Jingle Bells

Ok so I am a day early on this post and I am hoping you guys will be a few months early in placing your Christmas portrait orders. We are going to be running specials all through the month of July to get you guys to start thinking about getting your custom art created early for the holidays. We will be giving away free goodies with your orders placed in July and will offer other design specials. Check out the promo calendar.

Art Paw has a few new retailers taking orders for us and so we expect 06 to be a really busy holiday season. The best time to get our very best unhurried artwork is RIGHT NOW!

Recent Cat Portraits ... a Frenzy of Felines

From the looks of our homepage it would seem that we have a lot of a new cat clients. The reality however is that I just finished working on an order for one client with a large pride of kitties. She also owns Tilly, and we talked about Tilly a couple of weeks ago. A lot of our clients like to try and save money by placing a several pets in one single painting and that works out great in many cases. They do miss out however on the design impact of getting to group and hang a large assortment of single canvases on one wall. I do hope this multi-pet client will e-mail me photos of her art hanging in her home. I am very excited about this project that included: Junior, Cinnamon Tiger, Sweetie, Brigid, PeeWee, and Tilly.

These portraits are 24 x 24 and will look really great either grouped together or sprinkled throughout the home. This client has funky post modern furniture so I am really excited at the thought of my work hanging in her environment. Hmmm, maybe I should hand-deliver on this one. She says her human kids are the next Art Paw subjects on her list.

Take Your Dog To Work Day

I just found out through an e-mail that today is take your dog to work day. Of course every day around here is take your dog to work day. We have 3 Scotties that dutifully announce the arrival of clients, employees and mail delivery. If you find yourself in a work environment that does not honor such 4 legged work place participation you should consider ordering an Art Paw original of your pal for the office.

You will find that original pet portraits in the office are a great conversation starter with clients and besides, your pet's custom art will always make you smile when you are having a bad day.

As a side note, I tried to discover the origins of the phrase "working like a dog", and found this: "Someone asked that question here recently. Someone else answered it: basically, a sheepdog works from dawn till dusk for only room and board and affection." quoted from Phrases.org.

Portrait Swap

This is the month I am finally going to start on Kathy Weller's Pugs. Kathy is a talented portrait artist that I have been networking with for several months and we agreed to do a portrait swap. Of course life being what it is, we have both been placing the idea on the back burner as other orders and a million little assorted projects dominate our attentions. I am going to start with her Pug Daisy and see how it goes. That is Daisy below. I sort of like that yellow food bowl .... hmmm maybe we shall include it. I am looking forward to this fun project-swap and can't wait till she starts on my Pixel in July.

More about Interpolation

According to Wikipedia: "In the mathematical subfield of numerical analysis, interpolation is a method of constructing new data points from a discrete set of known data points". Interpolation is a word that many of us in the design community have started throwing around to explain what happens when we enlarge an image and ask the computer to fill in data from thin air. In searching the web and trying to get a handle on just how to explain the process of digital enlargement I came across a great page that does a much better job than I can so check out cambridgeincolour.com. There are also many tutorials on-line for aspiring digital artists that are trying to tackle the challenge of low res. images.

More about Tiger ... the kitty from a few days ago. Tiger's human was thrilled with his portrait gift and now the gift giver will be doing her gang next. She was a good sport and reshot Tiger for us with her camera phone. Her very first image submitted of Tiger was stunning for web viewing so I will post it here. The actual image size is 116 pixels by 116 pixels ( around 1.6 inches by 1.6 inches)

Click on Tiger to see what happens when we enlarged the image to the size needed for our portrait. You can see from the enlarged sample just how important it is to try and learn about your camera so you can shoot at the highest file size and highest quality setting. There is a vast difference between what looks great on a monitor and what looks great in print. After a new image was submitted Tiger did end up looking great in print and we were very happy that we had the opportunity to play with this handsome kitty boy.

Howling Hounds Happy Hour

It is time to party guys! Those of you living in the Dallas area should join us next Thursday 06/22 for a fundraiser happy hour for one of our favorite groups. City Pet Rescue is hosting a happy hour to offset some recent medical bills associated with their rescue work. Art Paw and other local vendors will be donating some groovy door prizes and there will be tasty snacks supplied by the terrific folks at Ozona.
Howlin' Hounds Happy Hour
Thursday, June 22 at Ozona - 5:00 to 8:00
$8.00 donation at the door
All proceeds benefit City Pet Rescue

Not able to attend? You can still help City Pet Rescue out by making an on-line donation, just click here. Any size donation will be much appreciated.

