Hello, I Am Alesia Krotko

I can’t overemphasise how important your choice of photo is – the better the input, the better the portrait I can produce, and the more delighted you’ll be. My aim is to produce something that you will be absolutely delighted with for many years to come, and time spent working together to get the input right will be time well spent. The best pencil portraits are those that capture a moment in time, and faithfully reflect a person or animal’s character. I tend to work from one of your favourite photographs so the first thing to check is that it’s a really good representation of the subject’s personality and mannerisms as well as physical appearance. Remember, you may know the subject intimately, but it can be hard for me to capture the personality of someone I haven’t met. I can only work with what I see in the photo so please feel free to send supplementary images.
Image Quality

The resolution of the image is also vitally important – this is the amount of detail it contains, and the more I can see, the better quality your portrait will be. As a quick guide, check the image file size – the bigger (more Mb) the better – 3Mb upwards is recommended. Also check the following:
– Is it in focus?
– Is it well lit? Ideally shoot in natural daylight but not direct sunlight which will cause unwanted highlights and shadows. Slightly overcast days will produce an even light.
– Is there good contrast and a good range of shades between the light and dark areas?
Using a ‘proper’ camera , rather than a mobile phone, usually gives better results because the overall resolution of the camera is usually better, and higher resolution = more detail to work with.If you have to use a mobile phone, remember that you will need plenty of light so shoot outdoors if you can, but ideally not in direct sunlight. Also, don’t be tempted to ‘zoom in’ – phone cameras achieve this by simply cropping out unwanted elements of the picture, leaving the remainder at a low resolution – get closer if you can.