New Custom Dog Portraits

What a busy week. I have had a few clients in and out this past week. I got to meet Keegen's human. Keegen is a stunning Whippet that I "painted " for a local patron as a valentines gift to his sweetheart. He went with the dramatic red background from his proof set. I am showing the pattern ground here because I really like the peach shade in this version of this background. I tend to recycle or "re-purpose" as they say in the design biz ... a lot of our backgrounds, and the one shown below is a brand new flavor for one of my all time favorite patterns from 06.

Keegen

I also got to play with Miss Ginger for my pal Diane to give to her hubby Bill. This will be Ginger's 5th portrait I think. She is one spoiled princess as this latest work shows only to well. For those of you wondering ... no I did not have to photoshop the crown on to this girl ... she had her own crown on in the original snapshot. Yep ...she is spoiled.

Ginger

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!
My valentines present from last year is outside right now barking her head off ...what a handful our Pixel has turned out to be. She is in dire need of training. Allison is in today taking care of client updates and assorted web work. I guess I will sneak away from my desk later to get the husband some nice dark chocolate ... his vice not mine.

My Siamese cupid is an old recycled image from the late 90's. I used her on some e-cards back when e-cards were all the rage.

Cedar Waxwings

It is trying to be spring here in Texas, although winter keeps creeping back in as soon as you start to go for those capri pants and short sleeve shirts. Last week I had some stunning little visitors in my bird bath. I tried to get some good shots of these guys, but failed miserably. This black & white image was a lucky shot and I love the light coming through his feathers. These guys are Cedar Waxwings and a google image search will yield better pics than I was able to capture.
These pretty little birds move through here every spring. They hung around a couple of days longer during this migration ... probably due to the berries on one of our hedges. They managed to speckle both the sidewalks and my car with a dark purple stain. I washed my Jeep the 1st day they bombed it only to find it stained again the next day. I can not get too mad ... they are just so beautiful.

Westminster Dog Show

Yay ... the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show starts tonight. I will be checking it out with one of my girlfriends that is into rescue work. She gets together each year with her group of volunteers and assorted dog lovers for a party that includes wagering, food & drink. It should be a fun night.

While we are on the subject of dog shows you have to check out this really great show of dog art that I stumbled across last weekend. The show is called the "Wurstminster" dog show and a portion of the proceeds from the show are donated to Dove Lewis Animal Hospital in Portland Oregon.

All things Warhol

Well Andy is in the news a lot lately. Anyone up for a road trip to Reno? If you are in that neck of the woods be sure and drop by the Nevada Museum of Art and check out Andy Warhol's Dream America exhibit. The exhibit focuses on his printmaking career and runs from January 20 through May 27.

Twenty years after his death Warhol has never been more popular, his portrait of Brigitte Bardot, recently sold for $10.3 million, more than double its estimated price.


Factory Girl is opening here in Dallas this weekend and I know where I will be on Sunday. From every thing I read it promises to be not a very fun romp in the park, but what the heck. Warhol's longtime friend Brigid Berlin is said to have been so taken with Guy Pearce's portrayal of Andy that she gave him a gift of her recorded phone conversations with Andy. Click here for more on that story.

Dog Art In the News

Brook Mason has written a terrific article for the New York Sun about dog art fetching top prices. According to Mason three New York auction houses are offering up 19th century paintings, porcelain and bronze pieces that celebrate man's best friend. The article goes on towards the end to discuss the current popularity of dog portrait commissions. Some well known oil artists garner commissions upwards of thirty thousand dollars a painting.
Check it out at The New York Sun.

If you can't make it to the New York auctions and you want to bone up on dog art history check out the offerings below from Amazon:

Daphne & Dobie

Today was a very busy day. I finalized 3 portraits and updated 3 clients. I really like the way Daphne & Dobie (above) have turned out. Sometimes clients that are ordering more than one portrait have a tough time visualizing how their pieces will look together so I find it helpful to do a quick design mock up of the pieces hanging. This client had indicated that their artwork would be hanging on a sage green wall. While my version of "sage" may differ from their "sage" and their couch may be brown leather, I think the overall impact of seeing the pieces side by side may help. Doing a mock up takes a little extra time and yet if it helps the client visualize and come to a choice quicker then it is all worthwhile. Ha, and then there is always the chance it will confuse things further .... you just never know.

