Original acrylic painting on canvas of a lovely black Labrador Retriever dog, sitting in a field of red poppies
A selected range of quality products featuring this this lovely painting of this sweet girl “Poppy” can be seen below and are now available for purchase. Ideal Christmas gift for the labrador lover in your life!
VIEW ALL PRODUCTS FEATURING “”POPPY” LABRADOR DOG ART
This is a small acrylic painting I am working on of Gilley, a rescue Greyhound from the UK. Greyhounds have the most beautiful, liquid, expressive eyes that are an absolute joy to paint. As a breed, Greyhounds have such a regal bearing that the deep purple background seemed appropriate for Gilley’s Pet Portrait.
With these smaller paintings, I am really trying to loosen up and capture the essence of the animal without being totally pre-occupied with capturing every last detail like I normally do in my pencil portraits.
I usually do my initial sketch on paper then transfer it to the canvas, but I thought I would just sketch straight onto the canvas this time.
But graphite on canvas dosn’t erase very well, so next time I will transfer my sketch the usual way.
Gilley’s face still need some more work and I need to finish painting the sides of the canvas as I have the painting continueing around the edges.
(8″x10″, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas)
Michelle
RedBubble.com is a new Australian online Art Gallery and Creative Community where you can purchase high quality prints and t-shirts with artwork, photography and digital imagery submitted by a gallery full of Australian artists.
I have recently set up my own gallery at RedBubble so that I can offer prints of some of my artwork and photography for sale. I will also be able to offer prints and t-shirts (and other products as they become available) of commissioned art to my clients.
Please click here to visit my RedBubble Gallery.
I only have a couple of images available for sale right now, but will be adding more as soon as I have a chance to re-scan images at a higher resolution than I use for display on my website gallery.
At the moment it is only for deliveries within Australia, but I am sure that in time, Red Bubble will expand to include many more items that will be available for purchase worldwide.
I have contemplated opening a store at Cafepress for a long time, and once I have my RedBubble gallery up and running I will probably look into Cafepress again.
Michelle
Taking nice photographs of pets and other animals is the easy part when you know how - part of it involves taking hundreds at a time:). That’s the best thing about digital cameras, taking hundred’s of photos every day isn’t expensive like it was in the days of film.
But learning to take good photographs is only the start , you really need to learn how to use a good graphics program like Photoshop, or at least that’s what I tell myself after I’ve spent *another* three hours playing with a photo;) Seriously though, there are so many cool effects that you can do with graphics programs that it is so worth the time and effort that it takes to learn how to use them.
Generally speaking, it is always better to get everything with the lighting, pose and background as perfect as possible before you take the photo. But sometimes with animals that is just not possible – especially when photographing cats. If you have a cat, well then you know that cats just do what they want when they want and you really just have to work with them rather than against them. Ha ha – otherwise you end up with a cat-astrophe!
The first photo below is an original photo of one of our cat’s, Tara and is a good example of the background not being perfect. Tara is not a particularly affectionate cat and she really does not like having her photo taken so good photos of her are few and far between (actually, that is an understatement, judging by her reaction when she sees it, I am sure she thinks that the camera is some sort of cat-torture-device!).
However, I managed to snap this photo of her as she was running away from my camera/cat-torture-device only because she stopped to give me this look of disgust:)
Unfortunately, in the photo it looks like she has a stick growing out of her ear and under her chin.
Thank goodness for Photshop because I was able to remove the stick that was growing out her ear, as well as the bit under her chin. I also burned the background edges to focus more on Tara’s face and I lightened her eyes just a tad. Viola! Now I finally have a photo of Tara worth having enlarged and framed!
In a similar fashion, using the clone stamp, healing brush and blur tools of various diameter I was also able to remove the collar and tags from this photo of Jess, and then burn in a black background so that the focus is now directly on Jess. Oh yeah, and I removed the gooby drool hanging from her bottom lip (the Schmacko’s made her do it!)
Taking a photo from this…
To this….
Although I really need to put a white border around it so that the edge of the photo shows up against the black of this page.
I’ve always believed that Photography is in itself an artform, and just like photography, using a graphics program to enhance or improve photos is just like learning to use another art medium (like pastels or oil paint). At some stage in the future I’d really like to explore abstract nature photography combined with digital manipulations because I think that the possibilities for creating unique art would be endless, and a lot of fun. Course I will have to work out how to fit another three or four days into the week just to find the time:)
I was lucky enough to fit in a photo shoot today, this time of a gorgeous Shih Tzu puppy called Sophia. She is just the sweetest little thing and spent more time trying to climb into my lap for a cuddle than posing for the camera.
Ain’t she cute?
It’s a hard life for a playful puppy!
More photos of Sophia can be viewed in my Photo Gallery.
Shih Tzu Breed Profile:
The Shih Tzu is a happy natured breed that loves children and other animals. They are alert and are usually good watch dogs. They are a low maintenance breed in regards to excercise and feeding requirements, however they do require thorough daily grooming to prevent matting of their long double coat, although pets can be clipped regularly for easier maintenance. Shih Tzu’s are a suitable breed for living in small apartments.
Shih Tzu’s are very intelligent and although they can be stubborn, gentle and persistant training make these dogs a pleasure to own.
They are generally a healthy breed, although renal dysplasia and slipped stifles or kneecaps is not uncommon (and the reason for purchasing a puppy through a reputable breeder or Rescue organisation).
As they also have slightly protuding eyes, they can be prone to injury. The biggest health problem with this breed is caused by neglecting the coat which can lead to tangles, hot spots, painful mats and skin infections – daily grooming or frequent clipping are essential for this breed.
More information on this lovely breed can be found on the American Shih Tzu Club website.
Technorati Tags: photography, pet photographer, Photo Gallery, artist, artwork, photography shoot, puppy, pet portrait, pet photography, dog, Shih Tzu
aking photographs of animals is not always as easy as it may seem, particularly capturing images that suitable to use as reference material for a Pet Portrait, so, knowing what I need in a good reference photo, I have offered a photography session for local (Perth) clients for a while.
I enjoy photography so much that I am planning on expanding my business in 2007 to include Pet Photography as well as Pet Portraiture. Definitely the best of both world’s (art and photography) and the best part is I get to play with lots of animals!
The two below are of my Cat Tara (our rather unsociable cat who thinks that all humans except our eldest daughter have germs) and Gus, a gorgeous Rottweiler that I had the privelege of photographing last week.
Enjoy!
Michelle
