Murrayville woman uses digital art to create pet portraits – Jacksonville Journal-Courier

Ashley Hutchison of Murrayville has blended her love of animals and her love of drawing into a business creating art of peoples’ pets.
A Murrayville woman has blended her love of animals and her artistic ability to build a business creating works of art for pet owners.
Ashley Hutchison has always enjoyed drawing, whether it was a traditional method, such as with paper and pencil, or what she is currently using — an iPad. 
“I’ve been doing digital art since I was about 13 and saw other people doing it,” she said. “I actually started with a (computer) mouse, which wasn’t very easy.”
Now, she’s making pet portraits using her iPad, specialized software and a stylus pen. 
Since getting the iPad and pen, Hutchison has been able to improve her art and get a lot more detail in her drawings, she said. 
“This has been my favorite method so far and it has been the easiest and most like drawing with pencil and paper,” she said. 
The digital-art technique has allowed her to make a real go at building a business around pet portraiture. 
“This is something I’m really passionate about,” Hutchison said. “As a kid, I was never into sports. I did theater a bit, but mostly it was this type of stuff.”
Though she has the ability to draw portraits of people and to create other types of artwork, she has always loved drawing animals, she said. 
“I mostly did animals when I was younger, but I did get better at drawing people in high school, when I had an art teacher that gave me some advice,” Hutchison said. “But I still prefer to draw animals.”
To create an image, Hutchison will study pictures provided by the pet owner or gift giver. She uploads a photo to her iPad, does a few practice drawings over the picture to help familiarize herself with the lines and angles of the animal, and then moves on to her own drawing. To complete the drawing, Hutchison used various digital brush or pencil styles and layers to build the picture. 
It is similar to how an artist begins a portrait on canvas, only digital, she said. 
“These are not a filter over a picture,” Hutchison said. “I actually draw the dog or cat” or other animal.
Between the pictures and stories shared with her, she tries to truly capture the personality of the pet, she said. 
“It makes me so happy to connect with a client or to have them share stories about their pet,” Hutchison said. “I don’t ask them to but, when they do, I enjoy hearing them. And it does help, because if you tell me your dog is very silly, I’m not going to draw him all regale and serious. I want to reflect that he’s silly.”
Portraits can be commissioned through Hutchison’s Facebook page or at [email protected].
Hutchison said she is grateful for the good response to her art, which has led to a short waiting list. The time between her receiving a request and the work being completed varies depending on the number of jobs she has at the time, she said.
“I usually will complete one a day,” Hutchison said. “Once I start it, it is usually finished later that day. It, on average, takes two weeks to a month, depending on how many come before.”
Once a work is complete, she works with an online site or local printer to produce the final product, whether it’s a picture, canvas or other object. 
“That is a benefit of doing it this way,” Hutchison said of digital art. “It can really be made into anything.”
Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree has been a reporter for the Journal-Courier since May 2014. She joined the staff after graduating from Eastern Illinois University. The Cahokia native worked with her school newspaper in various editor roles.

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