Raining cats & dogs!

We are up to our elbows in dog and cat portraits this month. Yesterday we shipped some poker cats to Hong Kong. This was our first package to that country.
This week we are focused on a Weim, Irish Terrier, Black Lab, Yellow Labs, and I am starting on another painterly style cat duo.

I am very excited about the new cat art below of Sambo. This was a fun project that started with a pretty decent cat photograph. We are starting to get quite a few cat orders in and I met a really nice client over the weekend that is going to have me do all of her kittens and one pup. It is really fun when I get to meet our clients in person.

Adopt Autumn

Autumn is a 2-3 year old, very petite chow mix. This special girl was named Autumn because of her pretty dark red color...the color of autumn leaves. Local Dallas folks should check out this sweet, tiny little girl's bio at City Pet Rescue.

Stolen Smiles

My clients seem to think that I have a magic keyboard with unlimited possibility. The reality is some of the things they request are a little hard to deliver, but I do love a challenge. Tracy's dad wanted her to have an open mouth smile, however he was totally unable to provide me with any photos of her smiling. I can totally relate to this, once that camera comes out even the happiest dog on the planet can freeze up. So I decided to look through my files and borrow or steal a smile from another pup. I teased my client and said that if I could pull this off I would be discussing his project in the blog. So here is what I came up with, and is it Tracy's smile? I dunno, but without a photo of her smile this is the best I can do, and I think it is not too shabby. Tracy is the Wheaten terrier on the left.


So who's smile did I steal? I took Murph the Westie's mouth (below). I rotated, shortened and warped his tongue a bit so that it would look more natural on Tracy. Using my stylus I painted in new hair around her mouth to blend better and got rid of some of the green color that did not match from Murph's image. There was no smile button on my keyboard or smile "filter" in photoshop, so I sort of had to know what I was doing. I could not have done this 8 years ago when I started my business. My crazy clients push me to learn more and expand my skills, and I really get excited when I try something new like this.

Pet Birthday Cards

Art Paw has licensed a couple of Birthday cards to Home Veterinary Care. This is a terrific Mobile Pet Clinic in Northern Kentucky. We are always happy to work with vets, groomers and doggy daycare providers when it comes to licensing images for a small fee or creating custom graphics for their business.

You can send your pet's furry pals some of our Birthday cards on-line in our E-card section. Or you can also check out our printed doggy cards, and cat cards, after all everyone loves to receive mail. Our 5 x 7 full color greeting cards also look great matted and framed in simple 8 x 10 frames.

In the News

We are officially back from vacation and what a week this has been. We expanded our working space with a new building that was constructed on Thursday and Art Paw was also featured on the 6:00 NBC news just last night. I was interviewed here in my home-office and they shot me working on Auggie & Brutus. Allison was included in the story and she was working on Chip when they shot her.
Life is good and we are focused on about a dozen different portrait projects at the moment. I'll be posting about some of these new portraits in the coming week.

Working Vacation

We are on a "working vacation" this week so please forgive me if your e-mails and phone calls are returned a little slower than usual. The plan is to stay at home and work on some of those fun painting and home repair projects that we have been putting off. I will probably keep up with some of my blogging and the new photography hobby. Pixel gets her first haircut tonight so I'm sure there will need to be a puppy post or two.
We will be returning phone calls so anyone with a "pet portrait" emergency should feel free to call us and leave a message.

Pixel Sweet Pixel

Ok so here is yet another work of art featuring my very own Pixel. I am also working on custom portraits this week. I have around 6 painterly style projects in-house at the moment, and I'm trying hard to finalize those this week. This quick sketch of Pixel was created this morning in an effort to loosen up a bit.


I find the work I do for myself is pretty fast and easy. I tend to work hours upon hours, on client projects. This is sometimes due to low resolution digital files they send me and in these cases I spend several hours just optimizing the photo before I can even start to play with color. The main thing that takes time is just trying a variety of different layouts until I get things just right. I am reminded of a great quote by Michelangelo : "If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all." - Michelangelo
I'm no Michelangelo, but when we think of digital art, I think his quote is a very good one.