Tiger The Tabby Cat

Last week I finalized and shipped a painterly Birthday portrait for Tiger's human. The only photograph that the person giving this custom surprise gift was able to sneak around and capture was from a camera phone. The original photograph was a tad low in resolution ( ok ... it was tiny) so I had my work cut out for me. Many digital artists are pretty strict about the types of files they are willing to work with. I learned a long time ago that part of good customer service is going the extra mile and doing my very best to work with any file sent to me. I found that this photographic image had a lot going for it once I got passed the small size. I feel that over the years I have become pretty good at quickly zeroing in on a pet's best feature and in this case it was of course Tiger's intense green eyes.
Process:
My approach to smoothing out the horrible jagged pixelation that occurs when enlarging a tiny low res. image is to apply a blur filter to the entire image. I then go in and burn in extra definition and contrast that was lost in the blurring process. Then when I have recreated some deep blacks and strong contrast I start painting in even more detail and color. My current painterly style of working actually came about from having to smudge, blur and paint in order to enhance low resolution digital images. There are other methods and techniques for dealing with what is called interpolation and I will discuss this more later this week.

Dog Day Afternoon

We had a blast yesterday at Operation Kindness' 12 annual Dog Day Afternoon. I took my lap top and wacom tablet and worked on portraits while my assistant Teryn talked to people and passed out flyers. It was really fun to be able to demonstrate to people just how we go about making the artwork. I saw some old pet industry pals and made a few new ones. There were tons of folks at this terrific event and we hope that Operation Kindness was happy with the turn out.

We were amazed with the variety of dogs that attended. I saw my first Mexican hairless pup, and there were Danes, Chihuahuas, bulldogs, Bassetts and more. Even more interesting than the breeds were the terrific random bred pups in attendance. It was a hot yet fun morning.

Pet Quotes

In a political climate where religion and religious debates seem to dominate the headlines every day, I offer one of my favorite quotes:

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." - Abraham Lincoln

Click here for more quotes on animals, life and art.

Worker Bee or Fly?

The found image above is either a bee or a fly. I am not sure which. The pointed abdomen makes me want to bet on it being a bee. I really like the simplicity of this design and the aged quality of the background pattern. In this digital work I combined an unaltered line art image with one of my existing background patterns. I changed the hue on the ornate pattern and enlarged just the section I needed to create a very symmetrical and simple composition.

If you are interested in learning about a wide variety of animals and finding fun web links take a stroll over to our other blog at Cool Animal Pages. My assistant Allison is having a blast this summer researching different critters and finding fun facts along with unusual links to a wide variety of animals. She is doing a fantastic job with an unusual assortment of web related projects this summer.

Creepy Crawlers

I am starting a new series of digital bug paintings. This is a personal project and I am having fun playing with these colorful creepy crawlers. I hope to create a strong group of around 6 - 9 bug art images that I will be offering on-line in our Cafe Press gift shop. I have started today with a fellow I call Bernie the Beetle. You can buy a print of Bernie by clicking here. I'm not sure this will be everyone's cup of tea, but that's ok. I find that the work I do to please myself always helps me grow in my commercial work. I have always loved insects and I especially love dusty old books with hand tinted engravings of insects and flowers. I will be using both old engravings and photographs in these new pieces.

New Portraits

Today I finished a fun and bright portrait of a Great Dane named Olivia and a sweet little pup by the name of Lady.

These two girls were fun to work on. The dog days of summer are upon us and all I want to do is stay inside and work on commissions.

Fala Day Pics

As promised a few pics from Fala day last Saturday. My favorite of course is the first image of Big Tommy with his blue ribbon and acrylic trophy. As you can see in the pic his Da was very proud, and just like the proud parent of a two legged child Dan has the trophy on the mantel at home.

Tilly and Veronica Lake

Today I worked on Tilly. Miss Tilly has a Veronica Lake look going for her with only one eye showing beneath her long flowing locks.

Tilly's original snapshot was pretty good in that we could get a real sense of personality and character. It lacked a tad bit in detail and so I just painted in an abundance of texture and line. Tilly's human also was able to show us a variety of snaps taken inside and so we were able to get a real sense of her modern style and aesthetic sensibilities ( Tilly lounges on very cool furniture).

My next step is to play around with color and come up with some different color background options to show Tilly's human. Her proof should be on-line in just a couple of days.

