Click the icon at right to meet My Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Dogs    Click the icon at right to see a Demonstration of Animal Portraiture    Click the icon at right to see my Wildlife Artwork    Click the icon at right to see My People    Click the icon at right to see my Landscapes    Click the icon at right to see my Waterscapes    Click the icon at right to see Still Lifes and Flower Studies    Click the icon at right to see some Other Works such as house renderings and urban scenes...    Click the icon at right to see a variety of Cards and Prints and other merchandise available   To order notecards or small prints, click the icon at right to go to my Notecard Order Form   To order original artwork, click the icon at right to go to my Artwork Order Form    Click the icon at right to meet My Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Dogs    Click the icon at right to see a Demonstration of Animal Portraiture    Click the icon at right to see my Wildlife Artwork    Click the icon at right to see My People    Click the icon at right to see my Landscapes    Click the icon at right to see my Waterscapes    Click the icon at right to see Still Lifes and Flower Studies    Click the icon at right to see some Other Works such as house renderings and urban scenes...    Click the icon at right to see a variety of Cards and Prints and other merchandise available   To order notecards or small prints, click the icon at right to go to my Notecard Order Form   To order original artwork, click the icon at right to go to my Artwork Order Form    Click the icon at right to meet My Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Dogs    Click the icon at right to see a Demonstration of Animal Portraiture    Click the icon at right to see my Wildlife Artwork    Click the icon at right to see My People    Click the icon at right to see my Landscapes    Click the icon at right to see my Waterscapes    Click the icon at right to see Still Lifes and Flower Studies    Click the icon at right to see some Other Works such as house renderings and urban scenes...    Click the icon at right to see a variety of Cards and Prints and other merchandise available   To order notecards or small prints, click the icon at right to go to my Notecard Order Form   To order original artwork, click the icon at right to go to my Artwork Order Form    Click the icon at right to meet My Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Cats    Click the icon at right to see my Commissioned Dogs    Click the icon at right to see a Demonstration of Animal Portraiture    Click the icon at right to see my Wildlife Artwork    Click the icon at right to see My People    Click the icon at right to see my Landscapes    Click the icon at right to see my Waterscapes    Click the icon at right to see Still Lifes and Flower Studies    Click the icon at right to see some Other Works such as house renderings and urban scenes...    Click the icon at right to see a variety of Cards and Prints and other merchandise available   To order notecards or small prints, click the icon at right to go to my Notecard Order Form   To order original artwork, click the icon at right to go to my Artwork Order Form

ANIMAL PORTRAITURE I always work from photographs to create a portrait of an animal, usually compiling two or more (or a whole photo album of) photographs to accurately study and render the physical characteristics of the image which the commissioner desires. But a portrait, human or animal, is not just a picture of the subject's physical characteristics. An accurate portrait captures as much of the subject's emotional and spiritual traits as is possible, and this is true for animals as well as people. In animal portraiture, I endeavor to get to know the animal either by a face-to-face meeting or by interviewing the animal's human companion(s), then instilling as much of what I have gathered into the work as I can. To date I have completed 68 portraits of cats and dogs whether individually, together, even with their human companions. You can see some of current portraits at my New Works page, including a step-by-step photo essay of whichever is my latest portrait... YOUR ANIMAL COMPANION AS FINE ART They may be prizewinners or bedraggled street survivors, but no matter—each is precious and fills our lives with joy. And our animal companions were meant to be shared; we can spend hours recounting memorable moments to fellow pet companions. Animals are fascinating and beautiful, and I enjoy the challenge of creating their likeness on paper in whatever medium suits the event best. My cats are the reason I am an artist today—they inspired me to share them with others in the best way I could, and I have spent years developing my skills and talent with their likenesses. A portrait of your animal companion is different from a photograph; I create a composite portrait from many photos and perhaps a meeting. In doing so, I can remove a background from a scene and add another, include toys or even group animals together in a way they’d never pose. More than a few of the portraits I have created have been memorials to pets who are gone but will never be forgotten. Many have also been portraits of a friend’s or family member’s pet given as a special personalized gift. And in the end, you have a piece of original artwork. Your pet’s portrait need not be a face forward shot of a classic pose—a good portrait captures the attitude of its subject. It can be a picture of a typical event in your pet’s daily routine, or one of those singular moments you love to tell everyone about. The more interesting, the better it describes your best friend, and the more I enjoy creating it.   Working from your photographs, your custom portrait can include one or more pets and even family members (I do people, too), in pastel, pencil, pen and ink, watercolor or colored pencil. Portraits can be any size or shape (within limitations, of course), and you don’t need to have the perfect picture to get the pose you really want; I usually work from several photographs to create one portrait. And even with a good photo, I usually request a few extra photos to make sure I can clearly see markings and coloring, and if possible, I like to meet my subjects so that I can get to know their personalities and snap a few more photos. Following is a demonstration of just how it's done, showing my process for both a multiple cat portrait and a single dog portrait. Ripley, Murphy, O.G., Veda and Missy Kitty pastel, 25" x 12" The process is different for each portrait depending on what's needed. This portrait needed just about all the tricks I have in my little bag! I had the opportunity to visit their home and meet each one of them, and so spent about two hours following them around and photographing them in their habitat and with their habits, and talking to their mom about each one of them. Being able to photograph them myself gives me the best visual information--after all, would you photograph just your cat's tail anticipating that someday you might need that photograph? I do. Their mom adopted each of them individually either from shelters or from rescue missions, so each had a story that added to what I gathered about their personalities. We talked about where the portrait might be hung to help determine size and certain elements of the design, but she left the details up to me. Depending on the complexity of the portrait and how many photographs I have to combine to get the scene, I may simply begin the drawing with no preliminaries or will create a pencil sketch to size. However, it's a rarity that I don't combine fewer than three pictures, and for this one I lost count of the number of pictures I combined. Thanks to the miracle of modern electronic methods, I can now go to my computer, scan the photos, and, using the same software I use to manipulate photos and artwork for my graphic arts, crop, resize, combine and retouch each subject, then combine them into a final finished composite. This, of course, means I have to make up shadows and highlights and the lay of the fur when I get down to the final drawing. When designing the posture and setting, I try to place the subjects against a background area which will complement their looks, and in combining multiples like this, I try to pair together animals which are friendly with each other and keep the enemies far apart. For this portrait, I created two composites which I liked equally, and so did my client, but in the end the spot over the fireplace made the decision for the long narrow format. Each of the subjects is a composite of at least two photographs for face, paws, tail, eyes, ears, etc. I had an idea to make a bay window with windowseat for them all because the light was so beautiful and each of them visited this spot regularly. I then combined each of the individual composites, added the window in the background, and sent it off to my client for approval. When I began work, I enlarged the composite to the actual size of the finished drawing, printed it out, covered the back with a dark shade of pastel, and transferred it onto my drawing paper, which is an archival quality, 600-grit sanded paper. After generally filling in the actual colors in the drawing and checking to make sure that everything was in porportion and in proper perspective, I was ready to work the actual drawing at my easel, with all the reference photos near. I usually work the background first, then work one subject at a time, keeping the whole work at about the same level of detail. I may go over a portrait three or four times this way, each time working more color and detail into the work. In this case, because the window is a large portion of the work, I wanted to make certain all the structure and detail of it wouldn't compete with the subjects, so I left it with less detail and color than the subjects and the surface they're resting on. The final pass adds the highlights in the fur, the whiskers and the sparkles in the eyes. When they look back at me from the drawing, I know it's done. But it's not really done until my client reviews it to make sure I've gotten everything right--after all, they are your companions, and I'd be just as fussy about mine. In this case, Veda was just not right--she's a very tiny, slender cat, but shy, and the only clear picture I had gotten of her was of her hunched up a little scared under a table. Even though the image was accurate, it just wasn't Veda, so my client sent me a few more photos of just her and I reworked that area. Since I had to slim her down and make her a little taller, and Veda is primarily black against a pale background, I had to actually lift quite a bit of pastel off of the paper and start over in some areas. If you compare the finished portrait at the beginning of this article with the sketch directly above, you'll see the difference in Veda's image. At left is a detail of Ripley and Murphy.     