for the entire drawing. It took a while to capture all the detail in the shelties’ fur, but I find the sharp tip of the pencil can really create a realistic fur texture. I worked in a number of layers and pigments to create a texture and colour I was happy with.
The drawing is 30 x 60 cm in size. It is a wide landscape view to work well with the shape of the dogs and their composition beside each other.
I posted the drawing mounted in a neutral coloured mount. It was travelling all the way to Scotland and made its way safely. It is always a worry, but I made sure to package it well to keep it from harm 🙂
Commission your own pet portrait by emailing your query and photos to info@trueimage.ie
Ivana you have been so helpful from the very start of this project. We absolutely love the finished picture. We cannot thank you enough for the hard work you have put in to create each of our girls unique markings and their individual personalities also shine through.
It will take centre stage in our home and will remind us of many happy times.
Highly recommend your work to anyone.
It was such an honour drawing all your girls Marianne and Wendy. Thank you for giving me the chance to create a memory of them for you both. I hope you enjoy it for a long time to come