Mosaic Monday / Italy

Earlier this month we went to Rome and Florence. I have some pics to share next week of ancient mosaics that we discovered but today I want to share the many modern mosaics that I saw on my trip, starting with a floor in my own neck of the woods that I have been hearing about. The DFW airport has lovely mosaics in some of their terminals, however to see them you have to be checked in, past security and on your way somewhere. What a great way to start my trip ....

DFW Airport Mosaic Floor detail
"Celebration" - Beatrice Lebreton

DFW Airport Mosaic ( my hubby looking fresh)

Now on to the Subways of Rome ....

Mosaic Rome Subway
Vroom vroom baby

Rome subway Mosaic
Look at the stunning random yellow dots to the right on this detail

It was dark in the tunnels so image quality is not as high as I would have liked. Dan has a couple more on  his camera cards I will try to get and share with yall later this month. If I ever get back to Rome, I plan to spend a day riding the subway, just popping on and off to see what all I missed. To see a few more that I missed, check out the blog: http://mosaicphotos.blogspot.com/2005/08/rome-metro-subway-mosaics.html

Pet Portrait Updates

"Lulu & Harry"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Parker & Pepper"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Working on design updates today. The pups at top are for a terrific repeat client in the UK that always gives me great photos to work with. The canine-feline duo are for a client that is doing multiple projects this month. I am starting on her Westies next. Both clients are purchasing portraits as gifts for their pals. Yay!

Going to try hard to get back to more frequent blog posting. I am teaching one night a week at our local creative arts center here in Dallas and also taking a ceramics art class one night a week.  I find a direct correlation between how much I blog and how active I am in the physical world. It seems that the more I get out of the house and meet with other artists in my city the less time I have to spend on line. I am always trying to find the right balance when it comes to my web-life and my real life. I know that my blog gives my business a pulse and reassures potential clients that yes, there is a real person going to work each day here at Art Paw.

Art Paw Birthday Sale!

We are turning 14 this month. Wow, I can not believe I have been creating pet portraits for 14 years. To celebrate I am having a sale on 14 x 14 stretched Painterly style portraits. If you order on-line and check out with our shopping cart you can save 14% ( $49) on our new square 14 x14 sized portraits.  You just have to use promo code " Birthday" then hit recalculate to see your savings.
The sale is good until the end of the month.  Order Now!  
This will probably be our last sale of the season on pet portraits, so don't miss out. Now is the time to be ordering for Christmas.

"Big Tommy"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Lovely German Shepherds

"Frankie & Phoebe" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Sometimes clients need just a little help choosing from the many proofs I provide ( anywhere from 10 to 16).  The good news is that once they narrow their favorites down I can easily create a mock up for them of the artwork on their walls, if they can e-mail me a quick snapshot. I am usually not a fan of cell phone images for the pet photographs that I work from, but cell phones are a great tool for showing me interior shots of where the artwork will hang.  I also kind of enjoy seeing inside the lives of my 4 legged subjects... notice dog toys at bottom left of fireplace ... so cute.

This project is a large 36 x 24 for a terrific repeat client. I can not wait to see these stunning pups printed up, great original photos on this one.

Mosaic Monday/ Skull Art

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

Last Friday I started a Day of the Dead project using appropriated text from my Grandfather's poetry. I never knew my biological Grand Father because he died when my Mom was just a kid. I think he must have been a bit of a character. The little I do know of him is this:
He had the only auto in town when he met my Grandmother.
He was 60 years old when he married my Grandmother and she was only 20.
He had 6 wives total in his life and I am not sure how many kids.
When he was just a boy he fought in the Spanish American war.
He was a printer by trade and a poet.

The last factoid was interesting to me since my husband is a poet and a printer as well.

The entire skull will be covered in glass and then grouted. The text will show through the glass.
I have about 6 more hours to go on this one ... I think.

