Dateline Kennel

Another day, another portrait. Busy working on art this week so watch the homepage for updates. No time for blogging. Here is a quick link to a fun site:
http://www.lileks.com/institute/dogs/future.html

Portraits and more Portraits

Lot's of new orders came in last week, and we have quite a few things ready to be stretched and shipped out. Anyone with any questions about their order status should give us a call toll free: 888-225-4278. In an effort to maintain better communication with all custom clients we will start sending out weekly project reports on Fridays.

We are setting up a new production schedule and we will be printing twice a week, and stretching only on Fridays. I am trying to find my groove so to speak so things will run smoothly when it really gets crazy here in the fall.

I just printed Bosco today and he looks great!

Puggie Night Lights

If you are a Chinese pug owner there is no need to bark in the dark any longer. We just created a fun new page of Pug night lights that will light up your life. There are 8 fun styles and they are created in-house.

I know, I know, the rest of you guys are wondering how you can get a little light for your Laso, some glow for your Grey hound or a bright bulb for your Bichon. With well over 200 dog breeds to try and cover it may take us awhile to get to your breed. Order a custom portrait before August of 06 and I'll toss in a free night light with your own artwork if you use promo code #0706lite.

Art Tutorials

You know the web is so abundant with art tutorials these days. Many of these learning exercises have quick time movies, flash demos and audio. Until I can find the time to sit down and start writing my own tutorials I think I will start sharing my web-finds here on Saturdays. So if you are an artist yourself, please visit us again next Saturday and feel free to comment and leave us any cool links to your favorite on-line learning tutorials.

Here are a few recent finds:
Drawspace.com ( have to sign up for free account)

Pop Art Tutorials:
Melissaclifton.com

Warhol Tutorial

Warhol Tutorial #2

And click here for some fun flash on basic art principles.

Hot Dog Days

We gave the Scotts a haircut this week, and they seemed really happy about it. Yesterday it reached 102 here in Dallas, and we are supposed to see the same today. I love opening up the Art Paw home page this month during our Christmas in July sale and seeing that blue snowflake graphic. It cools me off and reminds me that fall will be here before we know it.

Scottie fans should check out 3-dog howl's Scottie Days of Summer artwork below, it will cool you off!

You might also wade into Cafe Press to take a peek at my friend Sheila's lovely photography that is available on notecards ...summer is a great time to send some cards & letters.

Cool Shades

I just finished working on a great little guy named Bosco. This fellow could be our poster-boy for the coolest of summer dogs. He is sporting a Hawaiian shirt and sun glasses. Click here to see his proof. I am very happy with Mr. Bosco.

Over the years a few clients have sent us photos of their pups in shades. As a digital artist my fun challenge with these pics is often finding some hint of eyeballs beneath the plastic lenses and then burning (darkening) the pupils so that the dog's sparkle and character comes through. Spectacled pups always make me smile.

More Cool Shaded Dogs:

The "Staff" is growing!

Lots of fun stuff happening around here these days. To begin with we have some new faces this summer. We just hired a very talented photographer named Diane, and her bio and photos will be added to the site soon. One of my best friends has agreed to take over shipping and canvas stretching and she also gave my production room a face lift (see pics in last post). Her name is also Rebecca and she is a very talented artist and jewelry designer. We have been getting to see a lot more of young Teryn, a talented teenager that works with us on Saturdays. The summer has been busy and I am trying to staff up for the crazy Christmas rush that will start in just a few short months. Allison is taking over more and more web related duties and I think she just may be my right arm this holiday season.

And Then They Leave:
We had to say goodbye to Matt earlier this year. He decided to move back home to New Mexico. I gave him a glowing referral however and he landed a great design job with some sort of herbal products company. Art Paw is really just a tiny little studio and home based business so when we loose people it is like loosing family. I am always happy though when "my talented kids" ( ha, everyone under 44 is a kid) move on to pursue their own dreams. My little purple haired Lola has stopped returning home during her college breaks and we miss her too. I have come to realize that Art Paw will always have a constant flow of canines and young artists.