The Dogster Blog

Special thanks to Joy at Dogster for featuring our new puzzles in her blog yesterday. If you have not stumbled across her blog yet be sure and check it out. Joy combines interesting dog news stories with fun and entertaining links to create a blog that has the quality of a first rate magazine.

Ron Howard's Aunt

More about the dog Museum:
So the gossip we heard regarding the amazing collection at the doggy museum is that the bulk of this woman's collection was donated to her by Ron Howard's Aunt. We admit that we have not done any extensive fact checking and instead we just choose to believe that Ron's Aunt may have been an eccentric dog lover that collected hundreds of different doggy collectibles. The wonderful thing about the collection is the amount of breeds covered. We saw oodles of poodles, fabulous frenchies, billions of bulldogs, dozens of doxies, well you get the idea.

Dog Museum

On the way back from Austin last week we stopped into the best antique mall on the planet. I had been there once before a few years ago. It is one of those large metal buildings with different booths set up inside. The coolest area of the mall is at the very back where the owner has set up her own private collection of doggy antiques and created a huge museum style display. I shot enough pics for a week's worth of posts so if you like antique dog-stuff check back in on the blog next week.

Below is an odd contraption that made me think of Hannibal Lector. It was quite scary looking until I realized it was some sort of mold. Everything was shot through glass display cases so please forgive the glare.



The one piece I wish was for sale is the Scottie Dog heater shown below. I don't think you will be seeing this on ebay!


In my next post I'll tell you the gossip on how this gal came into the bulk of her collection, it involves a movie star's aunt. Ha, what a cliff hanger.

Fetch

I finally got to meet Cynthia at Fetch in Austin. Her shop is way too cool. If you get to Austin you have to check out this cool doggy boutique ...Your dog will dig it! Unlike a lot of small boutique owners this gal has her priorities in line and you will not find tons of nick knacks for humans ....nope this place is all about the dogs. Fetch has cool toys, beds, collars, clothes and more .... all for the canines. We are proud to have our art in this very hip Austin shop.



Visit the Fetch Site

Cafe Press Meet and Greet

I actually got away from my monitor for 2 days and went down to Austin for the Cafe Press Meet and Greet this past Sunday. I took my best girlfriend and we had a good time in our all time favorite Texas town. Cafe Press is the company that prints all of our groovy gift shop items. We have been doing business with them for a few years so it was really fun meeting a few of these folks in real life. The founder Maheesh Jain was there and he was just as nice as can be. I also stopped in on another long time business contact that I had never met, my retailer Cynthia at Fetch. I'll be posting pics from her cool doggy boutique later this week.

City Pet Rescue: Angel !

Meet Angel. This stunning pup is up for adoption. Dallas residents looking to adopt should check out all of the pups up for adoption at City Pet Rescue. Here is part of Angel's Bio:
"Angel is just that... a big, beautiful angel of a dog, who came to City Pet Rescue after being dumped out in the country. She charms everyone she meets with those big blue eyes and her sweet disposition. She is friendly and playful and loves people. She plays hard and sleeps hard just as any puppy should. "
Link

New Dog Puzzle Games

We have added some fun new puzzle games to the site, and will be adding more as time permits. For now we have created puzzles for Pugs , Boston Terriers and Labs . If you have a fast connection and time to play check them out.

Boston Terrier Art

Paris' human has decided on the yellow background proof and it looks really bright and fun printed up. I am sampling her with her second Boston portrait of her happy boy Julius. I think the yellow and red grounds will really pop together. These two pet portraits were a total blast to work on.

Dog Shelter Clip

A friend of mine is a devoted rescue worker and she sent me a link today to a very sad and sobering movie clip about one of hundreds of shelters in our country. The clip is not for everyone as it contains graphic images so watch at your own risk. It is very well done, and it will hopefully help make more people aware.

