THE first animals Vikki-Loeber Hughes drew were Disney characters she saw in books and comics as a little girl.

These days she draws the real thing and has about a thousand commissions to her name, which makes her one of the most prominent animal portrait artists in the business.

The images which gradually appear beneath her pastels in her Toothill studio find their way across the country and across the world. Clients come from as far afield as America.

Dogs are her most frequent commission, followed by cats and then horses, but she welcomes the chance to draw other creatures, even if some pose special challenges. “Ferrets,” she explained, “are really hard because they don’t keep still.”

Recently a potential customer asked about portraits of her pets – two dogs, a cat and a snail. Vikki wondered how she was going to produce a portrait of something so tiny, but then the woman produced a photo of the creature in question.

“It was an African land snail,” said Vikki, her hands miming something the size of a loaf.

Vikki works from a combination of photographs and visits to her subjects. The photos are useful for detail, but the meetings are what makes the animal’s personality shine through.

Sometimes meeting the animal is impossible, either because its portrait is to be a memorial or because the client is hundreds or even thousands of miles away. In those cases the words of the client alone must supplement the photograph.

Vikki is a member of The Swindon Artists’ Forum, Marlborough Artists and Marwell International Wildlife Art Society. Her ability to capture the essence of an animal as well as its likeness has won her plenty of fans since she went full-time in 2003.

Visitors to her stand at this year’s Crufts delighted her with their reactions, especially as they had no way of knowing they were talking to the artist. “They said I’d really captured the personality of the animal.”

Vikki lives with husband Simon, who works for Nationwide, mum Nancie and cats Hannai, Molly and Minx. She is originally from Essex, but the family moved to Swindon when she was 10 after her late dad, David, took a job here as a chemist with Raychem.

“I always loved drawing,” she said. “My parents encouraged it – they used to give me lots of creative stuff to do.

“At senior school – Dorcan – all I wanted to do was draw. I used to draw caricatures of my teachers and they’d laugh. My form tutor, Barry Wills, was also my art teacher, and he encouraged me a lot.”

Excelling at life drawing, she studied art at school, at New College and Swindon College, and started a dressmaking business with a friend at 19.

By 30 she was working in a department store when a friend asked her to make a picture of their father’s Labrador. The dog died shortly afterwards, and the image moved the owner and brought him comfort.

“I loved it,” said Vikki. “I loved doing it. I was at peace. I had finally found something I loved painting.”

Vikki’s commissions start at £110, and her website is www.wikkiart.co.uk.

On April 14 and 15, she’ll be at an All About Dogs activity weekend at Newbury Showground.