Power Bloggers In the Dog World

So I was feeling just a wee bit cocky about my blogging frequency this year until I bumped into The Scottish Terrier and dog News Blog last week. This terrific blog is loaded with great content and this busy gal has like 66 posts so far in February. My eyes are crossing just thinking about that much typing. Check it out and check out her Daily Dachshund too. There is no filler in either place just terrific content.
Another power blogger with rich content is Moria over at Dog Art Today ... but you guys all know her blog I am sure.
Melissa over at Pug Notes has been a really strong blogger this year, posting to her blog "almost" every day. Check her out!

I salute you ladies .... you are all setting the bar. There are many other terrific artist blogs that I love, but I am singling these hot-spots out today as they inspire me to work harder and post, post, post!

Tomorrow I am going to post some ideas on how to become a power-blogger. Notice I said "ideas"... I will admit that I do not have it figured out at all. I have however noticed some trends and I know a few areas I plan to work on for my own blog.

Frenchie movie, portraits, and a story

Ok so we have been fooling around with i-movie and we created a short little movie clip slide show. I e-mailed the movie link to everyone that had a pup in the clip and I got this amazing story from Bogey's Dad. Bogey is the first fawn Frenchie in the clip. Here is the story first and then I will post the clip below.
From Bogey's Dad:

"I have an interesting story to tell you about that painting. My house burned down on December 14th. My coffee maker caught on fire and Bogey was in the house. I drove up on the fire and opened the garage, which by that time was filled with smoke. I ran in and saved Bogey and ran back out. We lost the top two floors of my town home. The painting was actually sitting on the bar in the kitchen, about 8 feet from the source of the fire. When the fire department put out the fire they let me go in the building to look around. One of the first things I noticed was that the picture, which was wrapped up for Christmas, had not been consumed. I had wrapped it the day before in foil wrapping paper from the Container Store. We think this is what saved it. However, it truly defies explanation when you realize that everything else was melted or literally consumed by the fire. Everything around it was either ashes or unrecognizable. I took it outside and unwrapped it and it was completely unharmed. If you can believe it, the painting did not even smell like smoke! We think it was our little miracle and a powerful symbol of hope. Bogey is doing great and our picture now hangs in the living room of our corporate apartment. We already are designing our color scheme for our rebuilt town home around it.

How about that!".

Boston Terrier Pet Portrait

This is cutie-pie is called Butter. I thought this pup was a Frenchie however Butter is a fawn Boston Terrier. I had no idea they came in fawn.
About The Artwork: You can see from the original photo above that I added in some texture and enhanced the color quite a bit. I love this pup's ears! I actually enlarged them, just maybe 3% or so. I sometimes do that with big eared dogs like Frenchies, Boston Terriers and Chihuahuas. I never want to exaggerate ears to a point that the owner will really notice on a conscious level. I also widened or opened up that left brown eye just a tiny bit. I feel like it is these sort of little details that help to set my work apart from the gazillion "photo-to-canvas" services" out there. Here at Art Paw we try to be all about the "Art" and all about the "Pet".

On being caught up

Wow, I think I am going to actually clear my plate this week for the first time in 9 months. It is one thing to be caught up here at Art Paw, and yet another to totally have a clear schedule. I was just reading a great article over at How magazine about what to do with down time. It is called "Turn Slow Time Into Go-Time".

So what do you do when you find yourself with extra time at work? I would love to report that we organize file drawers and assess business reports, but the reality is we always look for some creative project to jump into. Allison has been revamping the web site this past month and trying to trim it down a bit. One of the bad things about being able to manage your own domain is the natural tendency to add more links, more pages and so on until your homepage looks like a jumbled mess. Allison has trimmed down our navigation a bit and is now working on manually updating over 1000 interior pages. Yay! .... go Allison.

We are also looking at learning i-movie and may even venture into pod-casting, who knows. I am very close to signing up over at Lynda.com for their one year training subscription. Sometimes I get nervous when we slow down and then I remind myself to just enjoy it and spend the time learning and creating.

Adobe Illustrator Pen Tool Tips

Digital Illustration beginners usually find it hard to get used to the pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. Here is a small list of key tips that will help you master it.

If somebody wants to add something please post your suggestion in the comment field below.

1) Select the direct selection tool before you choose the pen tool. By holding the command (mac) ctrl (pc) you will have temporary access to the last tool used (Direct Selection) so you can make adjustmens on your anchor points and handles without deactivating the path.

2) Use the spacebar. While holding the space bar you access the hand to navigate your your around your document, again without deactivating the path.

3) Use less anchor points as possible.

4) Click and drag to make a point into a bezier curve

5) (While mouse button is still pressed) Press and hold the option key (mac) or the alt key (windows) to split the bezier curve.

6) It's much easier to draw a curved line if you drag your handle and make its lenght around 1/3 of the lenght of the segment.

7) (While mouse button is still depressed) Press and hold down the space bar to move the point.

Laika Video

Just found this great video over at youtube... turn your volume up.

Retro Flowers

A set of retro vector style flower bruses for Adobe Photoshop by gvalkyrie. Tip: Add play with the shape dynamics and scattering in the brush settings get random effects. Download

Vector Illustration Dos and Don'ts

This is called the "Subpar" rejection. Perhaps you're familiar with it. It means there's a certain something lacking from your illustration that is holding it back from the collection. But what does that mean, "not suitable"? What isn't suitable about it? What the h*ck is subpar around these parts? To help demonstrate some of the common causes for subpar rejections we sent our vector inspectors away with some homework. Each inspector created 2 illustrations of the same subject, one demonstrating common subpar issues. There’s just something about a subpar vector that’s easier to show than to explain. The second illustration then corrects the problems of the subpar version, making it suitable not just for stock, but for iStock.

Most of the time, subpar has nothing to do with your concept or subject matter: it has to do with how well you pull it off. Every little decision, even the ones no one notices, will impact your final illustration. So kick back and relax, and see if you can spot what makes the “good” vectors better than their subpar counterparts. Full article

Cow Dogs Pet Portrait

These princess puppies were a blast to work on. From left to right we have: Hope, Quila, & Tallulah

I saw Dylan Last Night

Last night Dan took me to see Bob Dylan at a small venue here in Dallas. He was so great! I have been a Dylan fan since college. The crowd was a hoot. Half of the audience had silver hair and the other half were 20-something and you know the kids were really digging him. Thor Christensen has a great music review on-line. He states that "At his best, the 66-year-old legend was full of spit and venom – a grizzled blues master with a voice that bordered on the demonic." Click here for more from Thor.

Dylan worked hard on stage and gave a great performance. He is not a chatty guy and he played for 2 straight hours. He never stopped to talk, he never said hi, Bob did not even introduce the band .... there was absolutely no filler, just music.

Vector Conference Miami 2008

The Illustrator and Flash training and networking event for designers.Most designers who use Illustrator and Flash only scratch the surface of what's possible. At the Vector™ conference, you'll go deep, learning the ins and outs of creating high-quality artwork efficiently.

"Fall in love with Illustrator all over again!"

Adobe Illustrator is like a Swiss Army knife: Everyone uses a few of the tools, but there are many more that go unused. The Vector™ conference is your chance to learn what all the tools do and how best to use them for great effects. The more you learn about Illustrator, the more amazed you will be." Read more about the event here.

Pet Portrait For Wine Label

"Kava"

Today I am working on a few different projects including a wine label for our friends over at Jaffurs Wine.
We will be uploading a proofing set of their Mascot Kava. Each year they donate sales from their Cane Felice label to their local off-leash dog park. I am really excited about this graphic design project. We will be turning Kava's artwork into this year's label.

Illustrator 1987

The Art Of The American Snapshot

I saw a great show today at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. If you live in the Dallas- Fort Worth Metroplex you need to check out : The Art of the American Snapshot, 1888-1978: From the Collection of Robert E. Jackson

YoYo Portrait

(original blurry YoYo above)
(painted & enhanced YoYo below)

This pet portrait project was for one adorable puppy dog named YoYo. The original photo was a nice close up shot however there was quite a bit of blur. A sharper focus would have given us more detail to work with. In this case even though the style ordered was Warhol, I went in with my painterly technique and painted in the needed detail. My first step was to burn in some deeper blacks on the pupils and then paint a nice crisp white highlight on the eye. I have found that if you can get the eyes to look sharp and in focus then the rest will follow. Once I got the image to a very happy place I handed this project over to Allison and she created the artwork below.

Vector Hairbrush Kit for Adobe Illustrator

Hair brush kit for Adobe Illustrator from NameSpace. If you are really into vector portrait or fashion illustration, this is must-have resource that is an irreplaceable time saver when it comes to vector hair illustration...

The pack contains seven brushes that will turn your strokes into realistic vector hair in seconds. To explore different hair colors, you can browse through Illustrator's color book swatches. Download

Pet Portrait Technique Photoshop

Today's post is a digital tip for my fellow artists and all those photoshop addicts out there.
In reviewing the two images above you might assume that I started out working with the image on the right, creating a tame and traditional pup with natural coloring. The reality is that the image on the right was totally created from the artwork on the left. All of the paint strokes and smudges were slowly added in bold living color with the wacom tablet. Then when all was said and done, I took the original untouched photographic layer that was buried way beneath all of my other work layers and placed it on top of the work, then I went into layer effects and told it to be a color layer and boom, all of my pretty color highlighting was gone, but none of the groovy paint texture disappeared. It is a quick and easy way to tone down color. I happen to like a lot of color though so I am going to post a larger detail of Eddy below.

Pet Portrait artists can find more process & tips on my blog by clicking here and scrolling down the page.

Exporting From Illustrator to Flash

You’ve no doubt been in this situation before: you build a beautiful Web layout comp in Illustrator for a tough client who seems to have an axe to grind. The sign-off comes, and you’re ready to pull the layout over into Flash, set a few items, animate a few others, and the job’s done right?

Wrong! In previous versions, getting content from Illustrator into Flash – well, getting it imported decently at least – was a lot tougher than it should have seemed.

Thankfully, CS3 makes this entire process a breeze. From being able to set symbols and tag text in Illustrator to getting Flash to control layer imports and recognize Illustrator objects correctly, it’s all in there. Go to full tutorial

www.digitalartsonline.co.uk

Your Mixtape

by yetanotherday

Boston Terrier at The Box theater

Strollin'
Originally uploaded by nicholsphotos

Found this great mural over at Flickr. Love the Boston doggy walking by the art. When I was looking for dog art murals the other day I found tons of great images of dogs in front of art-walls.
I'm working today after I get out for just a little while with the dogs. I am looking forward to some quite time to paint on the computer this afternoon. It often seems like I spend half of my work week fending off sales calls from folks wanting to sell me advertising. Sometimes Sunday is the only day I can unplug from the world to have some good creative time.

Speed Vector Art

Enjoy :)

Blue Sea Elegance Pattern

Pretty fresh looking pattern for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I found it in a great color design community website www.colourlovers.com that you should definitely check out ! Helpful for web, graphic designers and illustrator as well. Download pattern file for Photoshop or Illustrator

Floral And Veins Brush Set For Illustrator

Great vector brush resource for Adobe Illustrator by xentric. Excellent for detailed floral compositions. Click on the image below for zoomed preview. Download

Art Advice

The web is a different place today than it was 10 years ago when I decided to start my business Art Paw. Back then I cruised the web in search of someone that had a similar business model to my own so I could learn from them. At that time there were maybe less than 25 pet portrait sites that I admired and all of them were offering oils or acrylic, the digital art media explosion had just not happened yet. Doing a quick google for digital art today I found 38,800,000 results. Back in 1998 I felt as though every aspect of my business had to be made up on the fly as I went along.

Today the web is not only abundant with fantastic digital artists it is also abundant with business art advice. Today I am going to post some great resource links for aspiring or experienced artists that are wanting to broaden their reach and enhance their marketing skills.
Links for Inspiration:
artadvice.com
artbizblog.com
accidentalcreative.com
artbusinessnews.com

Dachshund pet portrait

This adorable gang of Doxies stole my heart. They look like trouble don't they? I can just imagine the mischief they must get into. The client chose the classic and conservative offering with the red background (below). I sort of like the top option a lot, but they were all very fun to create. This terrific client works for an SPCA shelter in California. This piece will ship today.

Scrapbooking Patterns For Adobe Illustrator

Below you see a preview of the Seamless Vector Patterns for Adobe Photoshop available for download here. Found in a great website for vector resources createsk8.com

The family

I've had this idea floating in my head for ages...years, in fact. Since just after my first son was born (2000). Originally it centred around one character, Monty, who lived in the not-too-distant future. It was going to be a series of strips about his life in the future.

