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Sean Temple

Commissions

Temple Illustrations, commissioned portrait work: pet portraits, family portraits, couples and engagement portraits, and custom art gifts.

I take on commissioned portrait work outside of my day job in software: pet portraits, family portraits, couples and engagement pieces, and custom art gifts. A dozen finished commissions are below. The full archive, alongside my surreal work and poetry, is on the Art & Poetry page.

  • Pet Portraits: dogs, cats, and other animal companions.
  • Family Portraits: the people who matter to you.
  • Couples and Engagement: for an engagement, a wedding, or an anniversary.
  • Custom Art Gifts: a one-of-a-kind piece, made to order.
Gallery

A dozen of them

A selection. The full archive, with everything else, is on the Art and Poetry page.

a beagle in a blue jacket and buttoned yellow waistcoat
Beagle in a Blue Jacket11x13 polychromatic colored pencil.
a lop-eared rabbit in a bright blue jacket with a yellow shirt and blue tie
Lop Rabbit in a Blue JacketSecond piece for a client, 8+ hours on pressed art board.
a small terrier-mix dog dressed in a suit and tie
Terrier in a Suit and Tie
a German shepherd's head in profile, mouth open, wearing a collar tag
Sascha16x20 colored pencil.
a cattle dog panting, wearing a collar with an 'Echo' name tag
Echo
a boxer dog's head in graphite, with a lightly sketched human figure behind it
BoxerGraphite on Bristol.
a smiling couple side by side, the man in glasses and a denim jacket, the woman in a striped top
Couple in Denim8x10 inches, graphite on smooth Bristol.
a couple with foreheads touching, eyes closed
Couple, Foreheads Touching
a couple leaning in with foreheads and noses touching, lanterns behind them
They Booped and Got MarriedThey booped and got married.
an abstract expressionist face in orange, yellow, and black
VictorPainted for a friend, Victor.
a board of seven pencil portrait sketches of family members
Grandchildren
a sleeping infant swaddled in cloth, drawn in light tones against a black ground
Sleeping Infant

Why a drawn portrait

A photograph records a face. A drawing has to decide what to keep. The whole time I am working I am choosing: what to hold onto, what to let go soft, where the light lands. That choosing is why a drawing of a dog you have lost sits differently than the photo it came from.

I have been taking commissions for about two decades. Most of that has been pets, families, couples, and portraits of people in uniform.

How to ask

Email me the photos you have and tell me who is in them. If you are not sure the photos are good enough, send them anyway and we will work it out from there.

It helps to know what the piece is for, and roughly how big you are thinking, but neither is needed to start the conversation.

seanmtemple@gmail.com