Pet Portraits by Cushs Sketch Portraits

I'm a professional pet and wildlife artist based in the beautiful county of Hampshire, UK with my wonderful wife and our 7-year-old collie, Loki. Like many professional artists, I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, but I only picked up my pencils again about a decade ago when I was made redundant from my managerial job.  I chose not to rush back to work, instead enjoying two months of summer whilst rediscovering my love for art. Having not drawn for some time I started small, using ordinary graphite pencils on printing paper and sketching portraits of people with varying degrees of failure before finally attempting to draw an animal - a dog as it happens. The rest, as they say, is history!  

I spent the next year focusing on creating custom pet portraits, even asking strangers on social media for permission to draw their pups in exchange for sending them the portrait free of charge. This quickly led to a growing social media following and a long waiting list for commissioned artwork. Drawing full time I was able to begin exploring and honing my skills with graphite, colored pencils, and my eventual true passion—pastel pencils. I was fortunate enough to not have to return to employed work, and Cush's Sketch Portraits was born. For those of you wondering, the moniker 'Cush' was given to me by friends in my youth for having a 'cushion' like appearance!

When I'm not drawing, I love to be in the countryside! Whether it's long-distance trail hiking, hill walking, camping, picnics, or simply exercising the dog, I'm never far from nature. That's me in the photo traversing a wintry Striding Edge in the Lake District, but my biggest achievement to date has to be walking the entire 630-mile coastline of South West England in 42 days, carrying all of my gear and wild camping along the way!