I’m very proud to announce that my digital painting of my Border Collie dog Taj, has been voted into the Top 10 entries in the Redbubble Corel® New Masters Portrait Challenge.
Taj - Border Collie Portrait
Art prints and gifts featuring this artwork are available for purchase from my art store.
Its unbelievable how fast this year has gone, it seems like I blinked and suddenly its Christmas! I have a ton of new artwork to add to the blog and to my Zazzle and Redbubble giftshops as well as having a new streamlined designs for both my photography website and this one for my art and pet portrait commissions. I am definitely being over-ambitious to think I can get all that done in the immediate future, so for the time being will just update this blog with recent artwork and a number of awards that I received at a recent art show that I entered (which I am very pleased with;)
Going back to my original comment about it nearly being Christmas, Pet Portrait Paintings are a unique and memorable Christmas present for animal lovers! I will be able to accept a limited number of Pet Portrait commissions for delivery before Christmas – and to really get into the Christmas spirit, I am offering Christmas Special for the following traditional and digital portraits (cameo portrait, one subject with plain background):
Traditional Charcoal/Graphite Drawing:
Drawing supplied matted and ready to slip into a standard 11”x14” frame. Normally $250.00 Christmas Special $150.00
Digital Painting Portraits:
Small digital file delivered by email suitable for printing up to 8”x10”, unlimited personal reprint permission, non-exclusive print rights: normally $200 Christmas Special $100.00
Large digital file suitable for printing up to 16″x20″, unlimited personal reprint permission, non-exclusive print rights: normally $250.00 Christmas Special $150.00
Exclusive Digital File: printable up to 16”x20” Exclusive print rights: normally $300.00 Christmas Special $200.00
Digital Portraits Printed on Gallery Wrapped canvas (30mm or 40mm profile) and hand finished by artist:
11”x14” normally $300.00 Christmas Special $200.00
12”x12” normally $330.00 Christmas Special $230.00
16”x16” normally $380.00 Christmas Special $280.00
A 30% deposit, one or more photographs for me to work from and a brief description of the subjects personality is all that is required to secure a place on my waiting list!
Please order early to ensure delivery prior to Christmas. Additional pets in portraits $50.00 digital, $80.00 traditional graphite/charcoal drawings. Detailed Backgrounds, tack, equipment, costumes from $40.00
Unfortunately traditional acrylic and oil paintings on canvas are not available for Christmas commissions as there is just not enough time to complete them.
Please contact me for additional information or to book your Christmas Pet Portrait commission.
I am finally catching up to date with my blog posts, just a few more to do now:) This is Ralphie, the first pet portrait I have painted in my “Inspire me to Paint” series.
Ralphie - Pet Portrait ©2010 Michelle Wrighton
Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing my art and photography with your family and friends!
Michelle Wrighton: Animal, Wildlife & Landscape Fine Art & Photography
FACEBOOK: Michelle Wrighton Artist
TWITTER: artistMichelleW
BUY CUSTOMIZED ART POSTERS, ART PRINTS, T-SHIRTS & GIFTS: Zazzle
BUY CARDS, PHOTO PRINTS, CANVAS ART AND FRAMED ART PRINTS: Redbubble
A few people have asked recently how I create my digital paintings so I thought I would write a post with some work in progress images to show how I paint.
There are a number of ways to create art in a digital format, there really is no right or wrong way, it is all up to the individual artist. My background is a lifetime spent working with traditional art materials – graphite, charcoal, colour pencils, pastels, acrylics and oils – and I utilize all this experience and knowledge I have gained working with traditional art mediums to paint digitally. I use a Wacom Intuos 4 digital graphics tablet and electronic art pen and the powerful real media emulation program Corel Painter XI to literally paint just like I do with traditional mediums, just electronically. The Painter program allows me to choose the type of medium (charcoal, pastels, watercolours, oils etc), the size and type of brush and blenders I wish to use, as well as the support I want to paint on such as canvas, sanded pastel papers, watercolour papers etc.
All of these variables respond just as they do with real life mediums in regards to the application, mixing and blending of colour. The pressure sensitive tablet and pen records not only the movement of the pen (digital paintbrush) as I move my hand, but also the angle I hold the pen at, as well as the pressure that I apply to make each mark – essentially all of the variables that make a particular mark with traditional art materials are duplicated by the amazing technology that I have available to use.
The biggest difference for me between painting digitally and painting traditionally are all positive – the lack of mess, no wasted time setting up, lack of fumes & toxic ingredients (an important factor when you have auto-immune issues), no paintbrushes to clean, no wasted paint, no running out of the perfect colour mix, being able to paint for five minutes at a time if that is all I have available or if I unexpectedly get interrupted. Probably more important to me personally as an artist though, is that painting digitally has allowed my creativity to flourish in a way that has never happened with traditional art mediums – I put this down to working photo realistically which is very time consuming and mentally draining.
With digital painting I am free to follow the slightest hint of inspiration for trying something new, knowing that I can always go back to the last saved copy if that particular path of inspiration comes to a dead end. This is certainly not something I ever tried with traditional mediums for fear of completely destroying dozens of hours of work on a painting. LOL so I should probably add ‘liberating’ to the list of reasons that I love digital painting so much!
There is so much more that I could write about digital painting, but I will leave that for another post!
This is a painting I finished recently of a lovely grey arab photographed by fellow artist, Cathy Sheeter. I havn’t given this one a title yet, so if you have any good ideas, I would love to hear them!
Finished digital painting of a grey arab horse, © 2010 Michelle Wrighton
I met this gorgeous Dogue de Bordeaux some time ago at a dog show and new straight away that I would paint his portrait which I have finally managed to do. Actually, I ainted him a while ago now, but I’m still playing catch up with my blog! The Dogue de Bordeaux is still a rare breed, but most people will remember Tom Hanks’ co-star in the 1989 comedy “Turner & Hooch” and camera chomping dog in the Olympus Digital Camera advertising campaign.
Dogue de Bordeaux are believed to have originated in France over 600 years ago and are also known as the French Mastiff, Bordeaux dog, Bulldogue Francais, or simply DDB. They were originally bred to hunt, guard and fight and these imposing, fearless dogs were popular protectors of the noble and wealthy. Today, Dogue de Bordeaux are prized family companions for their loyal, devoted, playful and affectionate nature and sweet, balanced temperament and courage as a guard dog.
More information about this lovely breed can be obtained from the newly formed Dogue de Bordeaux Club of Australia.
Stormy Dogue - Dogue de Bordeaux painting by Michelle Wrighton
Greeting cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Stormy Dogue” can be purchased from my Redbubble giftshop:
A variety of other prints, tshirts, mousepads, coffee mugs and other items featuring ‘Stormy Dogue’ are available at my Zazzle giftshop.
Product selection from Zazzle
Thanks for visiting my blog and sharing my art and photography with your family and friends!
x Michelle
Michelle Wrighton: Animal, Wildlife & Landscape Fine Art & Photography
FACEBOOK: Michelle Wrighton Artist
TWITTER: artistMichelleW
BUY CUSTOMIZED ART POSTERS, ART PRINTS, T-SHIRTS & GIFTS: Zazzle
BUY CARDS, PHOTO PRINTS, CANVAS ART AND FRAMED ART PRINTS: Redbubble
Show Horse Pet Portrait Painting by Michelle Wrighton
Digital Painting of an Eventer.
Eventer - Horse sport painting by Michelle Wrighton
Greeting cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Eventer” can be purchased from my Redbubble shop:
Digital Painting of a gorgeous chocolate Labrador at the beach.
Bosco - Chocolate Labrador Beach Painting Pet Portrait by Michelle Wrighton