2/10 : On a side note Daphne and Dobie's humans just picked up their artwork and they were thrilled. Yay ... they are a sweet couple that live in our neighborhood. The artwork is a Valentines present.

Max the Cover Dog

Our painterly style artwork of Max the Moosh was chosen for the cover of Nashville Paw Magazine. I just got my issue today and he looks great. Nashville Paw is a terrific well written publication from editor Heather Davis. Most cities have some type of free pet related magazine supported by local advertisers. Some of these fun mags are sort of light on writing and heavy on ads. This is not the case with Nashville Paw. Not only is the magazine packed with original content, the writing is compassionate and it covers issues all pet lovers should care about. My favorite article in this issue is titled "Better with age. The joys of adopting a senior pet". Check out this labor of love on-line and subscribe to Nashville Paw. Our thanks to Heather for including our artwork in this terrific issue.

On a side-note Max is a handsome American Bulldog that I created artwork for back in 05. His sister Trixie was also immortalized at the time, and she is shown below.

Running with the big dogs!

Sophie

Wow, this past month we have seen quite a few big dogs come through the studio. We have worked on portraits for all types of retrievers including golden's, black labs, white labs, and yellow labs. I also finished up the artwork for a boxer and a little boston terrier that probably thinks he is a big dog. Today I met with a lovely lady that wants me to work on her akita. I have only created artwork of one other akita in 8 years so this should be a real treat.

I have not been blogging very much lately because I feel a little bit behind on my projects however I should be caught up by the end of the month with most of my portrait work. I have some non-pet related art projects spinning around in my head and I hope to be able to jump on those very soon.

Photoshop workshop

I am heading home today after a terrific day long workshop in Photoshop. Yesterday I had the pleasure to learn from one of the best known experts in the Photoshop design community, Bert Monroy. This guy is totally amazing. This Photoshop hall of famer creates all of his digital "paintings" from scratch without the use of any photos. He is the author of several books on Photoshop and is a very fun speaker. I learned a lot and can't wait to get home to share my new knowledge with the girls on Friday. If you want to study from this guru check out his calendar and sign up for a seminar.

Sharing is Learning:
I find that when you return from a workshop and show off the things you learned it really sinks into your brain. Diane went to a 3-day photographer's seminar last month in San Antonio so she has been sharing her new tips with us all week. I think Friday may be an entire day devoted to tip sharing. Yea, life is pretty good. Having other artists in the studio has really made my life better in so many ways.

To learn more about Adobe Seminar Tours go here:
http://www.photoshopseminars.com/

Cool Bulldogs

Kate

During the last holiday season I got to play with a few really cool bulldogs. We immortalized Olivia, Kate, Ole, Suga, Capone, and Gordo. You can check out a wide assortment of our bulldog art we have created over the years by clicking here.

Speaking of cool bulldogs you should check out Tyson's new website. Many of you may have heard about the skateboarding bulldog as he has a huge web following. Now he has his own fantastic site with plenty of video samples of Tyson doing his thing.

More Balls to enjoy

For me there is often no better way to have a ball than enjoying eye candy on the web. Last year I ran across a video by Sony where they released 250,000 balls over the streets of San Francisco. Every time I see this fun commercial I think about how this must be the way my boy Tommy dreams ... in color with thousands of bouncing balls. Check out the site and read the behind the scene info ... the entire piece was done without computer graphics.


Watch The Movie at YouTube or
Visit Bravia

Have a Ball in 07!

Happy New Year to all! We had a great holiday season in 06 and we all worked our little behinds off ...yay. Now we look ahead and my only New Years resolution is to somehow manage to play as hard as I work in 07. I watch my dog Tommy with his focused and intense attitude towards his ball, and I know I can do this ... yes I can play as hard as I work ... and work needs to become play more and more each day.

We have plans to have even more fun on the website in 07 and we hope you guys will play along. To start the new year off right I will be posting a new art piece on the homepage every day in January that celebrates dogs & cats at play with their favorite toys. I ask everyone ordering this month to consider letting us add your pet's favorite toy to their portrait and to nudge you I am offering a free 8 x 10 print of your second favorite proof when you order any size or style in January... the only catch is you have to let us include your pal's favorite plaything!

