Octopus Tile Box

Wow, what a week. We have been swamped with both gift shop orders and custom orders. I just checked my sales today for my Gift Shop items and someone ordered an octopus tile keepsake box. That was a fun surprise. My cephalopods do not move as quick as the 4-legged creatures in our shop, but every now and then someone stumbles upon a squid type item that they can not live without.
You can check out more of my octopus goodies by clicking here.

Tick Tock Again baby!

The Clock Is Ticking! You have only 2 more days to order a custom portrait with a guarantee delivery by Christmas. When the deadline runs out we will promise "proofing only" by 12/23.

Mason

This is Mason, and he is shipping today along with about 12 other portraits.

Cyber Monday at Art Paw

It is Cyber Monday and we have a few site-specials you can take advantage of.
Take 50% off on any size or style e-cert gift certificate!



TAKE 50% off of a 16 x 20 non-proofed warhol portrait.
Offer expires 11/27


Also Receive Free shipping in our Cafe Gift Shop when you spend $75.
Use Code: Ship07

More Hand Turkeys

More Hand Turkeys, and these are from the members at Flickr. If you click any image you can go to that turkey-hand maker's photo stream. I am so inspired ...tomorrow I will make my own hand turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I would love to take credit for these stunning hand-turkeys, but they are stock images from a stock agency. They make me want to create my own.

Scout in the Style Of Bella

"Scout"

A lot of times people see a dog or portrait on the web site and they tell me " I want my dog to look just like Mr. Rover". They do not care that Mr. Rover is a black lab and they have a small white Maltese. It is a lot like me going to the hair salon and asking for a Jennifer Aniston hair cut. I can get the same style, but I will never look like Jennifer.

Well a recent client requested a similar style to a popular pup on the site named Bella. While his dog has a different brindle coat coloring, this guy totally nailed the proper pose and posture for us to mimic that portrait well. He could not have chosen a better dog to pattern his portrait after. Scout's Dad knew what he wanted and was able to give us the perfect photo to work from. We altered an ear and then the rest was easy. See Bella below to compare.

This client's portrait turned out great for 3 reasons:
#1 He had a practical vision of what he wanted.
#2 He communicated that well to us.
#3 He gave us a high quality photo to work with.

Ok ... make that 4 reasons ... Scout was a stunning pup to start with.

"Bella"

Woody

This is Woody, and I got to meet this pup in person. The background above is a variation on the ground I have been playing with all week. I love how versatile it is. The client actually requested it in reds after she saw her proofs, which I was not sure about, but it worked out lovely ...see last image in post.

Coming up with new patterns and background options is always a challenge and yet I feel it is so important to try to keep a fresh look on the site. I find that going shopping and picking up fashion & design mags is the best way to try to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in the world. Most of my clients are pretty educated when it comes to design and style. Here at Art Paw we try hard to stay ahead of the curve when we can.

New Pug Art "Milo"

This is Milo the happy pug. I love this portrait and Milo with his cute little brown shirt. I have really been liking my new patterned background. I created it by combining a fancy wallpaper type floral with a halftone dot pattern at a low opacity. It looks likes the store Urban Outfitters to me.

Today I am printing art, working on portraits and ordering supplies. I am on my own today so I should be able to get a lot done. We are really getting busy with holiday orders. Last year our rush did not really happen until after Thanksgiving. I am so glad some people have ordered early.

Frank The Boston Terrier

This is Frank the Boston Terrier. I love that one blue eye. I worked on this project with Allison. We were trying to capture a similarity to an earlier Boston I did named Nikki.

Sadie & Otis on Teal

Sadie and Otis were both approved on this lovely deep teal ground. We are busy working like crazy to get all of the recent orders worked on. We had tons of orders come in this last week and that tells me that you guys are paying attention to our deadlines. Yay! We are going to extend those deadlines with a few restrictions and a variety of ordering options.

New Whippet Art

"Whippet in Blankie"

This digital portrait is Bubba the Whippet. The proof above was chosen, and I love the subtle warm colors on that piece. We have stopped proofing on-line this week and will be sending proofs by e-mail for the next month. Today is the last official day to order for the holidays. We may extend this date for a few more days, however holiday rates and rush shipping fees will apply.

