Portrait & Pet

Portrait and pet work keeps a face — a person's or an animal's. Getting a likeness is not the whole of it; much of the work is deciding together what about that face you want to remember.

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• A face becomes a different person on a small error, which makes this the subject that takes the most time at the design stage.

• Likeness comes from where the features sit. The distance between the eyes, and between nose and mouth, sets the impression.

• It is usually worked in black and grey. Without colour there is still more than enough depth and expression.

• With pets, the direction of the fur and the eyes make the likeness. Several photographs help.

• Close to front-on, in focus, and taken in good light are the photographs worth sending.

• Detail blurs when a face is made small, so a portrait is better given enough room.

• The area is large and the hours long, so bigger pieces are sometimes split across sessions.

• Many people come to keep a pet they have lost. In that case the design is taken slowly and reworked as often as it needs.

• Judge by healed photographs rather than fresh ones.

• Worked in a private studio in Hongdae, strictly by appointment. Send your photographs by Instagram DM first.