New home. New pad.

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Put up a gallery wall of my completed pieces today in hopes that it motivates me to get moving on my painting projects! I still have a big mess to sort through before I can get started but sometimes you just have to get going. And just do it for crying out loud. Dougie is super settled in and loves the backyard! The new smells are driving him crazy and I love that! Mental stimulation is gooood! I’m almost settled in my new pad and I truly love it!

 

Fur-bruary 27: Doug the Bowie Eyed Borsky

 This is not a typical pro photograph of a pet. It is rather a good example of a typical pet photo “happy snap” taken by your humble dog “photog” for a future pet painting. Things to consider in the photo reference when a potential client would like to commission you to paint their pet such as natural light, sharpness, angle of the picture and background. Backgrounds “should” be clear of any distractions. The angle should be taken from a low at the pets level-preferably. Should never be blurry. And the use of a flash is definitely forbidden. If these rules are mostly followed then a fun and fantastic portrait will be created!

Doug the Bowie eyed Borsky painted with oils in procreate. Handsome dude I must say. 

Fur-bruary 24: Rolf The Friendly Kitty Cat

 Rolf belonged to the neighborhood. On the local streets of the quiet town of Høybråten Rolf knew every secret hideout and the locals loved a friendly visit from Rolf the cool kitty cat. Rolf appears a bit angry in his photo but he’s only a gentle soul who is curious about new things. That’s all. Painted with oil paints in procreate. In the second photo I had just installed the paperlike smooth and luscious screen protector for my iPad Pro! It’s a truly lovely piece of textured like paper to paint and draw on. In love still. 

Fur-bruary 23: Jessica The Brown Staffy

 This beautiful portrait is a favorite of mine and I just knew I wanted to paint her in an abstract and whimsical style using gouache and inks for a fresh and fun look!

Fur-bruary 21: Brown Betty The Weiner Doggy

 

 Sweet Brown Betty the wiener doggy posed perfectly for the shot at a pet picture event at a local nursery. Painted with gouache and watercolors in procreate. 

Fur-bruary 20: Furby The Blonde Pom

                                                     

I’ll have dreams about this little fella about once a week rescuing him from danger. Holding his lil fluffy body and petting him tiny apple head. I miss him. 

Fur-bruary 19: Spooky The Halloween Kitty Cat

 Pooka noo. Sim sopp. See saw. Or simply spooky the Halloween kitty cat. He modeled for me many times and I painted this portrait with oils in procreate. Black cat love. 

Fur-bruary 18: Clovis The Silly Mutt

 

I’ve photographed this silly doggy a couple of times and this one photo captured him totally. Clovis was a wackadoodle dog and I’m glad I painted a fun and whimsical portrait of his goofball personality. Oil paint and inks for a fun and colorful final. 

Fur-bruary 17: Gizmo The Boston Terrier

         

                               

Did a little portrait session of this wee doll. Gizmo was a charming and quite portly Boston terrier that posed nicely for a few lovely shots. Painting done with oil pastels in procreate. 

Fur-bruary 16: Kali The Min Pin

                                     

I rather enjoyed painting this lil critter. The photographs of her are simply darling so the structure of her cute lil apple head was a really good learning experience using the oil paints in procreate. I don’t so much blend my colors and prefer intentionally adding and layering of each color. Never looking for preciseness and realism, but rather loose and Impressionistic.

Fur-bruary 15: Barney The Viszla

                                           

Taken at another fun pet event at the local dog park-Barney the Viszla doggy is painted with lovely pastels for interesting texture and pops of color. Check out those pork chop ears!

Fur-bruary 12: Vivian The Chihuahua Mix

                                                   

     Sweet Vivian with her rather cute spots painted all around. She is the chihuahua mix who is quite anti social but with a submissive sweet side to her. My favorite medium to paint has been oil pastels. I truly love the chalky rich texture it brings to the paper. Cutie patootie.                                                  

Fur-bruary 9: Jazz The Lovely German Shepard

 

Smart and obedient and drop dead gorgeous! Jazzy the lovely German Shepard posed in such a beautiful way here in this photograph taken in the early spring -I’m noticing the cherry blossom trees blooming in the background. I went through a oil pastels phase and used this medium quite a bit on my portraits. Love the chalky texture it creates. 

Fur-bruary 6-Calico Nabo Katten aka Neighborhood Cat

 

This photograph was shot in my old neighborhood in Oslo Norway a few years ago. I loved the dappled light that sprinkled over the neighborhood kitty cat so I decided to paint his charming loveliness. Oil paints in procreate on my iPad Pro. 

Fur-bruary 5: Doris The Senior Weimaraner Dog

 

The many shining stars at a fun and furry photo event at the local plant nursery this Weimar beauty needed a painting of her senior dog good looks. 
 

Fur-bruary 2: Cocoa The Miniature Gray Poodle

Photographed a few years back for a lovely elderly client who spent an awful lot of time primping and fluffing this fancy grey girl named Cocoa. I started painting her last year then stopped because I became increasingly frustrated with the design of her portrait. So, last night since I’ve already committed to 28 portraits I completed her in about an hour. Compared to the initial start of this portrait I spent 3 whole frustrated hours figuring her out. All the paintings are painted in procreate and I’m constantly learning about a new tool or a fancy new sophisticated way to speed things up. She has texture and depth to her fluffy curly wurly self. I’m loving this new rapid last minute speed paint. Happy with my results!

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! 

Darling Lil Bub the Cat Painted Pet Portrait 11X17" Acrylic

Lil Bub has been one of my favorite cat animals to follow on  instagram. Her precious purrsonality has captured all of our hearts. She's Royal (still working on the crown part) and deserves to be treated as such. Of course she's got loads of precious purrrsonality. The fantastic photos of her prove that. And cat whimsy. I don't know her purrsonaly (haha) but I'm willing to bet she's a whimsical cat. Which I tried to capture with the fun 'spatter dash' elements (fave word to describe some of my paintings) and lost and found pops of color. This is my version of her. Lil Bub Love.