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

"Write This Upon a Page"
© rebecca collins

Kina & Vesty

"Kina & Vesty"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Goodbye to sweet Kina & Vesty. I am so very sorry to hear that these sweet pups have gone on to the bridge.

New Pet Portrait Video

Lola knocked out another video today of  Art Paw's recent pet portrait commissions from July. I really enjoy it when we can get these quick monthly portfolios on-line and I hope if you see your pet here that you will share the link with your pals.  I am sure as we get busier towards the fall with more commissions we will have to put video making on the back burner.

Sketch My Pet Contest

I am in the mood to draw and experiment this month and I am having a contest over at Facebook. I will be doing Wacom Sketches of 20 pets. I have decided that 10 of the winners will be based on vote count and 10 winners will be just based on photo quality and my own personal whims. 

Click here to Enter Your Pet Snapshots!

Prize:
 I will be mailing out 8 x 10 prints and goody bags to all winners at the close of the contest.

Rules: 
• You must be a fan over on facebook to enter.
• You may vote every day and encourage your pals to vote.
• The photo you submit must be of your pet and taken by you or other non professional ( in other words no copyright protected professional photographs.)
• You understand that Art Paw holds the copyright on all artwork created from your photos.
• Your artwork may be used in marketing materials or printed book portfolios.
• Contest ends September 1st.


What is a Wacom Sketch?

A wacom sketch is a quick drawing that I create using my wacom drawing tablet and photoshop. These works are different from my standard portraits in that they are much faster, looser and there is more emphasis on line work.  You can see samples below, or check out my facebook page for some examples of winners from last week. It is not too late to enter, I am picking new winners almost every day of the week.

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Mosaic Monday / New Robot Mosaic Started

© rebecca collins / work in progress

This is the start of a new mosaic. I am still painting on the board right now. It will be my very first mixed media mosaic that will combine some of my ceramic elements. I think of it as a "spare part robot totem". A totem seems like a natural transition from some of the Mounted Bot Trophies that I have been painting and working with earlier in the year.  Totem poles and taxidermy make me think about reverence and sometimes the irreverence that man has shown for nature and wildlife over the centuries. Treating technology and robot related stuff with the same exalted status that we reserve for animals is a little silly and quirky. I could get philosophical and talk about "the machine versus nature", and tons of other smarty pants art talk, but the reality is it just makes me giggle and that is why I am doing it. Maybe there is a lot of deeper stuff going on that I am not even aware of, but it makes me smile and that is reason enough to do it.

About This Art Project:
The background artwork will be covered in translucent glass. The center strip of black has a white circuit board pattern and it will be raised up on a thin board that will be bolted to the main board, the bolts will of course show. The background portion of the board will get grouted however the main totem part will not be grouted and it will have lots of chunky tessera to go with the chunky ceramic parts. I have a rusted spark plug and rusted piece of metal that I found on one of my dog walks and I will be using lots of that sort of stuff on the top totem portion. I think the found metal objects will mesh perfectly with my ceramic bits.

The Mosaic Challenge:
My mixed media mosaic work has always been layered, however the layering has been underneath the surface with the top of the mosaic work being relatively smooth due to the nature of my stained glass material. My goal with this project is to start getting chunkier and allow my layers to start coming forward by creating a very rich surface texture with chunky tile and mixed media elements.

My other big challenge is a constant design issue that I face and that is the problem I always create for myself by having so much going on. I am not into big bold simple compositions, I tend to throw everything possible that I can find into a piece including the kitchen sink. The result can be that sometimes my main subject gets lost a bit. For example the totem portion of this piece might stand out and be more powerful if I were to just do more of a solid bold color on the background board where you see all of the painted work, but of course I like it busy.... and so I will work hard to make it work. Wish me luck!

Golden Doodles Shipping Today

Roxy & Westley ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Roxy & Westley ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

It is a rainy cloudy day here in Dallas, (yay). Lola is here and she is stretching several projects today that will ship out very soon. Once I get her projects printed up I will organize the month ahead. We are getting very busy here at Art Paw.  Today we ship: Roxy & Westley, Chewy, Nico, Lara, Buster & Mishka.

