Newest Pet Portrait: Sachmo

A friend of my last portrait client saw the finished result and gave me a call. So this is Sachmo, who has now gone over the rainbow bridge but lives on in the hearts of his family.

Sachmo, work in progress, acrylic on canvas, 18x24 inches

Sachmo, work in progress, acrylic on canvas,18x24 inches

a couple of layers of paint on most of the canvas so far.

I see some areas that need tweaking. But today is catch up the house work day. I might work on him some more later on in the evening.

Online Resources for Artists

Are you an artist? Or is that your someday dream? Well, I've put some of my favorite spots on the web together in one place. Places to learn to draw and paint, places to buy supplies, online communities get support from. They are all  together in my article, My Favorite Artist Resources Online.

I hope you enjoy it and discover some of the cool new things going on out there on the web.

Refurbish Your Garden Art

Well I have been busy writing and photographing and working on things over at Squidoo (a free publishing platform). But I managed to connect it all together with a painting project!

Garden Fairy before refurbishing

I bought this little garden fairy a few years ago at a discount store. She's beginning to look a little sad and faded so I refurbished her.

Garden Fairy after refurbishing

If you'd like to see a blow by blow I wrote it all up in my article, Refurbish Your Garden Art.

In other news this week I have some new designs over at Zazzle, just click the Zazzle panel on the right to go there. I've become a Dick Blick affiliate so if you need good deals on art supplies you can click that link. In the meantime remember the pet portrait of the two yellow labs? Well apparently the owner has been showing it off to all and sundry and I've now been commissioned to paint another yellow lab from his neighbor! Woot! Things are rolling my way! I do have to make a run to the valley tho, because I don't have the size canvas he wants and I don't have time to wait for an order to ship UPS. So probably tomorrow evening I'll run down and pick up just one, then make an order for more. Getting low on a few other things anyway.

And Happy Paint Party Friday! I might not get around to everyone this week, I think there were more than 60 last week, but I do try to go look at everyone's.

A New Venture

I have just discovered Squidoo, yes that is a really funny name and no, I don't know the story behind it yet. Squidoo is a free publishing platform, where you can write an article (only they call it a lens) about something, add some text, some links, ect. Squidoo makes money through Google ads on the pages and it just happens to share some of that money with their authors. I joined up because I've had good advice from Zazzle ProSellers that writing about things at Squidoo and then linking to related items at Zazzle is a good promotional tool. I'm also hoping that my website will get a boost too.

So, you can click on the link above and read what I wrote about Artists that Paint on Stone. There are lots of links to some of the ones that have taught me about Rock Art and links to some I just discovered.

And here is a picture of a leopard I did a couple of years ago; he has sold, but I'm looking for some more largish rocks the right size to do another. Or maybe I will do a black panther!

Leopard, acrylic on stone, 13.5x7.5x7 inches

Leopard back

Between a rock and a hard place. from Zazzle.com

Zazzle now has Doodle portable speakers! Great for laptops, IPhones, MP3 players, ect. Works with ANY standard 3.5 mm. headphone jack audio product! go check them out!



Between a rock and a hard place. from Zazzle.com

Tabby Cat Keychains from Zazzle.com

whew! I've spent most of the day designing new products for my Zazzle store! There are about 50 new items with 22 different photos in 3 categories (The Barnyard, Dogs, Cats). These all feature photographs of my stone animals


Tabby Cat Keychains from Zazzle.com


Pug from Zazzle.com

Rooster from Zazzle.com

New & Old

Today I have something new and something old to show you. First, I'm nearly done with the Black Panther/

Black Panther 16x20 acrylic on canvas, work in progress

This one is from way back, 1999, a water color of my chili harvest.

Chili Harvest  image area 13x9 inches, watercolor on paper

Chili Harvest is not for sale, it's one of the few things I've kept for myself over the years. However, prints will be available in my Zazzle store in a day or two. One of the things I like about this one, besides the fact I grew the peppers myself is that colander belonged to my granny. While chipped and worn I still use it often in my kitchen.

High Desert Humane Society

Went over this morning while it was cool and the wall was in the shade and painted some more dogs at the Humane Society's thrift store.

Cats & Dogs...

On Saturday morning I went over and painted at the Humane Society. Added a couple more little dogs, but it got too hot to finish. I might go over and paint a little more this morning.

mural in progress, High Desert Humane Society, Globe, Arizona

Then I came home and painted some more on Charla's panther. The background is not really bright yellow like that, I couldn't get the color to look right in the photo; the other colors are about right.

Black Panther 16x20 acrylic on linen, work in progress

Having a bit of trouble getting some areas of the big cat to look right, I quit for the night and did this fun rock.

