Holiday Season!

Its holiday commission time! There are a few days left to order a painting for the holidays!

Accepting small acrylic orders still! Please contact me for turnaround times!

National Puppy Day!

National Puppy Day was this past weekend and I want to take some time to appreciate all the Puppies and Dogs I have painted! Seriously animals are my inspiration and I wouldn’t have a career without them. So thank you to the pets out there!

Here are a few of the puppies that I have painted!

Tote Bags!

I have recently added tote bags to my website and Etsy! Taking the dogs from the dog pack and moving them to brightly colored backgrounds, I hope to make them a nice accessory. I have gotten a few of the tote bags myself and am really pleased with the quality. The original works are done in acrylic on paper then scanned and put on different backgrounds.

They can hold up to 44lbs and have a really great capacity at 15 inches by 15 inches.

There are 54 different dog breeds up! I am hoping to add more and cats soon! I am also thinking of implementing custom options if people are interested.

Order Here!

New Year Goals!

I think it is a good idea to make some goals for the New Year. These are not resolutions mind you, just keeping it loose and not full of guilt if they don’t happen to get completed! I am just going to write up bullet points to get a general idea of what my plans and goals are for this year. In no particular order:

·        Paint more paintings (wild animals vs. pets)

·        Deck of Cat Cards

·        Deck of Rescue Cards

·        Produce other inventory items to sell

·        Clean/Refurnish Studio

·        Get Newsletter going again

·       Do some giveaways!

·        Find gallery representation

·        Show around town (goal of 4 times)

·        Participate in an art fair

·        Travel and take more animal reference photos

·        Do more charity/support work

·        Research more into anatomy

·        Research more into zoology

·        Practice and learn more about sculpture

·        Re-vamp website?

·        Organize all computers! (seriously my computers are a mess!)

·        Start streaming on youtube or twich?

·        Play more soccer and ultimate so I don’t go crazy inside all the time

·        Walk the corgis at a consistent time!

·        Work in a café or somewhere other than my studio sometimes

·        Visit more galleries

·        Get better at promoting my art

There are probably way more things I could add to this list, but I think it is a good start. What do you want to get done this year?

Looking back at 2018!

Well it is the last day of 2018, it sure went by quickly. Looking back on the year I have definitely grown as an artist and learned a lot. I wanted to visually break down what I have done this year and since I started working on pet portraits. Here are the numbers:

1775 Total Paintings

1203 Dogs

502 Cats

20 Birds (16 Parrots/Budgies, 2 Pigeons, 1 Finch, 1 Hummingbird, 1 Chicken)

15 Guinea Pigs

12 Rabbits

4 Iguanas/Lizards

3 Pigs

3 Horses

2 Hamsters

2 Rats/Mice

2 Ferrets

1 Hedgehog

1 Turtle

1 Snake

1 Fish

1 Donkey

1 Chinchilla

This doesn’t include any of the commissions or other projects I did this year, such as all the dogs for the card deck. Cool and crazy to think about!

Have a Happy New Year!

Make.Sale Thoughts!

This past Friday and Saturday I participated in the Make.Sale put on by the local art space Make.Shift. This was my first experience with doing a fair of any sort and it was a new experience! This is a local and pretty small fair, I kind of knew what to expect having gone to the venue in the past, however I had never been to the make.sale before. It was the type of fair where it is a good idea to have some low priced items as most who wandered through were there for the monthly art walk.

Before the fair I was really worried about how much inventory I had. I kept fluctuating on if I had enough, and decided to bring less of the more expensive items. The best seller was The Dog Pack deck of cards, priced at $16.

Setting up a display was fun! I was not allotted a ton of space but I tried to use both floor and table space. I think having a slightly bigger table in the future would be beneficial, I did not have much room for flat items on the table. The other thing I would do is have more labels, such as “Take a business card!”, etc.

Overall I made back my fair fee, but in the future I would definitely want to market the Custom Portraits as they are what gets the most interest. Due to the closeness to Christmas I actually played this aspect down because I am already full up on commissions.

Dog Breed Pillows

I decided to use all the art that I made for The Dog Pack and make it available on pillows!

Each breed of dog has five different color options, be sure to choose which you would like from the drop-down. These items are fulfilled and shipped by a 3rd party. They feature my artwork and are nice quality!

“Want to add a splash of color to your home? This premium feel moisture-wicking pillow with a shape-retaining insert is just what you're looking for! It'll make any room luxurious and provide the perfect excuse for a quick power nap.

100% pre-shrunk polyester case
Moisture-wicking fabric with a linen feel
Hidden zipper
Machine-washable case
Shape-retaining 100% polyester insert included (handwash only) “

I am working on making the same artwork available on Totes and more!

ORDER HERE - ORDER SOON TO GET BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

The Dog Pack

On Small Business Saturday I announced my newest product, The Dog Pack!

I have wanted to do this project for at least 4 years, and I finally got around to getting it done. Originally I was going to work all digitally to complete it, but found that hand-painting the dogs was a better way to get the look I desired. Each dog was painted on paper in acrylic and then scanned into the computer to work into the design.

Breeds were chosen mostly based on popularity and assigned with what seemed to feel right! Sometimes this was based on size, or my personal interactions with that breed of dog.

The design was a tossup between doing something that looked “pop-art” style or vintage. In the end I felt that the vintage style just visually looked better so I went with that.

The Dog Pack includes:

Airedale, Australian Cattle Dog, Australian Shepherd, Basset Hound, Beagle, Bernese Mountain Dog, Bloodhound, Border Collie, Boston Terrier, Boxer, Brittany, Bull Terrier, Bulldog, Bullmastiff, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Chihuahua, Dachshund, Dalmatian, Doberman, English Cocker Spaniel, English Springer Spaniel, French Bulldog, German Shepherd, German Shorthaired Pointer, Golden Retriever, Goldendoodle, Great Dane, Italian Greyhound, Jack Russell Terrier, Labrador Retriever, Maltese, Newfoundland, Old English Sheepdog, Papilion, Pit Bull, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Pomeranian, Poodle, Portuguese Water Dog, Pug, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweilier, Saint Bernard, Samoyed, Scottish Terrier, Shar Pei, Shetland Sheepdog, Shiba Inu, Standard Schnauzer, Vizsla, Weimariner, West Highland White Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier

September 6x6 Pet Portraits

Here are all of the 6x6 pet portraits from September. 

Thoughts on Pet Painting

So I have been painting pets for over a year now, each week I get a new batch of pets and commissions to work on. Cats, dogs, birds, turtles, you name it, I have probably painted it. You think this could get old, but no, I can honestly say that I still LOVE IT! Every week it is really exciting to get a new group of pets to paint!

Between working on commissions and other paintings, guess what, I still paint pets! Currently working on creating a collection of breeds of both cats and dogs. It is really rewarding to create and capture their personalities. I think it is because each one is different, each pet and breed has their own quirks that really add to the painting and the painting experience.

I can get tired, some days I find myself spacing out and really having to motivate myself to get up and paint. However, knowing I get a new bunch of paintings to do each week really works out for the best. It really keeps things interesting. Same whenever I get a new commission I get super excited when it is time for the photos!

Anyway, after a year, I still love painting pets! So send ‘em my way!