Happy Halloween Treats

Here are my Treats:

Presidential Pumpkins Stencils are hot. (Read More and get stencil)

Free Halloween E-Cards From Art Paw. ( Click Here)


Check out The Skull a Day Blog.

Catrina from Kraken Mosaics

She also has a great Mosaic Skull


Visit Flickr for tons of great Halloween pets.

Vote

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Find your early voting location: http://www.voteforchange.com/

Still on the fence? Not sure which pack you want to run with?
Read about Obama's Economic Policy on his site
Read about McCain's Economic Policy on his site

Compare the two plans by clicking here ( Yes, an Obama slant)

I can not imagine anyone still being undecided, but if you are an undecided, take an hour out of your day and go to each candidate's site. Try to weed through their self promotion "political speak" and see who offers more solutions that you agree with or trust. Do not rely on goofy e-mail forwards that your friends or relatives send you. They are often packed with half truths, scare tactics and misinformation.

If you have already voted ... do what you can to get the vote out!

Vote Early!

We voted last Saturday. We got up early and went over to our voting center before we even walked the dogs. There was no line and no waiting. Find your early voting location at Voteforchange.com.

Chihuahuas Ginger & Pepper

Still trying to stay on top of orders. If you are waiting on a proof, please hang tight. If you are waiting on an update hang even tighter. Project revisions are currently adding a few weeks to a project's expected delivery date. I have around 20 projects in-house right now that are needing my attention, and all of them are very important.

3 Boston Terriers art

Sunday afternoon and I just finished up these little Boston Terriers. I am trying very hard to touch 3 client projects per day, even on the weekends. If I can keep up this pace I will go into November very strong and may even clear my plate for a few days so I can work on administrative stuff.

Friday Dog Art

I did not have time this week to do a dog artist interview so instead I will post some of the projects I have been working on this week. I am really getting busy with holiday commissions. I am planning on working pretty hard this weekend.

"Henry"

"Mogul"

"Vijay"

"Sadie"

"Amaya"

There are only 22 days left to order a custom pet portrait this month for holiday gift giving.

Frank, Viv, Lucy & Bo

This project is for a 34 x 54 inch print on canvas. The client wanted to add a couple of pups that are no longer with her ( Lucy & Bo) and wanted them to be in the background or somehow not as prominent as Frank & Viv. I was not sure how to go about that when I started. I settled on a faux collage look. I must admit this solution must have been inspired a wee bit by Jill, Manon, and Moira a few of my artist pals working in mixed media.

Simone

"Simone"

With this project I took a stand up ear from another photo and placed it on our subject Simone in a different photograph. I also had to deal with glow eye with very little info as to what the original eyes might have looked like in terms of a reference photo. Clients need to keep in mind that while I can always deal with glow eye and "improve" them, there is no 100 % guarantee that I will be able to catch the exact twinkle or personality that your pet's eyes have unless you provide a reference photo so I can see the depth, sparkle and character in their eyes. My first attempt at Simone's eyes needed reworking to a darker shade ... crossing fingers that I may have it right this time. I think her eyes look great this time, but are they her eyes, I really don't know yet.

New Cat Art

"Jamie's Cats"

Still swamped with orders. Hey I found a great new site this morning by stumbling the web. Check out Moderncat.net.

A Happy Trio

No time to write today. I have to get at least 2 more clients proofed.

Hercules Boxer Dog Art

"Hercules"

This is Hercules the Boxer. His human won a gift certificate that we donated to a Florida Boxer rescue group last year. He was proofed on Friday by e-mail. Usually in November I start proofing everyone via e-mail instead of the web due to our high volume. This year I am starting that practice a little sooner. I may still post an occasional new piece on the homepage to keep it fresh, but for the most part I will be using e-mail proofing only until 09. I will still be adding fresh art work here in the blog.

This is going to be a super busy week as I sort through new orders, ship out old orders, update proofs, fill Etsy orders, and try to keep up! Please be patient if you are waiting on your proofing set. The good news is that you guys have learned and many of the orders in house are for December .... Thanks to those of you that are ordering early!

