Hudson’s dark obsession gets the best of him yet again. Here is the (almost) true account of what happened.
Hot All Week
This morning at 10:00 a.m. I checked the temperature in the shade of our deck. It said 90°(F). That’s 90°. In the shade. At ten in the morning. I don’t enjoy heat waves. My comfortable temperature range goes from 25° to 85°. So while I’m cool with cool, hot ain’t so hot. These temperatures are supposed to stay with us all week and will probably continue in the 90’s for most of the summer. How …
Digital Painting Demo of Brooks
This digital painting demo was created way back in November for a Christmas pet portrait order. In this demo, I show the whole screen including the software palettes and my reference images. I use an older version of Corel Painter (from 2019). My current system is a bit slow for the latest versions. Typical of software these days, there’s a lot of feature bloat in the newer versions anyway. The final size of this portrait …
The Year of the Porcupine
I don’t know what year it is on the Chinese calendar (let’s ask Chinese hostage John Cena), but for me it’s definitely the Year of the Porcupine. In what is rapidly becoming a fortnightly event, Hudson on Tuesday came home with porcupine quills in his face and mouth. There is a dispute on the count, with The Missus saying it’s the seventh time, and me saying it’s the sixth. What is indisputable is that the …
Porcupine Removal Part 2
Last week I conducted a porcupine removal operation because not two days after his encounter last week, Hudson did it again. The first time he came away with 49 quills. This time the count was a bit less, only 40 quills. We knew by the size of the quills that it was a baby porcupine, or at least not fully grown. The vet said these small quills are harder to remove. Easy for her to …
Porcupine Quill Removal: Mastiff Edition
Last night we conducted a Porcupine Quill Removal on Hudson. This is how the battle went…
English Springer Spaniel Portrait of Gracie
Portrait of Gracie, an English Springer Spaniel. This was a 2020 Christmas commission.
Was Larry the Best Dog Ever?
While he was with us, we had no doubt that Larry was the best dog ever. Time (and several newer dogs) have tempered that sentiment somewhat. It’s not that Larry has gone down in status, he’s simply got more competition. Larry was our first dog. We were married in the fall of 1992. In the spring of 1993 The Missus brought Larry home. At the time I was just starting my home-based design studio and …
Bella and Maggie, a Christmas Commission
Another Christmas commission pet portrait; this time of two lovely Labrador Retrievers, Bella and Maggie
Cole, a Curly Pet Portrait
This is Cole, a particularly curly – and happy – fellow. This regular commission came to me in late October, just before the Christmas rush, so I’m including it in my Christmas commissions list anyway because once I finished it, the orders came pouring in. The client only supplied one photo, not normally a good thing. But in this case it was a clear, well-lit photo that I was able to work with. In order …