Back at it with traditional pet portraits

This pet portrait of my dear small dude of 16 years was therapeutic for me. I’ve painted furby many times but never quite felt the sort of depth and feeling in my paintings before. He was never groomed properly like a Pomeranian should be. I gave him baths in the sink and called it good. The use of pink as a background is pleasing with the blonde and golden fluff colors. Such a tiny nose he had. 😑 I miss him so much. Currently working on a series of pets painted traditionally as to mix up my mediums. I really believe I can confidently paint both digitally AND traditionally. It works! I love it and am excited to begin!

The painted pet portrait series will be listed and for sale on eBay very sooooon!

Acrylic paint on 8x10 canvas. 💔😭💔😭💔

 

Custom pet portrait etsy listing coming sooooon!

Not your average pet portraits! 

I’m super excited to offer these unique pet portraits for sale in my Etsy shop real soon. This is one look of pet portraits that I’m interested in creating for my dog moms and cat moms! (The second option will be a peeking pet that is more painterly and involved) this first option is a full body on a pad of grass and flowers to match the palette. It’s a simple yet stylized look of cats or dogs. 

Single pet for now. 

Turnaround time is 1-10 days after one proof. 

Instant download. 

Print ready. 

Digital print file. 

Not a physical print. 

Jpg and PNG 8x10 size (300 dpi) file for easy printing on art paper or upload to Walgreens on a mug! 

Like I said-not your average pet portrait!♥️

 

R e s t easy dear Razzy

I would almost say my Etsy business is based and inspired by my silly black cat Razzy. I’ve photographed and painted her multiple times and prints are available in my Etsy shop. She has won 2 photography awards at the start of her living at our home in 2009. See the recognition page in my blog here. My paintings of her are her as a kitten as I imagine her. Goofy. Spazzy. Bossy. Bitchy. Shoes were a favorite to pee on. She had a special button. Touch her and her purr motor switched on. 14 years of cat craziness. I will miss you. 

Rest easy dear Razzy♥️♥️♥️

 

Puppycatandmouse progress and to new continued creations for 2023!

Stickers!Peeking panda bear sticker

Totes!AOP tote bag

Printables!Instant

Mugs!Mugs

Trusty eBay seller since 2007!?!?

Three months since I opened my Etsy shop. Currently have 53 listings and 11 sales. 2 are organic. Rest are family and friends!!! Thanks guys for supporting me! I had a goal of 100 listings by the EOY but it’s not what matters. My quality and time that it takes to properly create the products and list them accurately is my focus. I do completely understand the logistics of product listings and how it may take 90 days for algorithms to catch up. My products will soon enough be ranking higher slowly but surely. I’m patient and do believe in slow growth. For anything and everything. 

I have this routine of re working and modifying and enhancing an old design plus creating a brand new design twice a week. Sprinkles of variations of current designs plus POD. Mugs. Candles. Totes. To start. Nothing complicated. And different price points as well. I have a AOP tote for about 11$.  And another organic tote for $30. I have a stock of 50 stickers that were printed from stickerAPP. With a cool NO plastic product packaging! A variety of sample wall art prints in glossy and fine art paper. Ugh the matte fine art paper is to die for from Mpix. Looks AND feels like real authentic watercolor prints. All of these products have links to my Etsy shop!

I recently unlisted all of my eBay listings. I did not close u the shop but rather put it on hold. I do regret choosing eBay over etsy. Ten plus years of solid product sales with over 500 reviews and 100% feedback score through eBay. I now have to earn my customers trust with the new biz. And I also need to let go of that reminder. This new biz is fresh and exciting and all of ME and my creations. Hard ass work since July of this year when it finally occurred to me that instead of simply creating and posting art and hoping for the best I should absolutely monetize it!

I love creating new products! I just started offering pet portrait commissions. The traditional canvas portraits are just getting started as well. Look for these and many new product listings coming as quick as a bunny!!!

I am actually feeling like I may be on to something big here. 2023 will be chock full of ideas and creations. Bring on the hard work cuz I’m ready for it. 

Done is better than perfect

 

Final print ready design of TOVI!

Sweet TOVI fur this picture works well!

Creating in photoshop but procreate is faster!

TOVI phone pic super low res file but DOABLE!

Currently designing some personalized and custom wall art. This guy is an example of a unique pet grief gift that I will be offering in my Etsy shop! After purchase you will email me 3-5 of your favorite pet photos. In 1-5 days you will receive a personalized pet name photo art in size 8x10”and 11x14”. Downloadable and print ready for you to frame for your wall or desk! This is very affordable and unique and I am realizing that the more designs I am creating the more I am seeing why I do what I do. From pet photography to pet paintings to simple and unique pet gifts. It’s grief. It’s forever living inside of me and this is truly how I learn to live with it while creating animal art. If you experience real trauma at an early age (10 y/o) and then once again earth shattering and life changing at age 35. You must learn to live with this grief. And creating art has been my thing. So here it goes. Pushing the art to the next game changing level. Every day I’m hustling. Because I have to to live. Done is better than perfect!

October my favorite month to stay organized!

Razzy enjoys her favorite lookout spot!

Ten Marilyn’s by Warhol is up on display for an 80’s look-Dougie approves!

The workspace is more organized for intense focus!

 

Leia completes the look and mood for this month!