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/slideshows/animals/index.html

The Color Green

Lately I have been craving the color green. Maybe it is because it is spring in Texas and our brown lawns are starting to show a hint of the hue beneath the dead straw of winter. When you are a child or maybe a young adult on a first date you often hear the question "what is your favorite color"? My favorite colors change all the time. Right now I can't get enough of green. It is showing up in dirty muddy shades in my current work. I know that some of my clients are living with acidic yellowish greens and all of the funky, dirty green shades I adore, but too often I think my greens are not pure enough for most people. My old assitant Matt called my favorite version of green "swampy". Oh well, as long as I keep offering folks a variety of proof samples I'll keep tossing in my favorite avocado shade from time to time. Shown below are Fannie and Paris. Fannie's humans chose an orange background on their art ( it was quite nice, but not green). Paris' human has not yet decided, and I'm crossing my fingers for the green version, although the blue coated Boston may be more flattering ... I dunno. Often it just depends on the color of their couch and, as a commercial artist I really do repsect that.

Pixel, yes again

Ok, another post about the puppy. What can I say, I am in love with this Scottie. This is the sweetest little girl. I played around tonight with a photo we took a few days ago. I like the yellow, red, blue and green. I started thinking about these colors on a walk the other day, I wanted to try and use basic childhood crayon colors. This did not turn out exactly how I imagined, but I like it a lot. Be sure and click the art to see the detail image.

Pixel

Well, we did it! We adopted a new Scottie puppy. Her name is Pixel and she is just as sweet as can be. Her full name is "Pixel Chiffon Pie". Dan came up with the absurd longer name and it makes us both laugh. She has been with us less than 48 hours and we are head over heels in love with her.

New Scottie Puppy

We may be getting a new Scottish Terrier puppy today. I plan to get totally caught up with portrait orders over the weekend so I can spend a few weeks focused on this new addition to the family. This is the perfect time of year to adopt, and one more Scottie will bring us up to 3 again. This seems to be the right amount of pups for us. I can not imagine more.

New Dog Photo Blog

I'm starting a new blog with my husband Dan. It is a dog photo blog , and we are sort of creating it as a hobby type of thing to encourage us to get out of the house with the camera. There are currently a few Scotties on it, however later this week I plan to start posting a few unknown dogs we have crossed paths with on our lake walks. It is great having a shared blog and project. I need to work on customizing the look of it, although the stark white & black layout is sort of clean. I love working with my client photos and yet it is really fun to be behind the lens myself and playing with images that will not become portraits, or product.

Check out this Pet Artist

I am always surfing the web to see what is going on out there in the world of pet portraits. You have to check out the work of Kathy Weller. When I first ran across her stuff I thought she was not really my cup of tea as her work is so very sweet. However the more I stumble across her portraits on the web the more I am charmed and amazed by them. They draw you in, and speak to an innocence in all of us. Her drawing and painting style is original, fresh and again, the only word for it is "charming". In reading her bio I also like the fact that she too has experience in publishing her own line of greeting cards. It takes a lot of grit to succeed in that industry so while her work may appear soft, sweet and whimsical, I have a feeling this talented woman probably has a backbone of steel and determination. Check out her Cafe Press Store for a sampling of her terrific portraits.


© 2006 Kathy Weller

Old Dogs

I adore older dogs. I met an old half blind stray this week. She was a very lovely old gal. A pal of mine dropped by needing to have a photo taken and a "found" sign created for a stray she rescued in her neighborhood. She called me the same evening with a very happy ending. She reunited the old girl with her humans. It took the better part of her day, and yet she was able to save this sweet girl from a miserable day at the pound and an uncertain fate. We learned that her name was" Washi" and her human was overjoyed to find her. Now if he will just go put a collar& tags on this old gal.

Portrait Process

Yesterday I posted a tiny little snippet on the site about my Pet Portrait Process. My adventures into pushing pixels around has evolved quite a bit over the years, and I now find myself less and less dependent on photoshop filters and more dependent on my Wacom tablet, and traditional drawing skills. I am starting to think more about how I do what I do and just what sets my work apart from the pack of growing digital animal artists. There is a lot of really terrific digital stuff out there and there is also a lot of crap.

