Thursday, February 27, 2014

Art Paw Proofing Archives

Today I am browsing through old client proofs to get ready for Terrier month in March on my Facebook fan page. I started using Smug Mug way back in 2008 as a proofing platform for my clients.

I just looked at my image upload totals and discovered that
I have uploaded 20,787 proofs to Smug Mug in the last 6 years. 
That does not mean I have had that many clients, keep in mind each single client gets around 10 to 14 colorful proofing samples to choose from. Still, that is a lot of work to be proud of I would say.

In looking over my past pet portrait projects I enjoy seeing how my digital painting style changes and evolves over time. Some months I experiment a lot with different new backgrounds, sometimes I use color turned up all the way until it screams and other times I am more tame in my approach.

Below are just a few old favorites.

"Beast" 2009
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com
Beast had some very bright and bold background options.
"Beast" 2009
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com
"Angus" 2008
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Sunny" 2008
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com
Sunny is one of my all time favorite Boston Terriers. This image is on a postcard and is also for sell at my Etsy shop.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Mosaic Monday / Flower Workshop

On Saturday I took a terrific workshop at the Dallas Creative Arts Center from Katrina Doran called Petite Fleurs: Bejeweled Mosaic Flowers.
I had so much fun and it was just the jump start I needed to get my hands busy with mosaic again.  I added screws and washers to my flower making it a wee bit mechanical looking. I hope to eventually place it in the hand of a large 3-d mosaic Robot that I am working on.

We worked with a 2 part epoxy clay that dries rock hard and so there was no wet thinset, no grout ... and no stress.  We worked largely with beads and jewels so there was very little cutting involved.  If you think you might be interested in taking Katrina's next Petite Fleur workshop it is offered in May at the Dallas Arboretum.  Katrina can also be hired to work with your own private group in your residential or commercial setting, you can contact her through her website Doranstudiomosaics.com.

We made our flower forms from scratch.
Flower Mosaic
Rebecca Collins
Flower Backside
Rebecca Collins
Flower Mosaic
work in progress
Rebecca Collins
Flower Substrate
work in progress
Rebecca Morgan

Flower Mosaic
work in progress
Rebecca Morgan

Flower Mosaic
work in progress
Peggy Breedlove
Flower Mosaic
work in progress
Peggy Breedlove

Back in 2010 Katrina worked with several of her students creating very large flower mosaics for the Texas State Fair and this workshop is her brain child that sprung out of that experience. She creates petite, medium and large flower sculptures and she is working on a book that will outline the process so she can share her knowledge with more mosaic artists.  Each of the 3 different sized flowers are created with different armature techniques that she engineered herself and each has a different level of difficulty. I would love to do a medium sized flower next. I never thought I would want to tackle a huge flower but after doing a small one who knows, maybe my confidence on the 3-D work will bloom some day.


Friday, February 14, 2014

My Funny Valentine

Today I want to share photos and artwork of my sweet girl Pixel ... ( our Pickle).  Back in Feb. of 2006 we adopted this sweet Scottie girl and she was a Valentine's present. She was rather aloof and stand offish for a very long time and so I like to think of her as my funny Valentine. We really adore her and I am proud to say we have won her heart over.

"Pixel Chiffon Pie"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Please Don't Eat The Daisies"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Winter Pup"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com
Pixel Chewing

The Value Of Teething

Big girl teeth are in!
Splinters rain on the carpet
No hiding antiques


Haiku by Dan Collins

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Recent Dog Portraits

Below are a couple of recent pet portrait projects that have shipped.

"Trudy"
16 x 20 on stretched canvas
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Jo & Red"
"Trudy"
18 x 18 on stretched canvas
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Friday, February 07, 2014

Who Let The Dogs Out?

Hey local Dallas dog lovers ... do you have cabin fever yet from all this snow? Well the good news is that it will be in the upper 50's tomorrow and that means that it will be perfect weather to drop by the Lot in East Dallas to celebrate the opening of their dog lot and take a peek at my art on their walls!

I will be there from noon to 5:00 pm handing out postcards and canvas bookmarks. Come see me and have a bite at the Lot!

The East Lake Pet Orphanage will be there so come on by and support animal rescue and animal art all at the same time. 

Enjoy food and refreshments for you and your furry friend.  What could be better?


The LOT 
7530 E Grand Ave

Dallas, TX 75214


Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Drawing Exercises

About a year and a half ago I decided to take some ceramics classes because it is a medium I felt I was not very good at and I wanted a challenge. As a result I fell in love with clay and immersed myself in class after class.  This year I decided to return to one of my first loves "drawing", and I am taking one of my first loves along with me, my husband Dan. We are taking figure drawing together at the Creative Arts Center in Dallas. We are having a blast. Dan is really great at this, below are 3 of his 5 minute gesture drawings from the first class. We both have done a lot of figure drawing in the past and yet we are trying to approach this class as though we are new to it all, seeing with the beginner's eye.

"3 Figures"
© Dan Collins
Last night we thought we might go up to the center and get in some extra drawing lab time after work and yet the cold evening made me want to stay at home. Always one for keeping up a discipline, I proposed an exercise from Betty Edwards' Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  So we stayed home and drew in the dining room from an upside down image. Faces are so hard, even for artists that love to draw, faces can be daunting.

We both enjoyed this 25 minute exercise. I found an image of Einstein and turned it upside down, set it to full screen on Dan's imac and we drew the image upside down, not knowing until we were done and flipped our drawings around just what we had.

Our upside down drawings
"Einstein"
Left: Rebecca's drawing  Right: Dan's drawing
I can see areas that are not totally accurate in my drawing and yet I love the outcome. I think it is funny that my Einstein looks about 15 years younger than Dan's. His drawing is great and has some very expressive line work. I love both of these drawings.  By drawing upside down we were not able to just draw what we think an eyeball looks like, we had to draw what was in front of us and the left side of our brain was not able to run the show.

If you ever have the chance to take a drawing class from Susan Giller at the Creative Arts center I highly recommend it. Susan is a terrific teacher, she is encouraging yet challenging. At the end of the day it is not about creating pretty pictures of nudes, it is about learning to see and I realized with my first class that I have gotten very lazy about really seeing. If you are not able to take a course and want to learn to draw I do suggest you pick up a copy of Betty Edwards' book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  There is also an instructional video on you tube of Betty presenting her drawing exercises in an old school style video format, slowly step by step.