Mosaic Monday / Mosaics Dallas

Looking forward to a trip to the Dallas Museum soon to check out the show " The Legacy of The Plumed Serpent in Ancient Mexico". It runs through November 25th and is the first large-scale exploration of the ancient kingdoms of southern Mexico and their patron deity, Quetzalcoatl, an incarnation of the spirit force of wind and rain that combined the attributes of a serpent with those of the quetzal bird, thus the name “Plumed Serpent.” The mosaic disc below looks like a must see.

Turquoise-mosaic Disk, Mexico, Yucatan, Chichen Itza, Maya, AD 900–1200. Wood and turquoise. Diameter: 9 5/8 in. (24.4 cm). Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City (10-9649). Photo Credit:  Museum Associates/LACMA, by Jorge Pérez de Lara

 Mosaic Learning Opportunities in Dallas:

In other news, I will be teaching a mosaic class at the Creative Arts Center that starts on August 23rd. There is still time to register on-line.  I have already heard from one student that is planning on doing a mosaic pet portrait, and I really look forward to helping her with that. Class is Thursday evenings 6:30 - 9:30.

My friend Katrina Doran is teaching a glass on glass Mosaic workshop this fall at the Dallas  Arboretum that is based on finding inspiration from the glass works of Dale Chihuly. You can learn more and find contact info at the Aboretum website or by calling them at 214-515-6500.

© 2012 Katrina Doran
9 x 12 inch glass-on-glass mosaic designed by Katrina Doran
for her upcoming workshop at the Dallas Arboretum. October 27, 2012 9am - 3pm.

Hearing From Pet Portrait Clients

I always enjoy hearing from my pet portrait clients. A local client picked up his project last week and he sent me this very kind e-mail note:
"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you again.  Your unique product combined with this rare Tibetan Mastiff, makes this gift a one-of-a-kind original.  We kept asking ourselves what we could get for someone who has the ability to buy anything for himself that he wants, and we found it with this art.  Thank you so much! We will be giving it to him tomorrow and have no doubt that it will be very special to him."

Today I spoke with a terrific repeat client that is doing her 4rth project with us. She always orders 24 x 24 because she says the thought of going down in size makes her feel guilty, as though maybe the pet with the smaller print is going to know somehow or appear to be less loved. I can understand that thinking. Those of us with multiple pet households must always strive to be fair after all.


Below is a shot sent in from a client for me to use as reference on his next portrait that I just started working on this week. I think this client is on project #5.  This is a great shot that shows how terrific a grouping can look.

Lucas & Daisy

Lucas and Daisy
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

This week I have spent a bit of time on these two adorable Schnauzers in Mona's lap. Most of our Master Paw print projects are pretty straight forward and fast. Lucas and Daisy's Mom is a graphic designer herself and so this project continues to involve a lot of fine tuning and tweaking.  Artists and designers can be tough to work for because they often see so many things that others miss. The good news is that this project just keeps getting better and better. I was delighted to have some terrific original photos to work from. One more round of proofing and we should be ready to get these pups printed up and in the mail.

New Pet Portrait Video

Lola helped me knock out another monthly video today that is showcasing last month's commissions. She did 90% of the video editing work, I just found the perky whistling music and helped with questions.


Recently I have been trying hard to focus on celebrating my clients in a variety of ways. I recently ordered printed Thank You cards and I will start sending those out once a month for all recent orders. I should have done this a hundred years ago, better late than never.

We are also updating our Facebook timeline artwork on a regular basis to include our most recent client projects. We have a little over 4000 fans over at Facebook right now. If you are not a fan yet you should sign up because we will be posting a photo contest in September to celebrate Art Paw's 14th birthday.  We also post occasional sales on Facebook that we do not advertise anywhere else. We are trying to have a little fun over there and keep it real. One of my most popular status updates was a shot of me kissing Ajax on the mouth and I asked folks if they kiss their pet on the mouth ... the overwhelming majority of the responders say they do. Thanks to all of you guys that are following us!

