Mosaic Monday/ Italy

Well I had a restful weekend and this morning I finally sat down to empty out my camera cards. I have tons of great shots from Italy. It will take me weeks to edit and sort through them all. Today I will post just a small handful.

In Italy we saw .........
Many Old Mosaics

 and we saw....
New Mosaics

We saw pretty brides

We saw laundry in Venice......

We saw all types of dogs and graffiti

We saw bikes in Ravenna

 

We saw cool old doors

On our last night we roamed the property that our hotel was on near the airport and we picked up pottery shards that were mixed in with the gravel so we could come home with some "found tessera" to create a mosaic with.

Italy/ Doors, Dogs and Graffitti

I am home from my travels and have tons of pictures to sort through of Dogs, Doors and Graffitti. I traveled with a very experienced group of gals that have been abroad tons of times. I have no sense of direction in general so I clung pretty closely to my pals and I greatly appreciate all of their expertise. I am greatly inspired by the ancient mosaics I saw and by my fearless friends in general. Six of us took a class at Orsoni in Venice and 4 of us went on to Ravenna for the Mosaic festival there. I learned so much about travel and about Italy and mosaics.  I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to study mosaics abroad.  I am back at my desk today and ready to get caught up and get back to pet portraiture.

Below are just a few of my snapshots from Italy. I will be creating a set over at smugmug and also Flickr just as soon as I have time to edit and fine tune my photos. Thanks so much to Becky, Judy, Joyce, Leian and Tricia for showing me the ropes of world travel, and thanks to Dan, Kris and Lola for holding down the fort here at Art Paw.

No two doors are identical in Venice or Ravenna

There was lots of Graffitti in both Venice and Ravenna. Most was simple boring tagging, but some like this wall had a bit more color. One of my pals suggested I figure out what they say before posting, I do not have time to figure out the translation so my apologies if the words are offensive. I will have a large set over at flickr next week of graffitti and also interesting signage.

 There were tons of happy well cared for pups in Venice and I will have a much longer blog post about them next week.

 By the time we got to Ravenna I was getting tired of doors and Graffitti so I started shooting people and also bikes. The shot below shows a modern bike however I also have some cool shots of colorful vintage metal bikes with baskets. Most of the bikes in Ravenna were older and everyone used them to get around this small tourist town. When I go back with Dan I think we will rent some bikes and be able to cover more ground quickly that way.

Cecilia

"Cecilia" (see all proofs)

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

This is Cecilia! We love her coat texture and the hair that runs down her nose. She's quite a beauty.

Brody/ New Pet Portrait

" Brody" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

This is Brody and his humans love color so I went crazy with his proofing samples. His original photo was a little dark, but still had lots of great detail for me to work with.

Lola is In Charge

Hey guys, I am taking a break to study mosaics in Italy for 2 weeks, yea I know I am very  lucky, can not even believe it is real. Lola will be holding down the fort here at Art Paw so if you have any questions about placing a holiday pet portrait order just give her a call. Dan will also be around, but Lola is in charge during the day so if you have any questions about pending projects just give her a call. I think I will have her update the blog with archived proofs and other fun stuff. She will also be shipping out all approved projects and gift shop orders.  When I return I will be diving into holiday orders! It is that time of year again.

Lola

Who could ask for a better assistant?
Yep I have to find her something cool in Italy.

Tres Milagros Opens on Friday

Wow, I can not believe that our show opens tomorrow. If you are local come on out to Oak Cliff at 6:30 pm and see 40 works in mosaic by me - Rebecca Collins, Apryl Begay and Katrina Doran.

Show Details:
Opening Reception Date- September 23rd 2011.
6:30-8:30 pm
Location – Oak Cliff Cultural Center
223 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Dallas TX 75208
Show dates: 9/23 – 11/18

Learn more about the show on our group blog: http://tresmilagros.wordpress.com/

Great Pics = Great Pet Portraits!

