Friday, June 14, 2013

Learn Digital Pet Portraiture

Well it is official, after 15 years in business at Art Paw I am celebrating by sharing my secret sauce Photoshop recipes. Well, not exactly, but I am teaching Photoshop and digital pet portraiture. I have taken on a Pet Portrait student that I will be meeting with bi-weekly and she is flying through all of my lessons and she is hungry for more. She is doing great work, and she came to me with a little experience and self taught knowledge under her belt. She admitted to me that she will find herself so immersed in Photoshop late at night that the next thing she knows it is 1:00 a.m. and she is the only one in the house still awake. 

So those of you that are interested, I am offering private lessons this summer during the week and you can message me at artpaw.com@gmail.com to learn more.  I will not take on any new students in the fall since that is our busiest time of year.

I also have a group workshop on using the Wacom tablet coming up very soon at the Dallas Creative Arts Center:
Date & Time:     Jun 29 to Jun 30   Register
SATURDAY & SUNDAY 10:00am - 4:00pm ( 2 days)



Cost:     $225.00 ($255.00 Non-Members)

If you are not able to come to Dallas to take a workshop from me or take private lessons then be sure and subscribe to my youtube channel where I do post occasional video tutorials.
 Next year at the latest I will be offering on-line courses that will be video and blog based.  A lot of people have been asking me to get some courses on-line and I will, it just takes time.

Teaching keeps me sharp. I have been so fortunate to run a successful art business for so many years and now it is time that I share and lead a little bit. My pals often ask me, aren't you afraid that your students will end up competing against you? That is a valid concern especially since I have a unique approach and style.  The reality is there is plenty of pet portraiture work to go around. I also believe that there are very few folks that are willing to work 60 hour weeks for 5 straight years (without rest or vacations) in order to get a business off the ground. That is what I did and that is often what it takes to see a return on most start up businesses.  So no, I will not be teaching any sort of "get rich quick with art" ideas in order to get students.  That is not really how it works. My hope is that my students will take the knowledge I share with them and then use it to create original work in their own voice and in their very own style. If I end up creating a small hand full of Art Paw clones then I will just have to reinvent myself and change my style, and I can easily do that.  If I can teach "well" then I will indeed inspire people to find their own approach to digital art, once they have a handle on the tools. Then they will go on to create works that raise the bar for us all. Yes, that is my hope.

No comments: