Adventures in Pet Portraiture

BLOG MERGE!!!!

2009-02-27T08:00:00.002-05:00

Hello all, I have some huge news to share! I have decided to merge my blogs. You may only know me from this blog. I have another blog too - it's called Wellerwishes (which is also the name of my company) and the subject of Wellerwishes blog is all of my artwork endeavors on a broader level. I have talked about my pet portraits on Wellerwishes blog, but I've pretty much kept this blog as the main home of my pet portrait postings -- up until now. I have been keeping up both blogs for years, but I decided to merge them for many reasons. One of those reasons was the decision to place my pet portraiture segment of my business under the banner of the "Wellerwishes" name. That helped the decision to streamline along. You will now notice, on my Pet Portrait site, the header now features the name "Wellerwishes" (previously my pet portrait business was called "Kathy Weller Pet Portraiture"). I talked about the merge in this post on my Wellerwishes blog and I asked your opinions. After hearing what you all had to say, it was pretty unanimous that merging was the way to go.

What I've done is I've moved the contents of this blog into my Wellerwishes blog. The reason I moved there instead of Wellerwishes moving here are several. I have a much larger readership at Wellerwishes, and it's easier to move more content there, than to move all of my readers over here. Secondly, the work I do under the name Wellerwishes is a larger segment of my professional creative work than my pet portraits. That factored in as well. Along with those important considerations was the fact that my Wellerwishes blog utilizes the more recent Blogger upgrades, but I never upgraded this blog - it is still on "Classic" Blogger. It would have been more of a struggle for less of a payoff for me to update this blog, redesign it, and then move everything here. All in all, it made much more sense to move everything over to Wellerwishes blog. To keep things organized somewhat, I labeled all of the posts from this blog "Adventures in Pet Portraiture" so if you want to go back in time, you can be sure of which blog the post originated from. I also labeled posts "pet portraits" which featured the progress of a given portrait, so you can go to that label and see all of the pet portraits I've ever written about. Nothing is perfect (with humans OR technology), and you may find inaccuracies in the labelling now and again, so please keep that in mind. But all in all, it's been pretty smooth! Moving forward, please visit me at Wellerwishes.blogspot.com to see what's going on with my pet portraits as well as all of my other art interests!! Please change your bookmarks on your blogs or anyplace you have this blog linked, and if you have any questions at all please email me at kathyweller(at)mac.com.

Thanks so much for being a part of my pet portraiting world here. Let's continue the journey together at Wellerwishes blog!

Progress Report on Fiona, Olive & Abe's portrait

2009-02-22T22:00:00.002-05:00

So far, so good.

Corgi sketches

2009-02-21T16:47:00.004-05:00

I adore Corgis. I've never been commissioned to do one, though! I often sketch dogs just for fun and for practice. I did these sketches several months ago. Just today, I went through a ton of old sketchbooks. I was pleased to find these sketches. I enjoy them, and I hope you do too.

(I know this is a Corgi post, so please forgive the couple little chihuahuas thrown in there :) )

Taz & Petunia Portait is complete!!

2009-02-16T14:04:00.003-05:00

Taz and Petunia's portrait is now complete! This was such a fun one to work on. (Is it me, or are my portraits getting more and more detailed?)
More workspace photos of Taz & Petunia's portrait in my Flickr photostream!

Anne Leuck Feldhaus is having an art giveaway!!

2009-02-14T22:14:00.001-05:00

Click here for the deets. It's happening 'til Feb. 20 only, so hurry hurry hurry! :)

Lucky Friday the 13th Giveaway!!

2009-02-13T11:22:00.001-05:00

TODAY is lucky Friday the 13th!

To celebrate, I'm giving away an art print! Enter into a drawing to win an archival signed print of Lucky Cats. Leave a post here and/or FOLLOW ME on Twitter and reply to me (@wellerwishes), telling me what your FAVORITE LUCKY CHARM is!!!

I will do the drawing tomorrow! Good luck!!

Fiona, Olive and Abe: finished ink drawing stage complete!

2009-02-11T23:04:00.004-05:00

Fiona, Olive and Abe get the final ink treatment. Click on the images to enlarge. Coming up soon -- the finished, painted watercolor portrait! Yeah!! :)

Stay tuned!!

Taz and Petunia finished ink drawing

2009-02-09T21:53:00.002-05:00

Taz & Petunia's portrait is all inked in. Next step will be the final watercolor painting. This portrait might just be the most detailed pen work I've ever done in a 9x12" size. I can't say for sure that it is THE most detailed, but if it's not,I know it's right up there!

The other portrait I am currently working on (Fiona, Olive and Abe) is also, for sure, one of the most ink detail-heavy 9 x 12's I've done yet. I'll be posting the finished ink drawing of that one soon - in it's entirety and displaying some of the detail highlights as I did with Taz & Petunias, above.

