little birdie painting

A little birdie painting for a birthday card

Pit Bull Pet Portrait

This is Sahara - a happy, smiley dog I had the pleasure of painting for a friend to give as a birthday gift. It was a lot of fun working on a portrait with so much character.

'Sahara' soft pastel on paper 8x10in

New Year Gift

Happy New Year! I hope this year brings you love, happiness & health.

To start off the New Year, here is a desktop calendar to download & use.   :)

I drew this illustration in Adobe Illustrator, with a Wacom tablet.

Christmas Tree Ornaments

I made ornaments to include with Christmas gifts this year. 

The dragonfly ornaments were created with a stamp I carved from stamping rubber, then stamped card stock and embellished with paints, pens and metallic ink for the borders. I carved the stars/snowflakes from a pencil tip eraser.  I added eyelets, jump rings and swirl hooks. The backs I hand wrote Christmas greetings.  They measure 2.5 inches square.

After drawing a sketch of a partridge, I carved the image into stamping rubber and stamped bristol board with permanent stamping ink, and painted them with watercolor. Cut the paintings into pear shapes and added the ribbon. I glued patterned scrapping paper to the back and added a Christmas greeting. They measure 7 in high.

Christmas Pet Portraits

These are the balance of the pet portraits I worked on before Christmas. I received some very nice comments about them and that makes me smile. The best thing is when my paintings give people joy :)

Two Bulldogs in progress

Two Bulldogs in progress

No rest for the weary :)
Sprayed the first portrait with fixative and while waiting for it to dry, I started on another one.

(originally posted 12/14/13 6:45 PM)

More progress on bulldogs

More progress on bulldogs

(Originally posted 12/15/13 10:49 AM)

Dragonfly ornaments

I've finally finished the last of the Christmas pet portraits. I'll post them all after Christmas. Resting this afternoon, then will tackle my own Christmas.

A couple weeks ago I did a little experimenting with rubber stamp carving making little ornaments. I carved a dragonfly in stamping rubber with lino carving tools and used it as a basis for my ornaments, stamping cardstock or heavy watercolor paper, then paint the cards individually.  The little stars/snowflakes I carved into an eraser on the end of a pencil with an exacto knife. I had to get permenant stamping ink because the regular ink kept smudging when I tried to paint them. I used metallic ink to border them. Then I added eyelets, ribbon and fancy swirl hooks. Each are 2 1/2 inches square. These are personal gifts, so I script Christmas messages on the back.  I may make a version of these next year to sell at shows. 

Let me know what you think.

2 more beautiful cats

I stopped posting the paintings I'm working on the past few days, since one of my clients was concerned about the recipient might see it and ruin the surprise.

Delivered this painting today - she said I could share it since the recipient won't see it.  :)

3 dogs finished

Finished the 3 dogs this morning. Soft pastel 10x8

Hard at work on another portrait - 3 doggies :)

Pair of cuties finished

This one was a little challenging, but finally finished. 
Working on these pet portraits for clients who are giving them as Christmas gifts kinda makes me feel like a Santa's elf.

advice from Vonnegut

Working on another Pet Portrait - two kitty buddies

working on another pet portrait - these guys are just too cute.

Discovery Publications

I work with a great group of people for Discovery Publications as a graphic designer. Our updated website will put you in the Christmas mood :)
Plus you can read the December issues online.

www.discoverypubs.com