Like Us on Facebook!

Tibetan Mastiff Art

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

Today I got to play with a Tibetan Mastiff that lives in China. We are working on a large 34  x 34 project for a local client that is ordering a gift portrait. This has been a fun project because I thought I knew all the breeds there were and in the last 14 years I have been lucky to have created artwork of most of the breeds that are out there. This huge lion threw me for a loop, I have never seen one of these noble beasts before!

So of course I had to do some study, and I learned the following:
• This is an ancient breed.
• In the early 19th century, King George IV owned a pair of Tibetan Mastiffs, and enough of the breed were available in England in 1906 to be shown at the 1906 Crystal Palace show.
• In March 2011, a red Tibetan mastiff was reported to have been sold to a 'coal baron' from northern China for 10 million yuan.

• A Tibetan Mastiff named Max is seen in the 1993 horror film, Man's Best Friend.
• Unlike most large breeds, its life expectancy is long, some 10–14 years - at least in some lines.
• The name Tibetan mastiff is a misnomer; it is not a true mastiff. The term "mastiff" was used primarily because it meant "large dog". Early Western visitors to Tibet misnamed several of its breeds: The "Tibetan Terrier" is not a terrier and the "Tibetan Spaniel" is not a spaniel.


^• A Tibetan Mastiff is the subject of the 2011 animated film The Tibetan Dog. See trailer below.

Mosaic Monday / Studio Newsletter

I started a Mosaic Newsletter this last month and sent it out to a few of my local mosaic pals. It was mostly just a very brief recap of the last mosaic ATC card trade however I also included some personal news about one of my own projects and an upcoming mosaic class I will be teaching in late August at the Creative Arts Center here in Dallas. I plan to try and write around 4 Mosaic newsletter updates a year and will be including news of local art related events and happenings. You can read this first archived letter on-line.
Feel free to subscribe if you want to stay up to date on my classes, local ATC card trades, and other assorted mosaic related news.

Newsletter writing can be so difficult at times. You don't want to bore people and yet you want to stay connected and offer information that you think  might be of interest. It also seems like you are throwing one more "shout" into an already over connected and over saturated on-line world. This morning I got a very nice e-mail from a friend that said she enjoyed reading the letter and that while her husband stays connected on-line via facebook, she enjoys receiving info by e-mail.  I guess each to their own. I will try the mosaic newsletter writing for a year and may try to get back to it for my doggy and kitty fans as well here at Art Paw.  So maybe 8 letters total to 2 different art worlds ... hmmm, yea I guess I can take that on. 

Paint My Dog!

"Digital Painting in Progress"
Killer and Barney

 I am having fun today working on Killer & Barney. The original photo I am painting from had a few scratches that I had to clean up using the clone tool. I think the project is coming along nicely and I am having a lot of fun with it. I should have proofs ready by next week.  We are starting to get moderately busy again. I met with a repeat client this morning that was dropping over some vintage photos for me to scan.  Many clients seem to have limited photographs to choose from these days, except for one lady that is doing a great job of shooting for a Master Paw Print of her Schnauzers.
 

 "Paint My Dog"

... O.K. yea I know a very weird post title for me. Sounds like the name of an i-Pad Ap or a quickie digital arts company. Art Paw is not either of those. Here is the back story on that phrase:

 Yesterday I spoke with a really nice sales guy from an SEO company that called and wanted me to purchase his services for search engine optimization. I actually have done  a lot of work on my website http://artpaw.com to have good title tags and I feel like I rank well for a few important search phrases. He pointed out that I am not yet ranking well for the phrase "paint my dog". We talked for a very long time and I really enjoyed learning from him what his company offers.  In speaking with him I realized that it is impossible to know the many different phrases and terms that someone might use to try and find an artist to paint their dog. I learned a lot about how these SEO companies, or rather how his company goes about helping their clients. They go out and try and get back links for you from other websites.  He used a lot of on the spot tools to measure my site and actually said I was doing very well in many areas. I was impressed with his sales skills and yet, I am not ready at this point to hire someone else to do that sort of work for me. It is not that I don't think he would do a great job, I am just not sure that this is where my very limited marketing budget should be spent.