I have said it before and I will say it again ... the best portraits start from really great photos. Moses was a joy to play with because his original photograph really captured his personality and at 4.7MB the resolution was huge on this image, allowing for a lot of detail. Check out a couple of his proofing samples below and then scroll down to see his original snapshot.

"Moses" ( see all proofs)
rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Moses" ( see all proofs)
rebecca collins / artpaw.com

In the image above Moses is smiling and looking right at the camera. Check out the detail below and you will see that you can almost count every hair in his head ... that is the kind of detail that comes from shooting at a high quality setting with a real camera and then having the ability to e-mail the original image to us without allowing your e-mail program to auto-crunch the size down.

Glory The Greyhound

Remember the poetry contest last April? Well the winner redeemed her gift cert and her Greyhound girl Glory shipped this week. She chose the bold wild version. I always show folks a tame, medium bold and very bold option unless they specify a color choice. I am always surprised and thrilled when people choose the boldest option!

"Glory" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins /artpaw.com

Mosaic Monday / Milagro Sacred Heart WIP

Milagro Sacred Heart WIP, a photo by artpaw [rebecca collins] on Flickr.

This piece has been glassed in now and I will be grouting it later today. My show works are due this next weekend, so I will be very busy all week finalizing some mosaic projects. I am breaking each work day down into 4 or 5 hours at Art Paw and 4 or 5 hours on mosaics. I am sure I will finish everything on time.

Mosaic Monday/ Check out My Article!

Hey guys! Pick up the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine and check out my article on Mixed Media Mosaics. You can pick up a copy on-line and also Barnes & Noble carries it. I am very excited to have been included in this terrific publication. I have always been an art magazine addict and to actually have been asked to write an article in one of my favorites  is really a bit of a thrill.

In this article I basically have written a step by step tutorial on how to create a mosaic using my collage technique. I found it a terrific challenge to write the article because a lot of what we do as artists is very intuitive and so to break it all down into steps was sort of like writing down how to tie your shoes. Barbara Delaney is a great editor  and she polished up a few rough spots and let me know where more information was needed for clarity. All of the people at Cloth Paper Scissors were great to work with and very nice and professional.  Please support them by visiting their site and consider a subscription.

Two projects were shown in the tutorial "Professor Bot" shown above and Robot #4 shown below.

If you look for a copy be sure and grab the current issue with the cool Steam Punk Dolls on the cover by Paula Nerhus.

Weather Feels Like a Drug!

Good morning from Texas! It is 72 degrees out there today and the break in the heat is just intoxicating. After a long walk at the lake with the dogs I grabbed a blanket and headed out to the back yard to lounge around and do nothing with the pups. Grabbed my camera for  a few shots.

Ajax

 

 

Ajax in Black & White

Whitman

Whitman Shake

Tucker New Pup Art

"Tucker"
© Rebecca Collins / artpaw.com

Tucker is one of several new orders that have been placed within the past few days.  I am still fine tuning his artwork. I hope to proof him very soon. I just adore those huge puppy dog eyes. The client specified that I keep the quilt in the portrait ... I always enjoy including bedding and pillows.

I am starting to get busy and with the holidays just around the corner I am happy to gear up. This is the ideal time to place your holiday pet portrait orders.

Fred & Ginger

"Fred" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Ginger ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

 

Fred & Ginger will be shipping out this week. I really had a blast playing with these pups in hats. Years ago I created other projects for the same client of other pack members in hats. I love miss Ginger above, even though she is a Schnauzer she looks so much like my old Scottie girl Nessie.

 "Merlot"

"Martini"

Sweet Jetta

"Jetta" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins /artpaw.com

 

"Jetta" (chosen proof)
© rebecca collins /artpaw.com

 Jetta is one of several projects that I will be printing later this afternoon.  I loved working on Jetta, this part lab/ part greyhound looked like one happy girl in her original photograph.  She lived a good long life and left her humans for the rainbow bridge just this last month at the age of 12. I am very honored to have been able to create a special portrait of this sweet girl. I am also thrilled that her people chose the last fun and quirky off center image shown above for their 12 x12 print. That choice tells me that she and her people have lived life playfully and boldly. My heart goes out to them at this tough time.

