Norman Drake grew up in Lakewood, Ohio and graduated from Cooper School of Art in 1973, with a major in graphic design and a minor in photography. He also dabbled in portraiture. He worked for American Greetings for many years as a graphic designer where he met his wife, Valerie.

While doing graphic design in the corporate world, Norman enjoyed photography as well as portraiture on the side. From his work in graphic design, he became interested in mastering painting techniques in a digital world. Digital painting offered a wider range of color, was cost effective as well as echo friendly. He discovered that he could customize hundreds of brushes to meet his needs as an illustrator. Painting on a digital canvas became a passion. One of his first subjects was his youngest son Joshua, in a painting called, The Dreamer.

The Dreamer became the inspiration for his second career and the creation of Your Precious Portraits; creating beautiful paintings from his clients' photographs.

Norman also can be commissioned to do photography as well and you can see a sampling of his photography in Gallery II.

Norman and Valerie often work together on a particular piece. Val saw her husband, Norman, working on a photo taken during her college days and decided to make a "tongue in cheek" portrait of herself using part of Norman's painting and creating a personal collage for her self portrait.

They work together on many ideas and are always looking to create new looks and ideas for their clients. Here below is a custom idea of putting a painting in a privacy screen format. The painting can be viewed on both sides.

The ideas are limitless at Your Precious Portraits. With your photos and a brief description of the artistic style you would like, we will give you a painting you will treasure forever.

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