Now ... get off your behinds and go to the park with your dog! Have a ball in 07!

We are back

Well I am settling back into the work routine today. Allison came back and started working on our cafe press gift shops Wednesday and today we are all here at our desks plugging away, and trying to put some much needed order on the crazy chaos that was December. Diane is starting on our mailing list and I am so glad to have her back. She tells me that Santa was very good to her this year and she got her own Wacom tablet ( yay).

Check the website homepage for new additions. Allison is also working hard to get all of our holiday orders on-line so you guys can share your proof pages with your pals. We were fortunate to play with so many cool dogs and cats this last month, and our clients were scattered all over the country. Binky the kitty ( below) was from Alaska!

Bolos' human is 100% joyed

Wow, what a month. I am totally exhausted and worn out today. I got a lovely e-mail just now from Bolo's human ( she just received her artwork). She had some nice praise and she stated that she is 100% joyed. I love that ... "100% joyed". I may have to write that on a post-it note and tack it to my monitor.

A lot of my clients should be receiving their portraits very soon. All of November's remaining approved work is shipping tomorrow. YAY! Happy Dance! I am taking the girls out to lunch tomorrow and we are going to celebrate being "almost done". I have a few local folks to take care of and a few folks that ordered past the deadline that we will try to get proofed by the 23rd. If all goes as planned I will be done by the 20th and I can start my own holiday shopping.

Bolo

Tick Tock Baby!

The clock is ticking and all of the Art Paw elves are working over-time. For everyone out there waiting on a proof ... just chill for a few more days ok. I am trying very hard to get everyone proofed by 12/13, that means we will have one solid week to ship. If you have not made your payment yet or sent your photo your project is sitting at the bottom of the pile so you may want to check in with us. Otherwise just hang tight.

DFW Dog

Art Paw was featured this month in DFW DOG. They used some of our all time favorite artworks such as Nikki the Boston and GiGi the Pit bull. This is a great issue with a fun interview with the Dog Whisperer, so check it out. The two page spread on Art Paw talks about our history a little and my current painterly style of art. My entire staff is mentioned and I am very pleased about that. Thanks to Angela and the whole crew over at DFW Dog.
Check out the DFW DOG">on-line version here.

Ho Ho Ho

Ok it is official ... we are swamped with orders. We moved today from on-line web-proofing to e-mail proofs to speed up the process and move the artwork through quicker. Hopefully towards the end of the month Allison will have some time to get all our new holiday clients on-line so their pet-pals can see their proof pages.

I'm posting a fun Master Paw Print that we worked on today. This is Norman the kitty in a Renoir. Diane did a great job on this one. You can not really see all the great blending she did from this small web image that I am posting. I love how the little girl has the same color hair as the kitty.

2 days left to order painterly portraits

Wow, this month has flown by. There are only 2 days left to order our painterly style portraits ... yes, because I am still the only one here doing that style. I am planning to be pretty strict on the deadline this year. As you can see from the snapshot of my pending board the orders have been coming in all month long. The pending board represents about half of the work we have in-house. We also have a wall-pocket for revisions and the to-be-printed stack. The Warhols and Master Paw print styles have a deadline of 12/04 and that is next Monday! Local Dallas clients can always call us to see if we can squeeze them in at the last minute since shipping is not an issue. I really thought we were going to be a tad bit slower this year, however it is not stacking up that way. Ah well, not to worry .... we will get everyone proofed and printed very soon.

A New Pet Portrait Artist Blog

I heard from a another portrait artist the other day and she is an old e-mail buddy that actually did our dog Atticus in acrylic a year ago. I commissioned her to do something for Dan after Atticus passed. Anyway, check out Linda O'neill's new blog. Please visit her pet portrait blog and post a comment or two. Linda is a very talented portrait artist working in Colorado. I just ordered some Atticus Greeting cards from her. I was so thrilled to see she had chosen to include our boy in her new line of cards.

We were also surprised and elated to see our Pixel in Kathy Weller's new doggy calendar. She is even Miss January ...what an honor! I am going to purchase that calendar right now. I have often wondered how my clients feel when they find their pet's artwork on gift items at our site .... now I know ... it is pretty darn cool. It is really fun to be the client!


Many thanks to both of these talented women for their friendship and inspiration. And thanks for immortalizing my fur-kids.