Dogs in August AKA Doggust 2021-1/2 way through the month-my fave dog drawing

 Doggust is a Instagram yearly drawing challenge every August started by a few dog lover artists that has been steadily growing every year. Draw a different dog every day in August or just draw the same dog differently every day for 31 days. I challenged myself last year and completed all 31. This year I’m halfway through the month and am on a roll-I can appreciate the daily practicing of drawing/painting of dogs. I know I struggle with my drawing skills and so I feel this is a fantastic way to speed up honing my skills. I feel I really have improved a bunch and my art style has def evolved. I just have to trust process of drawing/painting and believe it will in the end turn into something worthy to appreciate. This lil guy/gal is currently my fave. Soft pastels and dry brush for that doggy texture! I’m loving the dark and moody textural background I’ve created-I feel like I have to bring the velvet painting vibe back to the future. Goal is to focus in like a laser on the puppy dog subject and his layers of fur texture. A white background distracts and is quite blinding to me-now to experiment with ways for final output on to a dark textured paper without losing the depth and color. Dogs of summer ……

Fur-bruary 28: Moxi the Shorkie

 So I've finally reached the end of the month of Fur-bruary! The ultimate goal was to  be consistent in daily posts that included my work as a photographer and painter. To view the progress of my art and to commit to every day social media! It’s hard to motivate myself but not impossible. (Wine and coffee helps) What was more of a challenge for me personally was the Doggust (August) month last year where I actually illustrated/painted a different dog everyday. This final image is of a sweet and dear mutt named Moxi who belonged to my sister lucy. She was obsessed with her mama and was always by her side. I dog sat her a few times and her description of fun with me was collecting landscape rocks as a game. That and modeling for pet portraits. I miss her. Final pet portrait painted in oils/gouache and dry ink in procreate on my iPad pro. 

Fur-bruary 26: Blue Pug

 Blue pug was one of my favorite oil paintings of the dog series of last year. I felt the blue and green tones for a black dog brought some fun and whimsy to his darling personality. The google eyes are irresistible and I’m super happy with the results!

Fur-bruary 25: Ming Toy The Fluffy Pekingese

                                      

When I choose to set up a photo shoot I prefer to book as many clients as possible during the August- November months of the year. This is ideal to produce the absolute best photographs. This lil fluffy pal posed so nicely outside in the wooded landscape while a light breeze was flowing though his feathery Farrah faucet fur. Ming Toy turned out pretty good as a painted portrait using oils in procreate. 

Fur-bruary 1 2021 Pet Portrait Challenge-Cover Star Lulu The Maltese

 

Today is the official Fur-bruary month of my pet photography portraits transformed into a pet painting. I’m challenging myself yet again to see if I’m motivated enough to post a new portrait every day for 29 days. All of the portraits will be displayed with a soft pink background and will include dogs as well as cats. Most portraits were photographed years ago and the paintings were painted last year plus I will post some fresh new faces to makes things interesting. Fur-bruary is more than likely a hashtag on Instagram so I’m sure I’ve got post there as well as I’ve taken a reprieve from social media for about a couple of months now. Many things on my mind plus December and January are the most challenging and depressing months for me so the positive mental energy is never present. But here I am in a new year with new positive outlooks and the motivation is slowly returning. The cover star is Lulu. She was a shy and sweet as kitten lil Maltese puppy dog. I’m really happy with the way she turned out!