Chelsea pastel, 21" x 15" Chelsea was a challenge because she was an "emergency portrait" as I call them--the recipient's birthday was about a month away and it was to be a surprise. He had mentioned that he'd like me to do a portrait of his dog, so the whole family went together to commission me and conspired to keep the deal a secret. Lucky for me I know them pretty well, and could amble over there with my camera for a visit and to take pictures "for whenever you might decide what you want for Chelsea's portrait". He had originally wanted another pose for Chelsea, but the chances of finding that picture in time were slim to none. I took my photos, plus some others gathered from the family, and, as above, created a composite on my computer. Not knowing exactly what to do for the background, I was just going to add a complementary color, but since he often walked Chelsea in a park, the outdoor setting was suggested and worked out just fine. I relied on the many landscapes I've rendered for that, and fabricated it to suit the portrait. The other challenge of Chelsea was her face--she has unique folded ears, oval eyes and a muzzle that is not quite Lab. Unfortunately, I didn't have any pictures of these details in the positions I needed for them to be, and so first came up with this position for her head and face. This is quite typical of her--looking off into the distance with alertness and curiousity--and the rest of the family really liked it, but we all knew that Chelsea's dad would rather she be looking right at him. And then there's the matter of the mouth. Most dogs hang their tongue most of the time, even just a little, and if they are portrayed with their mouth completely closed, they look much too serious and stiff. I had scant materials to work with in order to turn her head, focus her eyes directly at the viewer and open her mouth, but knew that this was what I wanted to accomplish. If my subject is a full-breed animal, I can often find enough materials in books and literature on the breed to use for details like this, but Chelsea has a little too many breeds to be able to use this. But having been able to meet her and gathering the visual details just from observation, I slowly worked these changes into her face. My creative license passed the test: in the end everyone was pleased that this was the dog they had grown up with, and her dad was happy to have her image, especially since she's getting older and with a few health problems. Not to mention his surprise that everyone had managed to keep it a secret! You can see some of current portraits at my Portraits of Animals virtual store. COSTS AND TERMS Prices are quoted per job, and include only the drawing (no mat or framing; this is extra, see below). Portraits start at $75.00 per subject for a black and white 8” x 10”, and $125.00 per subject for a color 8” x 10”; prices may increase according to size of work. Adding a background, extra objects (toys, etc.) and difficult coat patterns are extra according to their complexity. I reserve the right to limit the content according to the finished size so that the subjects don't become so small that details are impossible. I also reserve the right to refuse if I don't have adequate materials--I can only do so much with some photographs! Example: Cost of "Ripley, Murphy, O.G., Veda and Missy Kitty" was $850.00 ($125.00 per subject plus $100.00 for the background) Example: Cost of "Chelsea" was $300.00 ($150.00 for the subject, $50.00 for compiling photos, plus $100.00 for the background) We will discuss your portrait and agree on what you will supply and what I will do with it, and sign a contract before I start your portrait. I request half of the full price of your portrait as a down payment. When your portrait feels just about done to me, I will show it to you (if possible), and we can discuss any possible changes or additions or agree that it is done. I request the balance before I frame your portrait and hand it over to you. Framing is charged as a separate item, and we can discuss the framing when you contract for your portrait. Since my portraits are in pastel, I have to provide some sort of frame before it leaves my possession. However, I am a skilled custom framer (I have always framed my own work, plus a fair amount of framing for others), keep my costs to a minimum and give a discount when I'm framing one of my portraits. All photographs and other materials which you give me to produce the portrait are returned in their original condition when the portrait is finished. Animal artwork is not limited to pictures of your own pets, but may include pictures of any sort—wildlife pictures taken from a book or magazine, for instance. In addition to portraits of your pets, I also offer portraits of your people, your house, or any other item of which you may want a portrait. I can always hold on to a portrait until a holiday, birthday or other event arrives, and I can keep a secret if the portrait is a gift.

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