This month has pushed me to organize not only my physical life but my future art project has forced me to create products and give each and every one plus it’s variation a home as to never lose them on my computer. The peeking panda art series has made me rethink the digital art world and how simply by staying organized and focused I can then truly create something from nothing and plop it in my Etsy shop to sell! My goal is to have a fully stocked shop (100+ products-which is sooooo doable) including not only a ton of digital art prints and calendars, print on demand products, stickers plus commissions as well! October is chilly and I love the fall foliage and brrrrish feels in the morning. Inspiring 🍁🍁🍁

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way”! 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Development of my digital art print shop on Etsy

Lola chihuahua modern print created in an hour and listed the same day

Since I began the digital painting journey back in the day of May of 2019-I have been simply drawing and painting and posting and hoping for the best with my art. Ok. Some people may find that satisfying but this July of 2022 it occurred to me that that was not enough. 3 months later I have completely re learned everything there is to be known about selling digital art online. Passive income is simply this:

Make a bunch of art

Open a shop on Etsy 

Let the money roll in. 

It’s so easy!

Stand by we will return after these messages!

22 easy steps for selling digital art (for passive income)

Idea (to create the item)

Creating (the art piece)

Uploading (the artwork)

Editing (the artwork)

Saving (the artwork)

Relearning (photoshop size ratios)

Saving (ratio templates)

Test printing (the samples)

Purchasing (the licensed mock-ups)

Creating (the mock-ups)

Saving (the mock-ups)

Designing (the shop)

Researching (the competition)

Searching (the proper keywords)

Memorizing (the proper meta words and descriptions)

Shooting (the videos)

Saving (the videos)

Pricing (the the items properly)

Listing (the products)

Uploading (the files)

Describing (the products)

Revising (the listings)

Sharing (the listed products on Pinterest and Instagram)

Repeat and start the process over again to list 100 different products as a goal to actually make sales because Etsy needs to trust in your product. (Yes you ONLY need to create each art piece listing once. Then your stock of 999 products of ONE design are set to auto pilot. THAT is ultimately passive income.) I haven’t even mentioned updating the listings and my website to stay new and fresh for the algorithm to rank me somewhere high up there for my target audience peeps to even consider buying my art. 3 months of some serious intense prep work. And I’m just getting started. Like I said it’s so easy. Only sell what you love. And they will stop by to buy your art!

 

Peeking panda and pets print series available in my new shop!

Peeking panda 12x18” print

Peeking Razzy 16x20” print

Peeking Clovis 20 x 20” print

 The initial decision to start selling my art as prints began only 3 months ago. I had a look at my work and was adding wildlife art along with the pet art. YouTube has taught me wonders. Since then it’s been quite a learning experience. The entire process for setting up a shop that sells digital downloads via etsy is a monumental task that does require not only creative art skills but also a technical skill. Did I mention business skills? Selecting the proper art pieces that actually look aesthetically appealing to a buyer is tricky. Relearning final file, templates and print size in photoshop as well as seo meta description and key words is something to memorize. What many people call passive income takes an enormous amount of solid and intense prep work. I am willing to do my due diligence because the the end result IS passive income. Above are the Mockup  designs that were purchased for commercial use so I have a license to use for my shop. They are absolutely lovely in my humble opinion!!! Modern and fresh interior design to display the fanciful and fun modern animal prints! I will have 15 peeking panda and pet prints available to purchase and download to your computer so you have the option to print from home or local print shop such as Walgreens-most affordable and good quality or a online professional high end shop such as finerworks. The largest print size is either a 20x20” or 16x20” or 12x18” depending on the frame you have. This is series one. New designs will be added as fast as a bunny!

Buy art because surrounding yourself with beauty is essential for life!

Affordable and enjoyable printables!

 

The scandi Norwegian version soon to be available for purchase in A4 size-plenty of  pet  options for this!

Pet printables series one size 11x14” available soon-series two will have size 16x20” as the largest printable size!

Making the step towards monetizing my art. I’ve been a pet photographer for years and transitioned to becoming a pet painter only 4 years into this and all the time I’ve been learning and taking my art to different levels such as traditional painting, YouTube channel, and Instagram Doggust challenges twice! It has occurred to me to maybe start monetizing my art but I was stuck for so long and never quite ready. I’ve spent a great deal of hours upon hours of learning my craft and style that I chose not to let the cute and fun art to go to waste. Painting each and every pet is a lengthy process. It’s a labor of love indeed. There is always the plan,subject,goal and then completing the final piece feeling pressure and doubt and so on for hours. Posting a piece on Instagram is good for the gallery. But it sinks to the bottom of the Instagram scroll pool. Stuck there in the digital world. Where it could possibly disappear forever. Idk how to explain properly but Instagram is a great instant gratification/dopamine hit for a moment. The gallery is neat and useful. But all the hours spent creating something from nothing needs to mean something more than a 2 second peek at a cute and unique piece of art. And that’s where Etsy wins. 

Printables. Digital downloads. Instant. Affordable. Art for the everyday person. I like to say pet prints are budget focused with an eye for maximum enjoyment. It’s a place to make a difference in your art. Selling you art online. Like not selling on eBay which is expensive(fees!)but super duper easy-I’ve been selling there for over ten years-or even the POD-print on demand-zazzle and red bubble which eats MOST of your royalty profits- And not yet selling from your actual website (I plan to sooooon!)which can be difficult and lengthy at first. It’s in between. Sure there are fees. But not for digital downloads. So that’s a win.  I do realize that. I’m ok with that. I’ll manage.

Pet photography brought plenty of joy but pet painting brings a whole different layer of art satisfaction!

I’m going to start with my original and unique pop up pet planners first. Then pet printables. And eventually offer custom pet portraits. So it’s a good mix of graphic design. Art prints. And original art. 

I’m following these steps I learned from a YouTuber and that is: improve on an existing product. Create something new. And then finally brand yourself. 

Pet art is timeless. It’s forever cute and classic. It will never go out of style. 

We loooove our pets and will do whatever it takes to make them oh so happy because they don’t judge.