Dalmatian Mother and pups, acrylic on stone, front, approximately 10x8 inches

Dalmatian Mother & pups, close up back side

Dalmatian Mother & pups close up, back side, sleeping pup

Charla's Black Panther

some more progress on the panther. If you are just joining me, you can see the beginning stages of this painting on yesterdays post (May 13, 2011)

Black Panther, 16x20 inches, acrylic on canvas

He is having some problems, that right ear looks too big and I might have his eyes too small. Some difficulty with the angles of the front legs...

Charla's Black Panther

My friend Charla took a great picture of a black panther while she was on vacation and gave me permission to use it for painting. I thought you might enjoy the step by step process of how I develop something like this so here are the first 3 steps; keep checking back to watch it unfold! This is acrylic on linen, 16x20 inches.

Charla's Panther, step one

I had a couple of false starts with my drawing, had to revise and rework it a bit. In step one I've used regular acrylics for the drawing and shadows and to block in the background.

Charla's Panther, step two

In step two I've switched to Chroma's Atelier Interactive acrylics and have begun blocking in the darkest shadows and the lightest highlights. The Interactives are a new type of acrylic paint that even when touch dry can be re-hydrated and reworked, unlike regular acrylics that become basically waterproof once dry. I like how each layer of the Interactives sort of melts into the previous layer, adding depth to the painting.

Charla's Panther, step 3

In step three I continue to block in lights and darks and evaluate and compare to the photo. He's in a bit of an awkward looking position and there are plants and grass in front of his legs, making it hard to see exactly what's going on in some areas. Don't worry, he won't look like an amputee when I'm done!

And now I'll go sign in for Paint Party Friday! Just click on the button on the right to go to their page and the list of participating artists. Have fun browsing and seeing all the beautiful Art out there in the world!

This & That

My rock painting friend, Suzi Chua, who lives in Malaysia, sent me one of the little pet beds that her friend Theresa Choo made, so I could see how they are made.

Isn't it cute?! Thanks Suzi & Theresa!

Have gotten a few rocks painted between other things this past week or two.

Beagle puppy

A Cat

Sleepy Tiger Cub

Cheeky Chihuahua

Mother & Child

These will soon join the others at Hill Street Mall for your viewing pleasure!

More Scratch Board

Remember the tiger in scratch board that I posted April 30? Well I had two more and just fooled around with them. I've been so busy with other things I hadn't taken pictures of them yet, so here they are now.

Duck  5x7 inches water color on scratch board

Pink Roses 5x7 water color on scratch board

I had a lot of fun doing these, I'll have to order some more scratch board!

Pet Portrait

Well the client said make the ears lighter, so have done that and tweeked a few other areas. think I'm about done. Will wait for the OK tho before I declare it complete!

Two Yellow Labs 18x24 inches, acrylic on linen

Pet Portrait

I am nearly finished with this pet portrait commission. Will send this up date to my client and see what they think; the ears may still be a smidge too dark.

Pet Portrait

All right put the watercolors and the experimenting aside, time for some 'work' tho I can never think of painting as 'real work'! I have been commissioned to paint two yellow labs on canvas. They are nearly done, I see a couple of areas that need tweeking, then the final layers of paint will go on and it will be on it's way to a new home!

18x24 inches, acrylic on linen

More Experiments

Well now when I decide I'm going to do something or learn something new I dive in head first and just do it. I've realized that 1) I need to know more about my watercolors and 2) I need to figure out how to paint realistic glass and reflections. So more little studies. thanks to the good folks over at WetCanvas.com for uploading such fabulous reference photos.

Green grapes in crystal image area is 4x6 inches, watercolor on Arches hotpress

 Reference photo maybe viewed at WetCanvas

Lemon and Crystal image size 4x6 inches, watercolor on Arches hotpress

The reference photo for this one may be viewed here on WetCanvas.

I have a long way to go in this area. There are things I like in each one and things that went wrong. Mostly I can say it's a bit tedious doing it in water color where you have to leave the white of the paper and paint in all the little dark bits separately. I will probably try some of these again in acrylic and see what that looks like.

Experiments

Today I decided to play with my watercolors. I found a beautiful reference photo of colored bottles with light streaming through them and making a rainbow on the table in front of them. I did not do the photo justice, but I did learn some new things about my WC paints and their color combinations that I didn't know before, so mission accomplished. I also realized that I don't know yet how to accurately portray colored and transparent glass, so more practice is in order!

Bottles watercolor, approximately 11x15 inches, Arches hot press paper

I can see any number of mistakes, especially when compared to the reference, but the worst is that I got a muddy purple in the reflection on the right, instead of the pretty violet that was really there.