A Tip For Other Pet Portrait Artists:
If you get a lot of cold-calls from sales people wanting to do Search Engine Optimization for you, be sure and ask them their company name and then, while they are on the phone with you, use google to see how well they do for the phrase "seo services ". If they are not found within the first 2 pages of results politely ask them what phrases they are targeting for their own business, then check and see how well they do for their own domain, and their chosen keywords. I was actually impressed with my sales guy yesterday, while he did not rank for the terms I would use to find him, he did rank for the terms he was going after. He was also not defensive or flustered at all by my question, and I admired that and we had a very nice long talk.  I do not always have a lot of time to spend on the phone with cold-call sales people, but I was focused on marketing yesterday so his call came at a good time and I learned a lot from him.

Scottie Sketches

Sunday I got out my drawing supplies and did a few sketches of the Scotties.

Ajax With Bunny ears
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Pickle & Ajax share a stick
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Christmas In July Portrait Sale

Click here to save 50%
on your custom pet portrait this month!

I am having a sale this month! It is time for us to start thinking about the holidays, and to start gearing up. We have been ordering extra supplies and I am working behind the scenes on the website to try and offer more tips and help for my clients on how to send images at the proper file size. The hardest part of my job is dealing with low resolution poor quality photographs. Some people have no probelm taking the extra steps to send in quality snapshots at the right file size and yet 90% of my clients have a really hard time understanding the difference between print quality images and web quality images. 

If you can send me a 1MB photo you can save 50% on any size or style portrait that we offer. That means you can get a custom portrait for as little as $67.50 if you order our smallest size on rolled canvas. Prices are outlined here: http://artpaw.com/portraitprices.html

I will be posting tips on the blog all month on taking good photos and how to send them in at the proper file size.

Portrait Price Changes This Month

Every year I say I am going to raise my portrait prices and every year I put it off because of the time involved in updating print order forms, and several html web pages. Well today was the day ... I gave myself a raise. More a cost of living increase than anything else. Supply prices keep going up and my prices have not kept pace.  If you want to get in on 2011 prices on Gift Certificates, you have until next Tuesday to order on that page at older posted prices, just place your order then e-mail me a photo when you have time. To order Gift Certs Now and Save Go to this page: http://artpaw.com/giftc.html

Changes On the Painterly Style:
• I have posted some new size options and raised a few prices.
Some sizes have not changed in price while others have gone up by as much as $40, and as little as $5.
• I have not yet changed the print cost of the Master Paw Prints or the Warhols, because the time on those is so much faster than my unique painterly style. I may at some point revisit those prices, but for now they are staying put.
• The extra pet fee on the painterly style has gone up from $45 to $75. I did this because it is really difficult at times to add in extra subjects with the photos that are sent in. It often more than doubles the time I spend laying out the composition. I enjoy doing multiple pet works, but they are very time consuming, and I feel I should get paid for my time.
• I did raise the extra pet fee on Warhols from $30 to $45 as well.

Click Here to see all the new sizes and prices.

I did a lot of research among my peers before raising prices, and I feel I am still very competitive, and yet I am not the cheapest game in town either. It has never been my goal to be the cheapest player in the arena of pet portraiture, I still strive to be the best and offer the best services.

• Repeat clients can still save money by using promo code : "repeat" when ordering on-line.

Oh ... and I will be having some fun sales in July to encourage early ordering for Christmas. The sales will be geared towards discounts for clients that can send in high resolution quality photographs. Quality photographs make my job a lot more fun and I am happy to give discounts to folks with great pics. I will be updating the help pages on the site to make it easier for people to send images at the proper file size.