Portrait Updates...

2009-02-07T22:46:00.000-05:00

Taz & Petunia: ink in progress...

Fiona, Olive and Abe: ink in progress

Whew!!! I've completed the inking on both Taz & Petunia and Fiona, Olive and Abe. For now, I broke out the camera and snapped a few pics (above) during the inking stage, just for fun. I'm scanning them right now and will share the entire inked-in pieces in an upcoming post. So, check back soon!

Fiona, Olive and Abe - final pencil sketch

2009-02-07T14:34:00.003-05:00

Here is the final pencil sketch of another portrait I'm working on right now, Fiona, Olive and Abe the little hedge hog. ( A couple of weeks ago, I posted the first compositional thumbnails).
There are lots of details in this portrait!

Fiona, Olive and Abe are sitting in front of a window with a Magnolia tree outside. This is a spot the kitties like to lounge in at home, so we reflected that in the portrait.

The portrait border, on the vertical left and right, is made up of olive branches and cherry branches. The olive branches are symbolic of Olive, and the cherry branches and fruits were included because one of their kitty bowls has cherries on it. The border has feathers at the top and at the very bottom left and right areas of the border. The cats love to play with feather toys and this was an elegant way symbolize these favorite toys in the portrait.

Fiona holds her favorite catnip bag. This bag has a stars-and-stripes motif. I borrowed from this motif for the background, which is sprinkled with stars. Fiona is also lounging on a suitcase. This is her favorite place to lounge at home. Fiona is the "Queen Bee" kitty of the house, and as such I placed a symbolic queen bee in an inconspicuous spot on the tree.

Olive holds her favorite mouse toy and lounges on a big cushion. The pattern on the cushion has significance -- it is the pattern of Olive's favorite comforter at home. Olive's tail is big and fluffy and is often in this position, so it was fitting for the portrait.

Abe, the hedge hog, sits in the crook of Fionas tail. Abe doesn't routinely curl up in Fiona's tail at home, but Fiona's tail is often in this position, and this was a fitting way to give Abe some prominence in the portrait. Abe wears a little "Abraham Lincoln" hat, and holds his favorite ball.

More to come soon!!

Axel and Nikki pet portrait shops are now live!

2009-02-06T19:39:00.001-05:00

See "Nikki Black Dog Greek Goddess" portrait shop here!

See "Axel Chihuahua" portrait shop here!

Taz & Petunia - Tight Sketch portrait phase

2009-01-26T21:58:00.002-05:00

Here is the finished pencil sketch of Taz & Petunia's portrait! There are many little details in this portrait that are very particular to these two Brussels Griffon doggies. I will posty those details soon; perhaps at the next juncture of the portrait. For now, please enjoy the sketch!

Labrador deemed most popular pooch, again

2009-01-21T15:29:00.001-05:00

Read story here!

Taz & Petunia

2009-01-18T14:52:00.003-05:00

Top: "Circus" style.
Bottom: "Trellis" style.

Taz & Petunia are two Brussels Griffon doggies that I'm currently doing a portrait of! Boy ae they cute!! I will share the progress with you here.

Last week, I came up with two thumbnail compositional ideas for the portrait. T & P's mom had a lot of great ideas for the portrait, and I tried to integrate all of them. I found that her ideas line up great with my aethetic sensibilities! I'm excited to see where this portrait goes.

Barking Dog Helps Man Escape Fire

2009-01-15T12:19:00.000-05:00

Read the story in the Boston Globe today (Boston.com).

Share your advice and be entered in a drawing for an ACEO glossy archival print

2009-01-11T19:05:00.003-05:00

HERE'S MY DILEMMA....I need your help...

I am considering merging my two blogs. One is dedicated to my pet portrait life, the other is dedicated to my children's illustration and other artistic pursuits life. It's tricky. Since I'm trying to simplify my life, the idea of merging the blogs seems like a no-brainer. The sticking point: each blog is pretty specific to its own subject matter. This one is admittedly looser and more flexible, but still pretty well focused on children's art... and, my pet portrait blog is really all about pet portraits and all the things and involved in that world. I like to have the pet portrait blog separate, because I can more easily share links to other pet portrait artists and to the pet lovers' community at large. If I merge blogs, the link list will be edited and then merged with the link list I have here. (That may be just too "when worlds collide" for me). But, on the other hand, merging the blogs could help in some ways. It will broaden my audience on both fronts, by default. But, flip-side: will it turn people off who are only interested in one thing or the other? You tell me!

Please leave a comment with your thoughts. I'll collect all of your names until midnight, Saturday January 17. Then I will do a drawing for an archival Artist Card glossy print of the above illustration Kitty Librarian! The drawing will be held on Sunday, January 18th.

Don't hold back -- I'd love to hear what you think. The good and the bad. Honesty is welcome - please share.

