Holiday Deadline is Today!

I am going over my list and I am checking it twice. I know that most of my four legged clients have probably been both "naughty and nice" this last year .... anyway my own dogs have been.  I am eager to get everyone that has ordered proofed as quickly as possible, while still maintaining a close attention to detail.

You have until midnight tonight to fill out an order form on-line and place your holiday pet portrait order. Once you fill out your form just e-mail your pet photos to artpaw.com@gmail.com.

If you sent us pics last month sometime and never filled out a form and finalized your project order, I will be sorting through all those pending projects on Friday and I will be e-mailing everyone letting them know what we need to do on our end to get them placed on the project board. Lisa and Mike, you guys are both repeat clients so don't worry, you are totally on the board and I will invoice you later.

If you want to see where you are at on the proofing calendar just click here.
Allow me 24 hours to manually update the calendar once your order is placed.

New Pet Portrait Mickey and Pal

"Mickey" ( see all Proofs)
© rebecca collins/ artpaw.com

"Mickey" ( see all Proofs)
© rebecca collins/ artpaw.com

 Is Mickey cute or what? I love his little bear pal. I gave the bear an eyeball and with his empty headed grin and doll-stare he seems to make Mickey look even more alive. Look at that possessive paw holding on to bear! I love it.

Have not been blogging much lately. We are starting to get really swamped with pet portrait orders. Our cut off date for new orders with a holiday delivery is tomorrow at midnight.  I will still take just a few orders in December however we can not 100% promise a holiday delivery when clients order past the posted deadlines.  I can promise proofing, but not delivery when your order is placed after 11/30.  Every year I kill myself working right up to December 23rd, and this year I am just going to have to be strict about my posted deadlines. 

Holiday Deadlines are very important because:
• If the post office drops the ball we have time to reprint and reship.
• If our e-mail messages end up in your spam folder we have time to track you down by phone to get your proof approval.
• If clients need a minor color change I have time to go back in and make that change.
• When clients send low resolution pics that will not work they have time to search for higher resolution more workable photographs to submit.
• Ultimately holiday deadlines are important because Art Paw has one artist in charge and one very talented shipping and stretching expert. E-mail alone can eat up half of my day.

Please just go easy on us and place your pet portrait order by 11/30/11.

Looking Back

Wow, looking back at last year's pet portraits in November and we did 41 projects. We are a bit behind that marker this year with only around 30 projects slated for this month so far. I always like to compete against myself, but you know I am more than happy with the work we have in-house right now. We have some great pets lined up and I am very excited about them all. We even have 2 kitty projects in the works and that beats last November's feline numbers.... yay for the kitties! Meow baby.

Organizing all day!

Wow, spent the entire day organizing some new portrait projects and many pending projects.  It looks like my sbcglobal e-mail is on the fritz again .... arrrrg, so I am back to using artpaw.com@gmail.com.

When it comes to commissioning a pet portrait lots of folks like to just shoot me quick pics to get the ball rolling on a portrait project and that is cool, but do keep in mind I love to have a real order form filled out ( it keeps me organized, and sane) and that can easily be done by following this link: http://www.artpaw.com/painterly_order.html
When you go through the shopping cart process you don't even have to pay at the end, you can choose pay later by phone as an option.  I will call you to take your payment details by phone. I will need at least a 50% deposit to get started if you are a new Art Paw client.

This weekend I will be working on a few commissions at once, getting many pups and kitties started. Next week I will spend more time with each project giving each the time it needs. Tonight however I get to play and go to a poetry reading and I am excited about that. My husband has a whole different set of pals than I do because of his work with the Writers Garrett here in Dallas. I really enjoy going to their events.

Kitty Sneak Peek
I see you

If you have sent me pics and are waiting for a proofing e-mail please do know that I need your full order details to get started. If you have been sent a proofing date then relax, you are on the board. If you are a repeat client, don't worry we will figure things out and we can work loosely with you by e-mail, but first time clients need to give me their shipping and billing details.

Tick Tock Baby!

I just posted my Holiday deadlines on the website  ... it is going to be the end of the month 11/30. I will take pet portrait orders until the end of November with a promise of a holiday delivery. After that time I will do what I can with all of the late orders that trickle in, however prepaid orders that were made by posted deadlines will have top priority treatment.  Click Here To Place your Order Today!

We do a lot of projects for spouses, but consider buying for the kiddo's bedrooms too!

Mosaic Monday/ Field Trip

Sunday I went out to Rockwall to visit Barbara Dybala and check out her large scale mosaic mural project.  They say everything is bigger in Texas and this gal really has a Texan "can do attitude".  She is covering her 3 story studio in tile and smalti. If you want to be a part of the fun know that Barb is offering free classes on large scale mosaics. At first when I heard about it I thought what a clever way to get your "fence painted Huck Finn".  After just 20 minutes of listening to her orientation I realize she has an amazing wealth of info and she is as generous as she can possibly be with her knowledge. I learned so  much about efficiency and production when tackling something on this scale. Barbara studied under Isaiah Zagar and uses many of his techniques.

There is still time to get in on the fun and it really is fun. The space she is creating is magical. Check out her website for more info.  This is the last week of open classes so don't miss out!

New Background Patterns/ Photoshop

When I travel I take pictures of textures and patterns because I know I may have the chance later to incorporate them into a piece of digital art. I created a few new Background patterns this week with some pics I took in Italy. Check out Fluffy's artwork below and then check out my photographs that I used for the background design.

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

The wooden texture above was taken from the door image below

Italy Door
© rebecca collins 

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

I knew when I saw this iron work in Italy that it had to be used in an Art Paw background pattern. When you shoot photographs to use as texture and pattern in your artwork you do not always need to use the entire photo, you never know what tiny bit of texture is going to be just what you need to give your digital art a real world patina. Digital art can often tend to have a plastic or overly smooth texture, by using real world images in my art I feel like I am giving my work a gritty realness.

Busy With Pet Portrait Orders

We are rocking and rolling here, creating art every day. Life is good, Lola is working 3 days a week now, and the e-mail issues have been resolved. I am ready for the pet portrait orders to start flowing in more and more each week. Will post some new artwork soon.

Keep in Mind When Ordering A Portrait:
Best time to order a pet portrait for Christmas is NOW.
We need 2 main things to start on your project
• a high quality photo ( 500kb or larger)
• payment

Call me if you have any questions ... it is toll free: 888-225-427. I would love to talk to you.

Me & Lola (Sept.)

 

 

Lola and her baby Zitna

My Boy Whitman

E-mail problems

Attention Clients and potential clients: please use the e-mail
artpaw.com@gmail.com
if you are trying to reach me this next week. My Yahoo mail account is acting weird. Bad timing. Hope to get it resolved very soon.

Holiday Pet Portrait Deadline

 

Order by November 21st 

To get my best unhurried creative work

Well it is that time of year again and the holidays are here.  Each November I get nervous and excited about all of the holiday orders that will come in.  I always post a holiday deadline and people usually ignore it and keep ordering anyway.  Keep in mind that when you order from Art Paw I will be the one creating your custom artwork and there is only one of me.  Lola is totally amazing this time of year and she will be optimizing photos by cleaning the backgrounds and she will be shipping and stretching all of the portraits. 

Early next week I will be posting my official cut off dates for the holidays. Right now it looks like November 21st will be the soft deadline, that will go on the calendar. If you have been thinking about ordering now is the time.

We will be proofing with password protected gallery pages starting today in order to avoid ruining any holiday surprises.