Otter was a Chocolate Lab who I had been commissioned to paint at the very tail end of my 2023 pet portrait season. By “pet portrait season” I mean the period from October until Thanksgiving. This order came in the first week of December, so technically it was a late order. I was inclined to turn it down and refund the half payment. But after a phone call with the gentleman who explained that Otter …
Here’s a happy little fellow I painted last year (2024) for a Christmas commission. Mr. Mo looks especially friendly, like he’s happy to climb up on your lap and tell you all about his day, or hear all about your day while you rub his belly. Say “Hi” to Mr. Mo (16×16, digital)Custom Pet Portraits! I create affordable custom portraits inspired by your photographs. I paint them digitally by hand (no A.I., no filters). They …
The customer wanted a portrait of both her dogs together. No problem. She provided several photos of each dog. Again, no problem; I can sketch both dogs together as my starting point. I painted Millie as a small terrier and Bear as a medium-size dog and sent a proof. Almost immediately I received a panicked reply saying that both dogs are the same size! She was afraid the portrait was set in concrete at that …
Lucy and Blue was a combo portrait ordered during the 2024 Christmas season in which I created sixteen portraits in the marathon month of November (see my previous post). If I remember correctly, this was a combo from two reference photos, one of Lucy and another of Blue. Using different photo references is tricky for a lot of reasons and I usually request several photo options to choose from to help me in the process …
First off, my apologies for the radio silence the last couple of weeks. My dog, Hudson, an Old-English Mastiff of 115 pounds, and not even six years old, was diagnosed with bone cancer. We love our dogs. They’re family. This sad news hit me hard, inhibiting my ill-informed, occasionally coherent scribblings here. You can read all about bone cancer on the VetMD site. It’s a real bitch of a disease, akin to brutal punishment or …
For the longest time I’ve used Corel Painter for nearly all my portraits. About 2 years ago I – foolishly, in a moment of weakness – opted for a new subscription model for Painter. So instead of evaluating and deciding if new upgrades were worth the cost of upgrading, I would automatically get the new upgrade as part of my yearly $200 subscription fee. Well, it’s been over two years without any upgrades in Painter, …
I’ve been painting pet portraits steadily for the last five years (and as a side-business for the five years prior to that). Most of my work has come to me through word of mouth, and repeat customers. In the last year or so, orders have slowed. I figured it was time to try something new. This past October and November, I purchased a booth in two local craft fairs. My booth consisted of several sample …
I’ve been buried in pet portrait commissions all of November with absolutely no time to blog. Tonight, I’m taking a moment to post a portrait from way back in May of this year, and I’ll have more to say about my busy November once I finalize my commissions. The thing I love most about painting pet portraits is when I can successfully convey the personality of the pet. It depends a lot on the photos …
This is Scout, one of my first commissions. Painted with just enough detail to activate your brain!
“Keep moving, Pal.” This portrait commission was a memorial for a beloved family pet, Seamus. Apparently, Seamus was quite the character and loved going for rides in the car and growling at people who passed by the vehicle – in a “keep moving – nothing to see here” kind of way. This hobby (or habit) was so amusing to the family that one of them commissioned me to memorialize it in a second portrait. The …