Art Paw Studio News

Last week Dan was off work and he started to get his new painting studio set up. He also gave me windows in my doors on my production building. We have two of those wooden storage type sheds that you can purchase from Home Depot. Both are wired with electricity and air conditioning. They are air tight and they are perfect artist studios. When I first started my business 8 years ago I would run out and pay retail on card board boxes every time I needed to ship a portrait. During my 3rd year in business when the orders were increasing and steady it became obvious that I had to start buying boxes wholesale. It was at that time that I knew a had to have more space and quick. The storage shed was the perfect solution for shipping. We have since extended it's functions to include canvas stretching. This summer my best friend has organized my space for me with new shelving, wire baskets, and a place for every tool.
I painted the trim green and added a few flower pots to dress it up. Some time this month I plan to design my own vinyl window shades for the new door windows. What was originally an ugly brown box in the backyard is turning out to be a very efficient and good looking work space.
Dan Working on my door windows

Interior Shots

New Chihuahua Art

I am currently working on a cute little Chihuahua named Tabasco. This tiny pup is from Sweden and I am finalizing his artwork today with a few tweaks and minor adjustments. Later this week I have a few more painterly works to start on. If you are checking the site for your proof ... stay tuned. I hope to be caught up with all orders by the end of this week, ( crossing fingers ).

Chihuahuas are such cool little dogs. When I was in high school I dated this boy that had a pet Chihuahua that belonged to his Mom. The little guy was sort of nippy and snappy (the dog not the boy). I had never known any other Chihuahuas so I got a bad impression of the breed as a young girl. Later on in the late-eighties while I was managing a doggy biscuit bakery I was fortunate to meet some really cool and very well adjusted Chihuahuas, a few that I totally fell in love with. I learned that they are really very big dogs in tiny packages. I also learned at that time that you can not judge a breed by one dog's behavior. Yea, Chihuahaus are very cool, and probably often misunderstood.

I'm sure Tabasco is probably an angel when he needs to be and a feisty chili pepper when the occasion calls for it. I'm really liking this new piece, and it was fun incorporating the human "paw" in this work. As the owner pointed out the hand does give a real sense of scale for this little pup.

Art Blogs

I enjoy reading other artist blogs much more than writing in my own, and it seems that more and more artists are blogging these days. I just found out that one of my all time favorites has started a blog. For some non-doggy rambles check out Jeff Soto. His blog is brand new, but he is an established artist with a huge following. We have a few of his silkscreens on our walls at home. Another fantastic general art blog that is on the subject of drawing is called Drawn.

For animal related art stuff check out these fun pet art blogs:
Terry Pond ( The wiener dog artist)
Leanne Wildermuth
Big Cat Heads
Carrie Hawks
Kathy Weller
Michelle's blog

It is a lot of fun to peek into the lives of other artists and see what they are working on. Some artist blogs can be very personal and some can be sort of general, but I find them all interesting. Ok,so now that I have avoided any real writing myself today, it is back to work for me.

Boston Terriers

This month I am focusing on Boston Terriers and we have updated that section of our site to offer some new limited edition Boston Terrier prints, boston nightlights and more. I am scouting around the web to find other cool artists to include in our Boston Terrier links page that is still under construction. Today I bumped into a really cool young artist from New York that has some amazing fresh work. Her name is Alexis Trice ... check her out. Her work is very quirky and very hip.

Happy 4rth of July!

Happy 4rth of July. The Scottie above is our boy Atticus. That art image is from a few years ago and it always makes me smile. The hat was photo-shopped in however if we had an uncle Sam hat like that Atticus would have been happy to wear it ...he loved clothes.

I just did a quick search at CafePress for more Patriotic Dogs and found some Scotties by one of my favorite artists (Maggie Ross)...check out the cool gifts with the Scotts below on them.



She also has a great Airedale:

Cafe Press returned over 46,000 results for "Patriotic Dog". Zowie, that is a lot of red white and blue canines.

Have a fun and safe fourth of July. Don't forget to bring inside any skiddish dogs and young puppies that may be frightened by the noise of local fireworks displays.

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.