Community Organizer For Pets

Some of you may remember Luna, the stray I had for like 6 weeks last summer. I won't go into the long detailed story, but through that rescue effort I met Meridith, a terrific gal that was fostering puppies that belonged to Luna. She is a total animal advocate and quickly became a client that ordered artwork of her Higgins & Chloe. Meridith contacted me this month to see if I wanted to have artwork exhibited today at a coffee house that is hosting a Pet Day event that is promoting an amazing little neighborhood org that reunites pets with their owners locally via the web. The group is called Little Forest Hills Animal Alert. The group was started by Maeleska Fletes with a simple goal of reuniting lost pets with their families. Unlike huge city pounds, and over burdened no-kill shelters this group is all about handling the occasional fence jumper and mishap that happens locally in their own backyard so to speak. Fletes also happens to be the editor of the Little Forest Hills neighborhood newsletter that is distributed on doorsteps every month. Through a combined effort of the printed newsletter and the web this tiny little group of volunteers has been proactive in reuniting dozens of pets with their humans. These lost pets never had to go through the the ordeal and trauma of the larger city shelter system. City shelters do the best they can, but unfortunately they are always under staffed and under funded.

What if your own neighborhood had a group like this? What if every neighborhood had a proactive group like this? The strain that it would take off of the city shelters would be huge and their euthanasia numbers may even drop.

Dog Sketch

Animalisch
Originally uploaded by wunderwesen

Last week I posted a Scottie dog sketch I created on Sunday. That afternoon I stumbled around Flickr to see if there were any dog sketch groups there. Sure enough, they have a group devoted to dog sketches.
This terrific figure drawing sketch with dog is by KAREN BETTY TOBIAS. Click through to visit her Flickr stream.

Dog Artist Interview /Manon Doyle

On today's vlog I am speaking with Manon Doyle of hoochiepoochiestudios.com.
This hard working artist is talented in a wide range of mediums. I love her Mosaic work and her devotion to craftsmanship in that area. Many of her dog portraits are created on wood and she burns poetry about her subjects into the wood.

Lately Manon has been laboring over "Brutus", a very large mosaic sculpture project that she talks about in her blog. You can also read about her Boston Terrier's recent adventure with a skunk. She also journals a lot and posts her lovely journal sketches and paintings on her blog.

You can see her unique pet portraits over at Hoochie Poochie Studios.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Order Your Holiday Portrait Now

The clock is ticking and there is now less than one month to order an Art Paw Pet Portrait by Christmas. There could be even less time this year as I will also have a cut off date after 30 portrait orders are received in the month of November. I decided that since I am under staffed this year I would have to restrict the number of guarantee deliveries I take on. Any clients ordering past this magic number of 30 will be placed on a waiting list with no guarantees for a holiday delivery.
Order Early!

Photoshop as a design tool

"Finley"
( see all 6 proofs)

Some days I just adore Photoshop and the flexibility it gives me as a design tool. As an example we have Finley's composition. I started out with a vertical 36 x 24 painterly portrait of this cute pup & ball. I decided I wanted to see what a horizontal close crop would look like and I am very pleased with the result. If I had been painting this work with traditional oils there is no way I could just on a "whim" at the very end of the project decide I want to switch my layout and format in this way.

New Frenchie Art / Dozer

"Dozer the Frenchie"
( See all 6 proofs)

This little guy is just way too cute. This is my boldest proof offering on this French Bulldog. I think the client will be going with an all natural Dozer without the colorful highlighting on coat.

Playing with Playful Pup

Playing around with Mardi today. On Friday I talked about tips for taking could pet photos. Mardi's human sent us two terrific photos to choose from. One was a detailed close head & shoulder image and the other was the full body image shown here. Nine times out of ten I will go with the close head-shot but I was so glad she wanted to go with this playful stance instead! It is working out great.

What Color is Your Monday?