Fala Day

We had a blast on Sunday at Fala Day. I will be posting some fun pics of this annual Scottie event soon.
Big Tommy won first place for tallest ears, we are very proud. Fala Day is put on by the terrific folks at North Texas Scottish Terrier Rescue. In true rescue spirit they have contests celebrating the quirks and imperfections that make our pets so dear to us. Other contest categories included longest tail, widest girth, shortest ears, longest beard, and of course best costume.

Both our sweet Ajax and Big Tommy are rescue boys from NTSR.

1,609 Served

In early 2001 Art Paw was one of the first on-line pet portrait studios to start offering on-line web proofing to their clients. We started our business in 1998 and for our first three years in business we proofed all of our clients via e-mail only. Just for grins today I did a quick search on my hardrive for html (web) pages with the word "proof" in them and found 1,609 page results. Zowie, dividing that number by 5 (years) I discovered that we are averaging around 321 portraits a year. The actual number could be a tad bit higher as we often return to e-mail proofing during the busy holidays.


One of these days I want to make myself a huge mural using small square thumbnails of all of the animals we have created portraits for. I think that a huge print of that size with that many animals would look lovely above my desk. I can just imagine sitting back with my assistant and trying to name all the different dogs and cats that would be represented in a giant mural like this. The conversation would be "no that is not Bella, that dog over there is Bella ... ok maybe that is Bella the terrier and that is Bella the poodle". I really do remember 98% of the animals names that we have created art for, and the only ones that are a little fuzzy in my brain are the very quick rush jobs.

It might be even better to make the mural out of ceramic tiles. That would be an expensive project, over 1600 ceramic tiles! Now if I can just find the time to create this tapestry of pets.


Web proofing is one of the perks when working with digital artists. We have the ability to show our clients a couple of different versions of their art before we print it. We can even make minor color changes to the work and reproof on request. Click here to view a few of our most recent client proofs. Some traditional portrait artists are even getting in on the proofing game and allowing their clients to see their art as it progresses. Check out Kathy Weller's blog to find a few of her pieces in progress.

Dog Wraps

This week I worked on 2 pups that were sporting lovely wraps. When photographing your dog take advantage of after bath towels, bedding and other groovy "wraps" to add texture and interest to your canine photography. After playing with Keyla and Lola I dug through my photos of Pixel that I shot in Feb. to find one where I had wrapped her up in my knit scarf. I played around this morning with her photo to add her to today's post on dog wraps.

5 down ... 9 to go

Well, I proofed 5 clients this week and I am so close to being caught up I can taste it. I am working on a good looking horse this evening, and I have one very large order that I have to start on soon for a patient local metroplex client.

Today I proofed Moses the tabby. Moses has a terrific in your face sort of glance. Cats are so much fun to work on. When a dog stares too directly at the camera it can sort of freak you out a little and make them look mean or threatening so I usually will rotate their heads in my art to sweeten up their demeanor. Cats on the other hand, well you sort of have to love their attitude and just go with it. This kitty looks sweet yet he is expecting something from the viewer ... a treat, a toy, I dunno?

Mr. Knuckle

Knuckle was a very fun project I worked on last week. The original photo was not bad at all. My only real challenge with the original snapshot was that one ear was not showing at all. I fixed that by duplicating the existing ear then flipped it, then I reduced it's size slightly, and warped it just a tiny bit to make it look different from the other ear. I also lifted and widened the eyes just a tad bit to sweeten Mr. Knuckle's expression a bit. This guy looks like a no-nonsense sort of chap and I really like this piece.

Mercy's Memorial

This morning I joined my assistant Allison and her Father in attending the public memorial service for a very special pup that Dallas residents have probably heard about by now. Mercy was the victim of a horrible animal abuse incident. After being set on fire and abandoned she was found by a good Samaritan and ended up in the hands of Operation Kindness, a terrific no-kill shelter. She received treatment and her caregivers were very hopeful that she might make it, but she passed to the rainbow bridge on Sunday evening April 23.

The turn out was amazing for this special service for Mercy and as I stood and listened to the different speakers there were sobs all around me, and I even saw a few grown men wiping their eyes. As outraged as we may all be by such evil acts we must pause and take some comfort in the knowledge that there are so many more good and decent people in the world than there are bad. It was an amazing thing to be around so many wonderful animal lovers mourning the loss of one ... mourning the loss of one sweet girl that they never even met. I am very grateful to Allison's Dad who asked her to take a break from work and join him for this special service.

Please visit Operation Kindness and read about Mercy's story. Her medical bills were quickly covered by the generous donations of hundreds of caring citizens, however you can still make a memorial donation in her name to help others animals that are in need.