Happy Holidays!

And all that!  Have a nice post-Christmas nap. 

Batch of Dog Portraits

And some more last minute dog portraits.

Kittyfaces

Oops, forgot to post even MORE animal portraits. Kitties today! 

Last Batch of Pet Portraits

Last batch to mail out for Xmas.  Whee!  I am probably taking these off Fiverr over the holidays so that people don't expect new ones in time for the holidays.   They are currently $5 plus shipping, so $12, but Fiverr does take a chunk out of it.  It was a fun speedpainting and skill building exercise, but until I level up in the Fiverr program and can charge $20+ a piece for them, it's not really worth it.

More Pet Portraits

And one more big batch to follow in time for Christmas after this...

Want one for yourself?  You get a fancy print!

http://fiverr.com/merzart/create-a-small-digital-painting-of-your-pet

Tiny Pet Portrait Prints

Here are a few of the finished prints from my happy little pet portraits.  All ready to be shipped out!

Fiverr Speedpaintings

Doing  a bunch of little skill builder paintings on Fiverr!  If you could like one, check me out:

http://fiverr.com/merzart

They're here! Moocards!

Look how pretty!  These will be going out with my new orders, and I may sell them as magnets. 

Made by moo.com. 

Prints? Prints!

In working on my yet-unnamed-animal-portrait project, I have been trying to research good ways to do prints. 

I recently stumbled upon Giclee Prints as a term.  I was in Chicago with my friend Dana Larson, (who is also an illustrator, www.zelaphas.com) and we found some absolutely gorgeous prints by Anastasia Mak.  The prints were very nicely color matched to the nearby paintings, and I noticed that they were giclee prints on canvas.

I started looking into the process, trying to figure out just what makes a giclee print, since I have a rather nice Canon Pixma Pro 9000 printer.  There were a lot of different definitions, but since Wikipedia seems to be the be all and end all of defining things, here's Wikipedia's definition of giclee prints:

"... the name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any inkjet print. It is often used by artists, galleries, and print shops to denote high quality printing but since it is an unregulated word it has no associated warranty of quality."

All right, so if that's it, the majestic Pixma Pro should do the trick.

I poked around the internet a bit more, and the points that stuck out were a little less open.
The majority or sources that I found agreed that the prints should be: made by a printer that has 8 or 12 colors, that the print is made from a high resolution scan or image, that it should be printed on a high quality paper or other substrate.  The one thing that waffled was if it MUST be a pigment ink or a dye-based ink. And this is where the Pixma sadly does not qualify.  But since the Chromalife 100 Dye inks that my printer uses are also rated for about the same as pigment ink... I'm happy to experiment with new paper types and see what happens.

SO!  In conclusion, get ready for prints!

In the meantime, my Society6 account handles my printing, so I wholeheartedly encourage you to buy them there!

Buy my prints at my Society6!  Hooray!

Tiger in Progress

The next animal portrait in my series of animal portraits!  I think I shall call is 50 Faces.  This will be number 6.

Here are a few progress stages. Sketch, color fill, line colors and overpainting, more detailing, more detailing...

Las Laguna Gallery Show

My piece "Coveting" is in the show, as well as "Deer Under Bell Jar".  Go check it out if you're in the area!

Heron Painting

Another handsome birdy!  Heron on blue. 

If you would like a print of this fella, check out

Heron and Ripples Prints, Society 6 Shop

Finished albino hawk image.   About 3 hours in Photoshop, 3 brushes used.

Ram Painting

Finished this handsome fella today!

Interested in prints? 

Ram's Head on Society 6

My Art To Be Shown in Las Lagunas Gallery

Two of my pieces will be in the "Animal Fairy Tales, Fables, Fact Or Fiction" show at Las Lagunas Gallery (http://www.laslagunagallery.com) from December 5th to the 21st.  

The pieces that got in are:

Coveting
Acrylic
14x18"

 












Deer in Bell Jar
Watercolor
6x8"














They are both framed up and look gorgeous!  I will try to snap a picture of them before I ship them out on Monday.