My Monday is a rainbow, thanks to this video I just watched.


EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

Scottie Dogs Dream In Color

I have not picked up the sketch book in awhile, so I decided I had to sketch this morning. This is Ajax sleeping. He was drawn in black ink and his dreams were captured in colored pencil because Scotties dream in color you know. I think I was influenced by Miss Kathy Weller's interview earlier this month. I really like the little stories she tells with her work.

Animal Poetry

Lazy day, lazy day. I have been reading animal poetry over at poetryfoundation.org.
This is a great site that also has a huge archive of audio podcasts if you prefer to listen. If you prefer to write your own animal poetry the blank journal above is in my Cafe Press Shop. I seldom do product plugs these days ... there you have it a product plug and poetry resource all in the same blog post. That is either very zen or very non-zen, but there you have it.

Have a great Saturday everyone.

Taking Good Pet Photos

Today's Art Dog Vlog is about taking good pet photos to send to us here at Art Paw. Today I am a little long winded and I cover a few photo tips on working with your dog or cat. I talk about equipment a bit and try to really drive home the point that a cell phone is not a camera.

Thanks for watching guys. I still have a shout out going to any of the Dogs Rule Fat Book artists that want to be interviewed. I'll try to contact a few of you next week by phone to see if I have any more artist interviews still to do. These little video interviews are great promotional tools and get a lot of eyes over at Youtube.

Melba Finch Art

Melba Finch
Originally uploaded by artpaw

Trying to figure out what to do for this week's video cast. I sent out an e-mail yesterday to all the Dogs Rule Book artists trying to see who might be free for an interview today or even next week and nobody has expressed any interest yet. I am a little bummed about that, and yet I do realize this is a very busy time of year for everyone. I guess I will try again next week and then let it go if nobody is interested in being interviewed.

I am getting really busy with holiday commissions so I suppose it would not be the end of the world if I have to put the interviews on the back burner for this year.

Dogs In Costume

Halloween is just around the corner. Check out Flickr's Dogs In costume group for ideas for your own pet's costume.

Art Paw on TV!

Cleaning the studio up today for a television interview that is happening in-house on Weds. Not sure yet when the actual air-date will be. We are going to be featured on the NBC's Telemundo Network. We created some fun artwork of the sweet Sheltie belonging to the show's host Maria Celeste. Cross your fingers for me guys. Hopefully I will be having a good hair day that day.

Riley Update

"Riley"
Before photo below

Sunday evening and I am updating clients. I am sort of in that "work all the time mode" these days. This artwork is of Riley the Chocolate Lab. You may have seen an earlier bust shot last week of this pretty pup. The yellow grass was inspired by Wyeth. I have had a lot of requests lately for outdoor scenes which is odd since I do not have many landscape samples on my site. I like how the sky turned out on this. I worked on just the sky for about an hour and I like how soft and painted it looks.

Dog Artist Interview / Kathy Weller

Check out today's Dog Artist Interview with Kathy Weller. This ran longer than most of my videos and I still had to cut so much great audio out to make a quick video movie. I think I may start doing audio podcasts because the challenge to get enough image stills to match a long interview is tough.

Thanks to Kathy for taking the time to speak with me. I have always admired Kathy's work and even have a Weller original of my girl Pixel, yes she is on the video. Unfortunately part of the stuff I had to cut talks about Kathy's ability to juggle a million balls at once. She is a talented graphic designer by day and in her spare time she creates pet portraits, illustrates books, and even paints experimental stuff to sell in her Etsy shop. She is truly an inspiration to every artist out there that tries to balance work, family and art. She is making it happen!

Friday's Dog Artist Video Delayed

My own Pup Pixel by Kathy Weller ( above)

Hey guys. Still working on editing a video interview I did with Kathy Weller for today's dog artist interview. It will be much later today before I can finish editing. Please check back, this is going to be a really great video interview. Kathy was a lot of fun to talk to.

Vote For Art Paw

Hey guys, please vote for us at Start Up Nation's Home Based 100 competition.