Fiona, Olive & Abe

2009-01-11T18:18:00.004-05:00

Here is one of the latest portraits I'm working on. Fiona and Olive are two lovely kitty cats, and Abe is the house hedgehog. Very cute little guy, if I do say so myself.

These are very rough thumbnails for composition. I began doing these roughies for clients awhile ago - it's an added step but I think it is a necessary one, AND it also leads to a more well-thought-out composition! SO when I go in and start working on the finer points, the framework is in place. Natural progression really. I don't post these often to this blog, but it is an integral part of the process.

I came up with two options here. They are both very similar but have specific differences (which I went through in detail with the client). Hope you enjoy seeing the process of this portrait!

Felted Pet Portraits

2009-01-10T15:49:00.003-05:00

Felted Pet Portrait by KaysK9s.etsy.com

I covet felted miniatures of pets! I first discovered them on a Flickr photostream when I came across Amelia Makes Art's amazing doggie sculptures. They are just outrageous!! Ever since then, I've wanted to commission Amelia to make two sculptures of my pugs.

Felted Pet Portrait by ameliamakesart.etsy.com

Anyway, I discovered that she also keeps an Etsy shop. I also learned that there are several other felt pet artists on Etsy as well... GFelted, Kay's K9 shop, Free Haven Farm, Coraldee, Inspirations By Karen. Each artist has his/her own special aesthetic and style of designing the miniature doggies (and kitties, too). It's worth the time to shop around and see the unique differences in each artists' style before deciding on one. Just as no two painted or drawn pet portrait artists are alike, so it is with sculpted felt pet portrait artists. I look forward to getting my own sometime. I keep saying it and have not done it yet, but I will in due time.

Pet Portrait Story in Boston Globe

2009-01-09T23:45:00.003-05:00

The other day, the Boston Globe printed a story on local pet portrait artists. You can read it here.
Dog aficionado Brian Henderson, who runs the local Boston dog lovers' site DogBoston, was quoted several times in the story! It was nice to read the article and hear from someone I 'know'!
Anyway, he in turn posted about the story on HIS blog, but he ALSO gave me a little plug as well on his blog adjunct to the story, which was really nice of him. You can see/read it here.

In Pet Portrait News, I'mstarting work on TWO pet portraits. The first one features two ADORABLE Brussels Griffon doggies. Boy is this one going to be cute. Wait til you see these guys...

The second one is going to be really different -- I'll tell you why... It features two beautiful long-haired kitties, which is not out of the norm, BUT! It also will feature... drumroll... a HEDGEHOG! My first hedgehog! This will be exciting.

So please check back for portrait progress. I'll be starting these momentarily...

Anne's Art Giveaway!

2008-12-22T12:10:00.000-05:00

Visit Anne Leuck Feldhaus's blog for a chance to win some super cool stuff!

Axel's portrait is complete!

2008-12-19T23:34:00.002-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Here is Axel's finshed portrait. I'm thrilled with how Axel came out, and I think Axel's pet parents are, too!

See past Axel posts:
Axel ink stage
Axel pencil sketch and Axel's story

Thank you for checking in, and taking the Axel journey with me.

"Nikki the Greek Goddess" Final Portrait

2008-11-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here she is! Nikki is complete! :)

"Nikki" Progress Report

2008-11-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

Here is Nikki in progress. I'm very happy with how this is coming along. I think I'm going to ink in the wings with technical pen, though. I originally was not going to do this but I think I am having a change of heart. We'll see!

Dogs Rule Fat Book takes center stage!!

2008-11-17T23:16:00.000-05:00

Attention, dog and cat-loving ladies and gents: The Dogs Rule Fat Book Ebay Auction is happening RIGHT NOW! Please check it out on Ebay and Bid, Bid, Bid!! ALL of the auction proceeds go to A Place To Bark, Bernie Berlin's animal sanctuary, to help out our furry friends who really need it!!!
There is really no caveat to bidding on this auction: Within this hand-crafted, very special book of art, you will get handmade art pages by 13 different, accomplished, and uniquely talented pet portrait artists! Names you may have heard of, such as Rebecca Lansdowne of Art Paw, Linda O'Neill of Abby Creek Studios, Leigh Jackson of Noisy Dog Studio, plus there is many more of us!! These names are but a few of the talented artists who gave their time and talents to this awesome work of original dog art. All of us created this very special book JUST FOR YOU, the pet-and-pet-art-lover! So please, please please, BID often and bid high. Because it ALL goes to the dogs!

Nikki: Painting stage

2008-11-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

Here is Nikki's portrait in progress. Sometimes I forget how things used to be, in the dark ages, before the internet - when there was no such thing as blogs and there was no way I could show people art work in progress this way, so easily!
I am really loving how this is coming along. The colors here do not look as vibrant as they do in the original -- they are a bit duller here, but at least you can get a general idea of the progression of the work.