Labrador portrait - Milo & Oscar’s story
Milo and Oscar are two Labradors belonging to Elly and Emily, who run Dales Dog Deli in Leyburn, North Yorkshire.
After working together on an online pet portrait competition, I created this portrait of their own dogs as a thank you - bringing together several favourite photographs to create one drawing of the pair.
Breed: Labradors
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Medium: Coloured pencil & wax crayon
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Size: A3
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Created from: Two reference photographs
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Location: Leyburn, North Yorkshire
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Breed: Labradors ★ Medium: Coloured pencil & wax crayon ★ Size: A3 ★ Created from: Two reference photographs ★ Location: Leyburn, North Yorkshire ★
A portrait for Dales Dog Deli
I first got to know Elly and Emily through Dales Dog Deli, their independent dog shop in Leyburn, when we teamed up to run an online pet portrait competition.
After the competition, I wanted to create something for them too. Milo and Oscar are their own Labradors - Oscar is black and Milo has a warm red coat - so they became the subjects of a new two-dog portrait.
Rather than working from one perfect photograph, Elly and Emily sent me a selection of photos of the pair. That gave me the freedom to look across several images and concentrate on the details that made each dog instantly recognisable.
Bringing Milo and Oscar together
When more than one pet is included in a portrait, the best reference photograph of each dog doesn't always come from the same image.
For Milo and Oscar, I used several photographs rather than copying a single shot. The photos showed me their colouring and proportions, but just as importantly, the little differences in their faces and expressions.
Oscar's black coat, pink tag and tongue sitting characteristically to one side gave him a very different look to Milo, with his red colouring, softer expression and broad Labrador face.
The aim was to bring those individual details together so that the finished drawing still felt unmistakably like Milo and Oscar, rather than simply two Labradors.
Choosing between several photographs is something I regularly do when creating commissions. My guide to choosing the best pet portrait photo explains what I look for in a useful reference image.
Two dogs, two very different looks
Drawing two dogs together meant finding a balance between making the portrait work as one composition and keeping the things that made Milo and Oscar different.
Oscar needed enough variation within his black coat for the shape of his face and expression to remain clear. Milo required a much warmer mixture of browns, ochres and yellows to build up his red coat without losing the loose, expressive marks of the drawing.
Their tongues became surprisingly important too. Both sit differently and are such distinctive parts of their expressions that simplifying them too much would have lost some of the familiarity of the pair.
I built both dogs gradually in coloured pencil and wax crayon, keeping areas of the paper visible and allowing the marks to become looser towards their chests.
Milo & Oscar, together
The finished portrait brings the two dogs side by side while allowing each to retain their own expression, colouring and familiar details.
Oscar's dark coat creates a strong contrast against Milo's warmer colours, while their open expressions and wonderfully wonky tongues tie the two halves of the drawing together.
It was then time to take the portrait back to where the collaboration had started.
I visited Elly and Emily at Dales Dog Deli in Leyburn to give them the finished artwork in person. They've since kindly put it on display in the shop alongside some of my business cards, so visitors can see the original drawing for themselves.
What Emily & Elly thought
After my visit, Dales Dog Deli shared the portrait with their followers:
“It’s absolutely amazing and captures their personalities perfectly - we couldn’t love it more!”
They also gave a lovely mention to the fact that the portrait was created completely by hand and encouraged people to support independent artists as AI-generated imagery becomes increasingly common.
The original portrait of Milo and Oscar can now be seen at Dales Dog Deli in Leyburn.
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Turn your favourite photos into one original portrait
You don't need one perfect photograph.
If you have several favourite photos that show different expressions, angles or details, I can use them together to create one hand-drawn portrait with a strong, recognisable likeness - whether that's one pet or several.
Multiple pets can be combined
Several reference photos welcome
Drawn entirely by hand