I Draw Crappy Pet Portraits And All Profits Go To My Local Homelessness Charity (51 Pics)

September 18, 2020

Hi there!

I’m basically drawing crappy portraits of people’s pets in return for donations and have so far raised over $1000 in a few weeks for my local Homelessness Charity.

It’s all happened so organically without much thought or effort. A little over two weeks ago, I was making some “thank you” cards with my six-year-old. Whilst he was making his card, I just doodled a couple of pictures of our dog—they were really rubbish, I’m not an artist and have never really drawn in my life.

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As a joke, I uploaded the two pictures to my Facebook page with a jokey comment about Pet Portraits being for sale for just £299. No VAT. A friend commented asking me to draw her dog, then another, then another, and by the end of the day, I had probably drawn about five portraits and we’d all had a giggle in the process.

Then, after a couple of shares, I started getting requests from people I didn’t know asking for portraits. That’s when I set up the Facebook page Pet Portraits By Hecule and the JustGiving page which is raising money for my local homelessness charity, Turning Tides. I was having fun drawing the pictures, people seemed to enjoy laughing at them, and if we could make a bit of money for a brilliant cause in the process—great!

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My initial dream was to try to raise £299 (around $388), which was the price I had initially quoted as the price for my portraits. Less than two weeks later, and we have raised just shy of £1000 (around $1299), the page has nearly 700 likes, and I’ve been invited to display at a gallery! I currently have 70 or so requests for portraits, but the more the merrier!

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All the portraits are free! All I’m asking for is a donation to the charity and that can be whatever people can afford to give—I’ve had donations from £2-£50!

The only thing I ask is that unless people are happy to donate without expecting a portrait, they hold off until I have done their pic. Otherwise I’ll end up in a situation where people may donate without actually getting a picture (I’m trying to get them all done, but that’s looking less and less likely the more requests I get!)