Katelyn Fagan Art: Portrait Commission Drawing for Nancy

This last summer I had the fun opportunity of teaching bookbinding to my mother-in-law Susan and her friend Nancy (see this post). During the summer Nancy also asked me to draw a picture for her of daughters. I was excited to be given this opportunity and sell my first work of art! I did not get a chance to finish the drawing over the summer due to young twins and moving, but I did finish it right before the Holidays, right after I finished my classwork.

The day we headed down to my in-laws for Christmas, I finished the drawing, and it came out beautifully. Seriously, it looked good. I cleaned up the border, signed it, and laid it outside on the dry patch of our patio and sprayed it with fixative. I left it outside for five minutes to set and deodorize outside.

However, shortly after leaving it there, Josh, my husband, screamed "There's a dog in our backyard!!!" And sure enough, an ugly collar-less dog was in our backyard/patio, stepping on my completed (15+ hours) and beautiful drawing. We shewed him away as fast as we could, grabbed the drawing and I immediately began cleaning up what I could.... but, there is a permanent paw print/scratch on the right side of the drawing. We were angry, we were sad. What are the chances of this happening? I should have listened to Josh when he suggested that I spray the fixative while he held it outside. He was worried some snow would drop off the roof onto it or something, but I was sure it would be fine. It wasn't snow that happened upon it, but a dog, a dog we've never seen before and never will see again. Why he had to enter into our fenced-in patio area and came up to our glass sliding door and stepped on my drawing, we don't know, other than God has a sense of humor and wants to ensure that we are sufficiently humble...

But, in all honesty, it's pretty funny. Of course a dog came and stepped on my drawing in the five minutes it was outside the day it was "due." Of course there was like no chance of that happening but it did. But, Nancy was generous and willing to overlook the mark, thankfully. I told her I could redraw it for her, or another picture for the price she paid. Fortunately if she mats the drawing where I have the border, most of the mark will be unseen. Nancy loved the drawing of her daughters and was SO excited to see it and be able to give it to her husband for Christmas.

Nancy gave me a 4"x6" colored photograph, and then I scanned it, made it black and white, and began my drawing. I lightly made a grid on my paper and a grid over a printed version of the photo. The final piece is drawn on an 11"x15"sheet of Pescia white paper, with the image being approx. 10"x6 3/4."

Here's the scanned B&W version, and a scanned copy of the drawing: