Today we’d like to introduce you to Sherylee Dodge.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Well, I have drawn all my life, literally as long as I can remember. I have always given particular attention to drawing animals. But soon, it was ALWAYS horses. Horses on my school work, homework, church bulletins, napkins at the table. In elementary school, my classmates took turns begging me to draw one on notebook paper for them. It started to become what I was known for.
In junior high, an attentive art teacher challenged me with a photo of an eagle’s head from a magazine. She said, “Work on this at home. Take as long as you want. Draw as MUCH detail as you can.” That exercise opened the door to a new level in my art career. The drawing was framed and eventually hung in the school cafeteria after I had moved on. I sometimes wonder what happened to it after that.
I graduated from high school with the intent of becoming an inspiring art teacher like those who had influenced me. But I discovered about a year and a half into an art education degree, that teaching is a CALLING- and I did not hear it calling to me. So, I switched my major to fine art, without really knowing what could be done with that degree. And after 3 years, when my family relocated, I moved here with the intent of transferring and finishing a degree of some kind, and just never did.
Art gradually dwindled from my life after that, with work and then a husband, a home, and eventually small children. Friends and family wanted to know when I would draw again- and I didn’t have an answer for them. Frankly, I had come to believe that art needs a purpose – that all those years of drawing and painting had not done much except to accumulate dusty artwork under my bed. I asked God at times to show me how this obvious gift I had received was useful to him. It helped that our church home at that time soon offered opportunities to help with decorating for special events, and so on. People even suggested to me a couple times during those years that I should draw pets for people. But the thought of where to begin and working out the details of finding customers and so on was not even realistic to me, and I dismissed it immediately.
The opportunity found ME in 2007 – when we adopted a dog from a rescue group. We became a foster home in 2010 and adopted a 2nd dog. Pretty soon, I was doing some desktop publishing for their fundraisers. But when they began planning a craft fair event in 2013, I felt my creative juices struggling to be heard. I REALLY wanted to sell something at that craft fair.
My husband said, “Draw something!” But I scoffed. At this point, it had been almost 20 years since I had been doing art at my best. I told him, “I can’t do that anymore.” So, I tinkered with dog-themed Christmas ornaments and other pet-related things. None of it was really worthy. Secretly, I sat down with a pencil and a close-up photo I had taken of a foster dog’s face- She had amazing eyes. But it really wasn’t coming back to me like it used to be-I tried! So, I scrapped the drawing and tinkered with more crafts. I tried again not too much later, and still – I was disappointed in the result. But something in me said, “This needs a ballpoint pen”. Back in the day – as a kid in class or in church, the available art materials were usually just a pen and paper, no matter where I was. So, the ballpoint pen was something I had once been pretty comfortable with even though it was not really a traditional art medium. And THEN, re-trying that dog’s face a third time, in pen instead, I felt like I had found something.
I built up a small collection of 5×7″ drawings of foster dog faces, that I could take to the craft show. I hoped I could get 5 or 10 dollars for them. When the time came, I quietly set up my samples and information as inconspicuously as possible and braced myself for the reaction. I was really nervous. I feared that people were going to wonder what I was thinking. But not only did people buy some of my work, they also began to ask eagerly,”Are these yours?” and “Can you draw MY dog???” I drove home that night with $60 in my pocket, for no other reason than people had PAID me to do something I do for FUN. And I think that’s when the business was born.
Originally, I called it Foster Faces. Later when I was drawing way more custom work than not, I changed the name to Faithful Faces, to reflect the treasure that is the relationship with a pet- up close and personal, and unforgettable. I have been stunned at the response to my work, and blessed by how much others are blessed by what I do- and I don’t know how I do it, it is just there. The only thing I have ever done to become GOOD at what I do is to do it. Glory to God for the gift.
Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a steady incline – always just enough to keep me challenged. In the beginning, I really feared what the response to my work would be. I eeked out some close-up 5 x7″s sheepishly, grateful that people liked them enough to pay money for them. Soon, I was drawing custom work for people, which brought a new element of customer- artist relationship to achieve something that both I was satisfied with and which they would approve as representative of their beloved pet. I graduated from just 5×7″s to including 8×10″s within the first year. I also pretty quickly began to offer wider views of the faces, to include the head and ears and nose and mouth, instead of just the eyes. I raised my prices to better reflect the time and effort being invested in the artwork. All along the way, my work has grown in skill and in confidence. Even today though I am highly comfortable with the process no matter who or what I am working on, there is still a tension between me and the artwork- I describe it like a conflict, almost as if it is not certain whether I will win, or the drawing will beat me. Then invariably there comes a point in the process where I feel the contest has fallen in my favor, and I feel like it is firmly under my control, and it’s going to be fine. I also added an 11×14″ size, and the option to combine multiple faces into one drawing. I have done a couple full-body portraits of dogs. I have done both dogs and cats, plus one bearded dragon and a horse, which, of course, I was thrilled about doing. My next step up in my game I think is going to be colored pencil. I am still in the practice phase of that, but hopefully, by this coming gift season, I can offer that as an option to my customers. 😉
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Faithful Faces Pet Portraits story. Tell us more about the business.
I draw pets! That’s my slogan. 🙂 I specialize in detailed close-up portraits of dogs and cats’ faces. I am also willing to draw horses, lizards, birds, hamsters… about any critter that people hold close to their hearts. I have also drawn a motorcycle but I don’t advertise that. They are not that cute and they don’t have faces. I am known for dramatic black and white drawings, and people say that I capture the personality of their pets in the expressions on their faces. I draw a lot of memorials. I am constantly humbled by the effect that a memorial has on someone who is grieving a dog or cat. Clearly, the portrait touches something words cannot, and I can’t explain it. Unfortunately, the tears tell me I did my job well. I am most proud that I am USING what God clearly gave me, and I am so thrilled to enjoy the benefits of blessing others in this way. It really is a privilege I enjoy. I hope my work stands apart from others by recreating a glimpse of that closeness we enjoy with our pets when we are face to face. I think I’m probably not the MOST photo-realistic artist out there? Do I trade some realism for idealism? But I am pleased to enjoy the trust of the customers who have come to me for their portraits. And some of them are multiple-repeat-customers.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I don’t know how to answer that in regards to the pet portrait industry. There’s such a wide spectrum of flavors and tastes in art – from pet portraits that are done in more abstract, loose terms, to portrait photography and the painting styles which border on perfectly identical to the photos. I am somewhere in the middle. I imagine that digital technology continues to perfect and stretch the industry into more traditional or less-traditional ways. I am just going to keep doing what I enjoy and what seems like a good next step for me to offer my customers and do that for as long as I”m able to do it.
Pricing:
- 5×7″ ballpoint pen $75
- 8×10″ ballpoint pen $100, 2 faces maximum add an additional $20 for the 2nd face
- 11×14″ ballpoint pen $125, 3 faces maximum, add an additional $20 for the 2nd and for the 3rd face
Contact Info:
- Website: FaithfulFacesPetPortraits.com
- Email: faithfulfacespets@att.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faithfulfacespetportraits/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FaithfulFaces/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/faithfulfaces
Image Credit:
Sherylee Dodge
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