A lot of people still don't really have their minds around just what digital fine art is. Too often, clients understand that our art is created on the computer however they do not understand the amount of time involved or that it is not done with one or two magic buttons on the keyboard. One of my goals in 06 is to better communicate just what digital art is, and that just like traditional art it can be regarded as "fine art", subject to the same criticisms and high praise. The spark that makes an oil painting dynamic is often the same sort of energy or spark that makes a digital piece of art fantastic. Just like traditional artists we rely on our ability to combine colors in a unique way and the basics of good composition. Just like traditional commercial artists we can also get caught up in the demands of providing a "service" or we can push ourselves further, trying new things, and experimenting during the slower seasons. Check out my short page on process

The Dallas Zoo

Dan & I went to the Dallas Zoo on Sunday and had a terrific time playing with our new camera. It seems to be spring here in Texas and the weather was perfect for this fun outing. We took the train down to the zoo and snapped up a bunch of pics before the battery died in the camera.


I have never been a huge zoo fan, as I always feel so sorry for the animals that seem cramped in small cages. I would have to say this was the best visit to a zoo I have had in a long time. Over 80% of the zoo animals did not seem cramped or stressed in their habitats. There were indeed many new "habitats" at the Dallas zoo. The chimps and tigers had a pretty fun place to hang, as did many of the smaller mammals such as the meerkats,and gibbons. Still cramped were the elephants, cheetahs, rhinos, and giraffes. We can only hope that plans are in the works for these guys to get a much better crib. Dan says he only feels sorry for the animals that are accustomed to large ranges to graze on and the predators such as the cats. Many of the smaller and more docile critters are probably cool with being in a place where they will not get eaten. After all,in the wild your whole goal is to find a place where the food is plentiful and your enemies are few.

Also new at the zoo were lots of bronze sculptures, and groovy art-signage like the lighted murals below.



Maybe next month we will try to visit Fort Worth to see what is new at their Zoo. I am posting a very quick filter driven sketch of a chimp we shot while playing around. The Chimps were very cool and laid back. They were grooming each other, napping and having a very lazy Sunday.

Oh Those Puppy Eyes

As a portrait artist my favorite aspect of my subjects is of course the eyes. Working from ordinary snapshots I often face challenges with glow eyes, and even non glow eyes that just don't quite show off how adorable a pup might be. A recent project that we will be finalizing this weekend is one such example. In the case of Miss Ella the original snapshot was very nice, and the eyes showed up very well, no glow eye issues at all. This Boston Terrier pup however had a very slight sleepy expression. I thought the true nature of this sweet girl was probably one of unending curiosity ( she is a terrier after all ), and so to achieve a little of that attitude I lifted or widened her eyes just a tad. See before & after below:





By lifting those eyelids up just a little bit I was able to give her a questioning glance that I think really makes this portrait special. In the final version Ella ended up with violet highlights on a fun painterly background of oranges and reds. This piece is a 34 x 34 inch canvas print and looks pretty cool with a larger than life Ella.

Year of the dog

Wow, 06 and it is year of the dog. Time to get back to blogging. The holiday season was amazing. Not only did we do over 100 portraits this last Christmas I also got to meet quite a few clients, even a few from out of town. I did not sleep much in December, and my own pups had a few less romps at the lake, although they did get their 2 walk-a-day routine every single day. All in all we had a lovely holiday.

I have tons of creative ideas for the new year and so little time to attack them all. I am planning to blog more, and to start discussing process more since my tech savy clients seem very interested in how we do what we do. I just spent some time updating our Mascott area to finally introduce our new Scottie dogs. After loosing two pups in 05 it was tough to even think about writing in the Mascot section. Fortunately, I was able to pass the buck, and Dan actually updated all the doggy bios for me. Check out our new kids: Mascotties

Nouveau-Vintage Chihuahua

Well it has been quiet awhile since my last post. We did take a short trip in June, but that is really no excuse. I have been pretty busy playing with new ideas this summer. Later this month we will have an on-line gallery show at Art Paw of my "Nouveau-Vintage" style, It is a new background technique I have adopted that is going to be very popular this Christmas. Here is one example of a sweet Chihuahua named Norman in this decorative new look.