So, I've never done pet portraiture before. I know it's a thing. Like, a HUGE thing, and I know that there are lots of artists out there that take commissions to create portraits of one's pets, and even some that make an entire living off of them.
I'm not sure I'm personally ever going to be one of those artists.
That being said, I've done a couple pet portraits now, and I kind of enjoy it. I don't think I'm going to go rushing out making posts of my commission sheet and rates, and try to cater to that clientelle. But I have to admit making these last couple animal pictures was actually quite fun! I didn't really feel any pressure to "make it right", and I was able to just let go and indulge my finger tips to let the pieces evolve as they developed. It was rather like getting out of the way and letting the image layer itself up and come into view, and I was just coaxing it to appear.
The above image of the pug is my mother-in-laws lovely dog, Trudy. She was adopted as an adult from someone who had passed away, and she certainly has her own little quirky personality! Yes, her tongue sticks out, and she likes to bark at commercials on TV (especially if they have animals), but she is adorably mild-mannered and truly behaves herself. She loves getting attention until she doesn't, and she's lovingly pet-able when ever your hand needs to do something.
It's hard to portray all of this personality in a portrait, but in the end I don't think that's the ultimate purpose of doing portraits anyway... I think instead they're snapshot frozen moments done in a painterly style that says as much about the artist as the subject. Doing these digitally, my medium is much more forgiving than traditional tools like paint or pastel, so I can make adjustments as I move forward in the illustration process. But in the end it's the style of the piece that's often attractive and engaging when it comes to portraits of any kind--especially when the subject is not someone you don't know. In those cases one can't judge whether the portrait is an accurate likeness--one instead has to consider the way the likeness was captured.
I may do more pet portraits in the future, but I doubt they'll be all I do. I honestly enjoyed making it much more than I thought I would, and I wouldn't mind doing a couple more!
In other news, sales of the 2023 Calendar are relatively slow, but I'm hoping that with their new availability on Amazon.com they will start to pick up. The calendar is quite a statement piece, with each page bursting with color. It doesn't "recede" into the background of a wall very easily. For those who like art-focused wall hangings this might be a great gift!
I've also almost completed a new set of illustrated landscape greeting cards, and you can read about this project further down below in this newsletter. I'm really happy with how they're turning out!!
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any of your friends, or have them sign up on this page of my website to get it delivered directly to them.
I hope you all will find these next few weeks of October to be a time of autumnal fun! The next issue of this newsletter will land on the day before Halloween, and it will have lots of holiday-themed content just for you! See you then!
|