"... what we have enjoyed, we can never lose ... all that we love deeply becomes a part of us." — Helen Keller

Mosaic Monday/ "Chasing Illusion"

"Chasing Illusion"
© 2011 Apryl Begay

If you are a regular reader you know that in addition to creating pet portraits I also work in mixed media mosaics. I am currently working hard to finish up several pieces for an upcoming gallery show with artists Apryl Begay and Katrina Doran. The piece above is by Apryl and it is on my hard drive because I am currently shooting our works in order to create a book that will showcase a few of our mosaics from the show and also speak to the general process of perparing for the show. 

Creating when life gets in the way:
In trying to figure out what to post and write about today I was really drawn to this work by Apryl because for me it sort of sums up the past month that I think all of us gals have had as we work away at our show projects.  Each of us have found ourselves despartely trying to create as life inserts itself with spiky barbs and all.

Chasing Illusion:
I love the image of this armless person looking back and moving forward. Today Apryl's mosaic makes me think about how when I am not creating I feel armless and yet I do constantly move forward. It is a wonderful piece because the symbols are so universal, the viewer can bring their own stories with them as they view this work. Of course it is always nice to know what the artist was thinking ...
from Apryl Begay (July 9th 2011 tresmilagros.wordpress.com):
"In my life there have been several times when I have bought into the fantasy of something only to realize later that the reality was simply cloaked in illusion.  These realizations can be very painful, but I learn from them every time."  read more

Broken Power Lines, Octopus Print, Weather

Been a challenging week! Monday night a huge tree limb fell and snapped our power line out back sending a lot of electricity surging through the entire house, popping out light bulbs and frying some appliances. Our hard drives were spared and all of the printers and computers are in good shape. It did however fry the phones and it fried my modem, so no internet for 2 days. Dan got me up and running with the web last night. YAY!  We are lucky that our surge protectors did their job. Also fortunate that the dogs were not under that limb and that we were able to get them inside before they discovered the hot live cables on the ground that would have been a certain death sentence.

It is summer in Texas and there was no breeze to bring down that limb, so I am guessing the trees may be suffering from heat related stress, I know the rest of us are. So ready for fall!

Lola is at work today packaging up Amazon orders including an Octopus print that is shipping to Austin Texas. My Amazon shop has a lot of reproduction doggy and kitty prints along with a bug and a few cephalopods. The octopus and bugs never sell as quickly is the 4 footed critters so I get very excited
when I see an order for one.  Thanks Jessica for shopping with us at Amazon.

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com
available at amazon.com

New Commercial Pet Portraits

These two lovely critters are going to be turned into signage or rather a "van wrap" for a mobile Veterinary Van Unit in South Carolina. This has been a really exciting project to work on. The client provided  high resolution stock photography which always makes my job more fun. There was no glow eye to worry with or blurry pixelation to smooth out on the images which means I could spend all of my time on the creative part of colorizing and painting. I hope to get a photo of the project once it is finalized and larger than life. 

Every year I get a handful of requests from small business owners wanting to have me create something for their business and seldom do clients understand the concept of purchasing an extended use license. I do charge a modest license fee for this type of work that is in addition to the design fee. My client on the van project totally understood about copyrights and license fees before she even came to me and she has been really terrific and professional to work with. I would love to be in her city so I can see my artwork rolling down the road some day.

Austin Addie & Velvet

"3 Italian Greyhounds" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

This trio was just a lot of fun to work on. The original photo had good resolution and what a perfect shot. As always I showed my client some tame proofing options, medium bold options and really bold options. This one is from the really bold group.