Ginger, Sadie, and Mellie

Work feels steady yet somehow slow right at the moment. I will get 2 or 3 orders done and think I am caught up and then a  couple more projects will trickle in. Summertime is the perfect time to order pet portraits for yourself. During the holidays I am usually overwhelmed with projects that are being ordered as gifts and everything has a sense of urgency about it. In the summertime I get to take my time with each pet portrait project in front of me.
I will post a few recent pup portraits below.

"Ginger"
©2016  artpaw.com

"Sadie"
©2016  artpaw.com

"Mellie"
©2016  artpaw.com

Chihuahua named Chewie

"Chewie"
© rebecca collins artpaw.com

January has been a very busy month. I have created around 14 different pet portraits for a variety of clients. I will start sharing those works here on the blog ....starting today with Chewie.  This sweet little pup is a new addition for a terrific repeat client.

Khan The Kitty Pet Portrait

KHAN the Kitty
14 x 14 Canvas
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

I just provided proofing yesterday for Khan the Kitty. I love this guy's huge eyes, he almost looks like an owl to me. His photo was stunning so this was a fun one. We are starting to get busy for the holidays and I have a handful of new projects to work on. This was a donated auction portrait.

Below is a screen capture of his proofing page. Here at Art Paw I never show just one sample, I like to offer my clients a variety of background options. I often will send along little complimentary 8 x 8 mini-prints with the orders, or whatever size is easily ganged into the margins on my wide format plotter. The mini freebies are fun to frame for the office. 

Pet Portraits with Toys

"Beufford"
© rebecca collins /  artpaw.com

I love doing artwork of pets with toys!  In this case the client asked me to change the green toy to red. She had ordered a small 14 x 14 and yet the square format did not allow for the entire long toy to be included so I offered her a free size upgrade to a 20 x 14. This is an unusual long rectangle and a custom size that fits the subject(s) perfectly.

You can check out all of Beufford's proofing options over at Smug Mug.

New Jack Russell Art

8x10
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

This adorable Jack Russell had a lovely original photograph to work from. This is a rush project for a new client.

East Dallas Pet Portraits

Here at Art Paw we ship all over the globe and yet these last few years I find myself creating more and more portraits for clients in my own East Dallas neighborhood and often I know these pets so it makes it even more fun. Today I will post just a few of our local Dallas pups.

"Chloe and Higgins"

 The smiling duo above is an older project. I met Chloe & Higgins' Mom years ago when I rescued a Cow Dog Stray from Little Forest Hills.

"Sophie"
Spinone Italiano

Above is Sophie and her Mom owns the Rocket Science Hair Salon on Garland Road. Since her Mom is a genius with color highlights I figured I should give Sophie some good highlighting. I also did some fun text about her breed in the background, I was tickled and pleased when this proof was chosen.

"Cab"

The handsome cow dog above is Cab and he lives right next door to me. I have known him since he was a wee puppy. His Dad is the President of our neighborhood association.

"Maxie"

Maxie is another neighborhood pup and her Mom owns Blue Ribbon Lady Landscaping.

"Jackson"

Jackson is a local Dallas dog and his Dad did 3 large projects with me years ago. He had 2 huskies and a Bulldog. 

Jade The Cow Dog is Hungry

I am just about caught up with orders. I am currently fine tuning Jade for a terrific repeat client in Australia. I have one more project to do for her and then I will be totally caught up with commissions from Feb. I did hear from a nice gentleman this morning that may send in a Golden Retriever for me to play with. I hope he does, I have not done many retrievers yet this year and I love their strong lines.

Below are a few proofing samples of Jade. My client wanted to see more green options in the backgrounds to match up well with her kitchen.  I went a little crazy and gave her 20 new options to choose from. I usually do not go overboard like that on revisions as it can often just make the approval process tougher, making it very hard for clients to choose. I love Sarah though, she always gives me great photos to play with and she is pretty good at knowing her favorites and drilling down to what she likes best. All 20 revision proofs can be found on my proofing site.

Oh ... and yes it is pretty wonderful and appropriate that this food bowl portrait will grace her kitchen walls ... pet people are really the best you know.  I do love it when folks send me pics that tell a story!

"Jade With Food Bowl"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

 

"Jade With Food Bowl"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Jade With Food Bowl"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Jade With Food Bowl"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

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.

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

Raining English Bulldogs

Bulldogs, Bulldogs, Bulldogs!

Here at the end of the month it seems be raining English Bulldogs and you will not find me complaining about that. I love working on this wonderful breed.

Notice in this first sample of Lulla Bell how her eyes droop just wee bit in the original photo. That is a normal thing with Basset Hounds and many other pups like the Bulldogs as they age. As an artist I always want to flatter my subjects without totally altering any normal breed characteristics. In this case I used the liquify tool to slightly reduce that droop just a tiny bit without eliminating it. Then I added in a white highlight for sparkle.  If you compare the eyes in all of these before and after shots I think you will find that each pup ended up with a little more brightness and twinkle in their digital paintings.

"Lulla Bell"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Rainger"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Samson"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

"Ashley's Pup"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

More Kitty Portraits

Today I proofed 2 kitties that are part of a very large multiple pet project. I have another multiple pet portrait project that I will share with you guys later this weekend. I love it when clients do wall groupings with my art. Of course we sort of believe in filling our walls up around here.

"Tigalicious"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Leigh"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Cool Cat Art From the Archives

Posting just a few kitty portraits today from the Art Paw archives. 

"Carlos"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Desmond"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Panda"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Clemmy"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

More Praise

Going through recent e-mails and I found sweet note from a happy client....

"I wanted to touch base and let you know that April LOVED the pictures of Cletus, Chloe, and Clyde‼   (Hope you remember them!)   In fact, she loved them so much, will be contacting you to do pictures of the horses.  The paintings were loved by all and she posted them on her Facebook.  You may be getting more business!

Have a safe and wonderful New Year.
B.T. "

"Clyde"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Chloe"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Cletus"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com