House portraits

I have always loved pen and ink drawings of houses and buildings - especially when they have an architectural quality to them. (The drawing above is of our first house in Richmond, Virginia.) I have been looking for someone to draw my new house (which we built two years ago) and thought my results might make an interesting post.

Architectural drawing of my husband's childhood home in Boston:




My first internet visit was to PVEdesign the website of Patricia Van Essche. Her drawings have a delightful, whimsical quality to them and she was very responsive when I emailed to ask her the prices. I'm going to ask for a PVE drawing of my house for my birthday this summer.

The next website that I found is called MEKdesigns. Two friends, both artists - Earle Kluttz Thompson and Raines Thompson - started this business a couple of years ago. I love their drawings of houses and the quote they sent me for a 5x7 drawing was reasonable - $150.

At one of my favorite online vintage markets Highstreetmarket, I noticed that the owner, Kelly Galvin Robson, draws houses also. She charges $95 a commission. You send her a digital photo of the house and she draws from that. Check out her vintage wares too - they are great!

Another house portrait artist that impresses me is LizPeyton. Her drawings are beautiful and again the prices reasonable (5x7 is $150).

In the Atlanta area, I found BarbaraMcGinity. She has great style, I especially love her watercolor house portraits. Her price for an 8x10 pen and ink house drawing is $125-150.

Here's the link to a California artist, AnnieBean. A 9x12 house drawing is $98.

The quality of this artist's work looks terrific to me LarrySnode. The images on his website are beautiful. His prices are higher than the two above mentioned sites - $195 for a 16x20 - but it's a bigger image.

One last note, any of these artists will make your house drawing into notecards (or possibly Christmas cards) for a fee (somewhere between $50 and $100 for 50 cards).

Have fun perusing these websites!


Drawing of our 1925 bungalow, which we lived in for almost 13 years before we built our new house.