Willow

A friend of my sister's saw the pet portraits I had done, and asked me if I would paint one for her nephew. His girl Willow is just so adorable that I had to say yes! Now she's on her way to her owner. Look at that sweet face!

Because Willow's owner is a guy, I went with a serif typeface instead of the cursive I usually use. I hope he likes it.

Couple of Kitties

I just did a swap with a good friend of mine on Craftster. She wanted some pet portraits; I asked for a blanket to have on my screened in porch for cool evenings.

Here are her kitties:

And here's the gorgeous afghan she sent in return. Look how great it looks with the pillows! Awesome swap!

Party Animals! Pet Portrait with Tutorial

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I just participated in a swap on Craftster, and one thing I knew I had to do for my partner is paint a portrait of her adorable dogs. But not just any portrait, these dogs needed hats! Here's what I painted, and how it was done.

First,  here's the finished painting:

From left to right, that's Lola, Pete, and Jujube 

The tutorial:
1. Find pictures of each of the dogs, and size them in Photoshop to the exact size you need, and then print them out. Placed the in the positions you want them, trace them onto tracing paper, and cut a board the perfect size for your painting. Paint the background whatever color you desire, and then paint the sides and back black.

2. Use a pencil to cover the entire back of each dog image.

3. Carefully cut each dog out. Place them on the board, and trace around the border of each one. Use a ballpoint pen to draw over the eyes, nose, and any distinguishing marks on each dog. The pencil will act as carbon paper, and your board will have a paint-by-number look to it. The photo of Jujube I used was not in color, so I used other references to get her color and markings correct.

4. Lightly draw in the hats, and start to paint! Lay down large areas of color first.

5. Keep painting (and cursing, if necessary), until you are happy with the results. I use acrylic paints, so I can paint and repaint until I'm happy. If I get frustrated, I'll frequently prop the painting across the room and stare at it for until I can determine what's working and what still needs revision. Sometimes it helps to put it aside for a while and work on other projects. This is a photo of the painting in time out. Jujube, the dog on the right, is way too flat!

Paint it until you know it's the best it can be. I experimented with Copic markers on this painting, which worked out really well for the shadows on the hats. The tiara on Lola was done with tiny dots of silver glitter puff paint. I used a Copic marker to color some of the stones pink. The eyes of the two dogs on the ends originally weren't dark enough, so I colored over them with a grey marker to darken them up a bit. The marker is shinier than the paint alone in certain lights and in certain angles, but I gave the entire surface a couple of coats of matte Mod Podge, and everything blends right in.

I added the black lines around the edge of the painting with Sharpie pens because I really like having a border. I also sanded down all the sides; that's just a personal preference. 

Here's the finished painting in its new home, photo courtesy of my swap partner:

My Sister's Pups

Here's what else I made my sis for Christmas this year: portraits of her beloved dogs, Maggie and Zoey.

These are painted with acrylic paints on 4" by 4" boards, and then sanded on the edges. The knobs are by Tim Holtz, and the feet are bead caps.

Here's Maggie in real life:

And her portrait:

Zoey:

And her portrait:

I am by no means the best painter, but I think there's some resemblance, and my sister seemed to really like them, so I'm happy with that.

Let It Snow

Here's another item I made to send off in the Craftster swap I recently did. My partner's theme was snow, and I just couldn't resist somehow incorporating her precious dog in some art. Here's her pup patiently balancing some carrots on its nose. Adorable!

I got my hubby to cut me a nice 9" by 12" board, and made her this "Let It Snow" sign. It's sanded down to give it a vintage look. No carrots on the nose for this sign, just a tiny snowflake!

Jenna

Some of the moderators on Craftster decided to do a pet swap, where we each sent each other one or two small items for, or relating to, our pets. I was assigned to send something to Connie, who lives with the sweetest girl, Jenna.

Here she is. Isn't she so cute?

Connie mentioned on her wishlist that she'd like something with Jenna's image on it, so I grabbed another of those 4" by 4" blocks of wood I have, and painted her portrait. Once the block was done, I tried beading a hanger for it, but it just didn't look right to me, so I added some bead caps for feet. It still needed something, so I grabbed this giant glass heart bead that's been floating around my craft room forever and attached it to the top. Here she is:

I'm so happy with the way this came out. The sendouts for the swap aren't until May 1st, but I just couldn't stand it, so I mailed it early this week, and it arrived today.

Here's the side. I like the way the red ribbon looks around the sides, but the ugly truth is that I put the it there to hide the holes where the wire hanger used to be. Shhh!