Celebrity Chihuahua Topaz

Last week we shipped our first celebrity dog. This Chihuahua is Mr. Topaz and he belongs to legendary rock & roll star Jerry Lee Lewis.
His daughter Phoebe ordered a custom portrait of this sweet little Chihuahua. I enjoyed skimming through her blog to learn that Jerry has a bad habit of sneaking tater tots and oatmeal cookies to Topaz. Last week I e-mailed Phoebe to get permission to blog on this project. Topaz was a joy to work on due to the terrific high quality original image. The image above was chosen among a group of 4 proofs.

The web is such an amazing place. We have shipped to Japan, Germany and England. We have also had been commissioned to create portraits of famous humans such as Bill Gates & Steve Jobs for an executive conference put on by the Wall Street Journal. Now we are thrilled to have even pushed pixels for one of Rock & Roll's living legends. I have always said I am not one to be impressed by celebrities, but it is pretty easy to get a tad star-struck when you are allowed to play with their pups, especially when the pup is as cute as Topaz.

Free Shipping On Large Painterly Portraits

Today's promo is for free shipping on a 34 x 34 painterly portrait, stretched or rolled.
To take advantage of this sale just click here.

French Bulldog Portrait

This is Ruby Louise. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Miss Ruby in person and I shot the original photo for this project. Ruby's Dad is going to be promoting us in January at the Dallas Market center. Ruby is s sweet girl and when I met her she was full of energy and curiosity.

Warhol Inspired Portrait Offer

This month I will be posting pet portrait specials that are only being promoted through the blog, and the specials will only be live for one day. You never know what day of the week a special may be posted so I hope any reader that is interested in a custom portrait will check in on the blog a lot this month.

Today's special is for all those Warhol fans out there. Order any size 4-panel Warhol style pet portrait on-line today and receive a free 8 x 10 one panel print from the same proofing set. If you have ordered a Warhol portrait in the past 2 weeks and would like to take advantage of this just e-mail us today and we will add your project to the list to receive a free 8 x 10.
Use Promo Code: 1103warhol
Order Online Today!

Offer expires at midnight 11/04/07

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Andy Warhol In The News:
Check out this blog post over at artnewsblog.com about a new perfume that the Warhol foundation is creating in collaboration with Bond no. 9. Radaronline also has a clever post on the subject, asking the question: " Wanna smell like Andy Warhol's Factory??? You know, that emblematic eau de smoke, urine, heiresses, and tin foil? ".

A Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor is being sold by actor Hugh Grant estimated at up to $35 million. read more

The University of Michigan is expecting a huge addition to their permanent art collection. The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is gifting them with around 150 photographs by Warhol. read more

Warhol's 1981 portrait of convicted newspaper executive Conrad Black goes on sale at Christie's next month for as much as $200,000. read more

A Fall Morning With 3 Scottie Dogs

Playful chasing tease,

Sweet winds stirring up the leaves,

Games with clever trees

Elusive prey earthward bound

Vanquished foes end in crunches

- Dan Collins

An early morning walk with the Scotties revealed that fall is here. Pixel enjoys chasing the leaves as the wind stirs them up on the pavement. Last year Dan wrote the poem above about her antics. This morning I created the quick wacom sketch of Pixel and her foes. I grabbed the leaf below on my walk and scanned it when I returned from our walk. The change in season really makes me want to slow down, doodle, bake, take photos, and in general recharge my battery. I have to do those things in small stolen moments. Like the rest of the country we are in full holiday mode, the next 2 months will be very full.

A Friday that feels like a Monday

What an afternoon. I just found out that my incoming e-mail is bouncing and it is a problem with my e-mail provider that will be fixed by 5:45 tonight. In the meantime I just spent the entire morning sending out e-mails to people trying to touch base and follow up on pending approvals.
Ok ...tech stuff happens right?
With only about one inch left to print on a very large print the HP just ran out of yellow ink, so we are having that sent over by courier ... ( I was informed it will take awhile due to some huge wreck on the freeway).
To top it all off my middle-scottie-child and hot-house orchid Ajax is having a bad tummy today.

I want to go back to bed.