Custom pet portraits

I don’t have anything planned for this post, so I’m just going to wing it, if you want to know the truth. But that’s how I make my art, too - on a whim, without much planning ahead of time. That might sound wishy washy, but it all ends up working itself out each time, so I’m not going to change my ways, thank you very much.

Let’s talk animals. Let’s talk blind contour. During the blind contour process, I look at either a photograph or an actual object (animate or inanimate), and I draw. I love love love drawing animals with this method. Each animal has their own unique personality, and this style of creating allows the full essence of each animal to really come through and shine.

With each animal portrait that I make, I feel as if I connect a bit and learn a lot about the animal I’m drawing (wild animals or domesticated, any/all). By drawing in this way, I have to slow down and really look and learn about the animal I’m drawing one inch at a time.

It’s almost like sitting and having a staring contest with someone and whoever laughs first loses. The difference being that there is no losing in art, and that you can laugh at the end of the drawing if something happened along the way that makes the end result come out super awesome (which, honestly, it often does).

Yes, there are times when the final image is a bit TOO abstract to move on with, but the majority of these works look awesome, and are instantly recognizable.

Bear with me here, I’m going to talk about my shop but I am NOT being salesy, so don’t run away and hide. So, I re-launched my Etsy shop, and mirrored the shop on my website as well. Both shop spaces are animal-focused, because I really connect with the animals and want to bring other humans along on that ride. I also put up listings of other original blind contour animal art I’ve made, so the shop isn’t solely just commissions (although there are a lot of commission listings there too). Hopefully it all catches someone’s eye and they want to see their little Fifi or Fido made into a line drawing masterpiece. If that happens, please feel free to reach out and we can start the process.

I offer two different listings for commissions: single pet (which is just as it sounds), or multiple pets. The only extra step is that I need the person purchasing the listing to send a photo of their pet, so that I have something to draw from.

I want to share the way I see things with people. This is the only type of artwork I’ve found that is a super reflection of whatever craziness goes on inside my head. I create this way and I’m like “wow, it gets me, it really gets me!” That, then, is followed up with a happy dance, of course. I can’t explain it. I don’t usually use words (hence not having blogged since August of 2021, oops), so I use art as my words, instead.

So there you have it! Animals! I honestly don’t know if anyone will see my artwork ever, so I’m just going to keep putting it out there and enjoy the process as I go.

(Say hello to Fifi and Fido for me, please!)