As the months and years have passed by, the idea has morphed into something else...suddenley, Monty had a family, and then his name changed (you'll have to wait for this), and then his look changed, and then the time was modern day, and then the ideas started centering around his family's life in our new digital age...etc., etc.

The ocean of ideas is constantly moving (always will be), but the pictures are getting clearer now. Soon, the family will be making an appearance on my website. While you wait for this momentous occasion, here's the finished picture of the pencilled version in my previous post:

Happy Valentines Day!

A Dillar, a dollar
I'm a ten o'clock
scholar
With my heart in plain
sight on my sleeve
Tho' I look
kind of blue
I'm crazy
for you
Which I'll prove
if you'll just
give me leave!

Below is my gift for the hubby. It is still wet with glue and I doubt that I will be able to grout it today, but we shall see. It really needs to dry. It is a small mosaic squid with heart. It measures around 10 inches by 5 inches. I think I will use a dark grout.

Shooter The Wheaten Terrier

This is Shooter from Canada. We worked on this pup last holiday season. Shooter's human sent us this fun photo of their portrait hanging.
I love seeing our art in the home or next to the pets. I just set up a category section on the blog for "Client Walls" ...so send us your photos folks, I would love to post them here on the blog.

Line Art And Hair Brush For Illustrator

"This brush is for use with Adobe Illustrator Download link. To install it on older version of Adobe Illustrator like CS... close AI, and put this file in your Illustrator System Folder \Presets\Brushes\ , Reopen AI and it should be in your brush library now to use. This brush is good for using for hair (and eyebrows) as well as line art." Author's Profile

Dog Art Murals and Mosaics

Mosiac Mural from Tokyo

Ok ... one more post this week from Flickr finds. I searched for dog art murals and found some inspiring stuff. If you want to click through on the images you will land in the photographer's photo-stream.

(above) another shot of Hachiko mural outside Shibuya Station

(above) Mosaic mural created by 7th graders

Not all of my results are of actual dog art ...but I adore this image (above)



(above) looks like a detail from larger piece. Love the text... "Dog Talk Sad Dog"

(above) again... not dog art, but the capture of the lady & dog in shadow are great. The mural says: "I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world"
(above) odd painted mural from Amsterdam

You can hot-link and blog images over at Flickr unless the photographer chooses to set up their posting preferences to not allow it. If someone wants to share their images only via Flickr's interface they have that option. So on that note ...there were just a few additional images I wanted to share with you, but you will have to click through to see them. One is a nice capture of a mosaic outside of Diego Rivera's house. Then there is the pink poodle mosaic sign for Lala's. And last there is this white dog mosaic.

Next week I will share a few more finds with you. I do not want to burn you guys out on this stuff. The last few days of image posting have really inspired me. It is interesting that the crudest grafitti scribble can stimulate and excite your creative imagination as much as the sophisticated and well crafted work like the Tokyo mosaic.

The first post is always the hardest.

Hmmm.

Now that I've got that over with...where to start?! Well, I'm using this blog in the manner of its origins...as an online diary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog). I have many artistic projects whirling around my head, but the two ideas that are foremost in my mind are going to be the subject of this blog. For the time being. Until the other ideas bustle forward and steal the limelight :)

In the meantime...meet the family...

Yet Another Dog Graffiti Wall

stilllifeonalazyday
Originally uploaded by urban penguin

The photographer that posted this image to Flickr calls this "Still Life on a lazy day". I love the composition here and that wonderful odd door. The other day when I woke up at 5:00 a.m. I spent an hour tagging doggy Graffiti images as favorites over at Flickr, so you may see a few more of my favorites later this week.

Flickr is just the coolest place on earth to search for images of any certain theme. You can enter the phrase "purple zebra" and probably find several results. I also have bookmarked some great dog art murals that I want to share with you tomorrow.

More Dog Art Graffitti

I really liked yesterday's dog art graffitti so I went searching over at Flickr for more cool graffitti dogs. I have posted a few below, you can click images to visit the photographer's photostreams.

The image above is a stenciled image of a dog getting friendly with R2-D2. It might be a tad crude for the Art Dog Blog, but I love this photograph with the pink & orange, it is a great shot.

This last image is my favorite.