Cat Portrait: Working with Poor Quality Reference Photos

Still needs some work...and I think this cat looks way too kitten-like in proportions, but it's deadline is today so this is probably the final portrait.

Here's the reference picture I was given:

And here's the portrait:

And a zoomed in pic of the face:

The aww factor

Another non art-related post, but the aww factor is so high I can't resist. Neotomrama posted an entry about this blog called Zooborns. Each entry features newborn baby animals born in zoos around the world...such as these Pallas kittens born in The Bramble Park zoo in South Dakota:

And these Red River Hog piglets (an animal I'd never heard of..look at momma's ears!) born in the Cincinnati Zoo:

Go check it out, There's lots of interesting info about each of the newborns...beware the overwhelming cuteness.

pet portraits

I got a small job doing a pencil portrait of my vet's receptionist's friend's cat (whew.) but haven't been able to do it yet because I'm having computer troubles. See, the picture she gave me it the only picture she's got, so I don't want to get it crumpled or dirty--So I need to scan it in to my computer (then I'm going to enlarge it to the size I want the actual portrait to be before printing it out.) Well, my computer at home doesn't like having things plugged into both USB ports apparently. so when I plug in my scanner/printer then my mouse stops working. And I can't enlarge the picture very well with out a mouse. Very annoying. So I need to bring the photo to work to scan it in and I keep forgetting to. I wish I was better at computer things.

So here's a quick pencil portrait of my cat Gypsy since I haven't finished (or started) the portrait of that lady's cat yet.

Robert Hunt

Neatorama did a post about the stories behind the logos of various big Hollywood studios. One of the Sudios talked about was dreamworks, Who's logo was painted by Robert Hunt...which led me to go to the guy's website. What an amazing illustrator/Fine artist. Anyone who actually reads this be sure to check out the "alter ego" link on his site.

http://www.roberthuntstudio.com/

EDM

Challenge #173: Draw something from memory.

I chose My niece, Merrigan. I don't get to see her much. Last time I visited she discovered this cat toy... much to the frustration of my sister's cats. Toby, (one of said cats) in particular, would hear the jingle and come a-running...only to find the baby attached to his toy. The look of chagrin on his face can not be described....

Can you roll your tongue?

My dog can.

They're like giant windows, with whatever view you want

A few years ago, I painted a mural at a friend's parent's house by their stairs. Now they are having me paint another mural in a coat closet (that is not being used as a coat closet, the door is left open so its more like...a nook.)

I'll post pics of the new mural later when I have a little more done, but I took pictures of the staircase while I was over there the other day.

It's hard to get good pics of it because there's another wall on the other side of the stairs...

I wish I knew more people who wanted mural's done in their house...they're lots of fun to paint. I'd paint a couple in my own house but I can't really decide what to do exactly. Deciding what to paint in my own house is kinda like picking a tattoo...Its something I'd have to see every day and because it'd by my artwork, I'd start noticing all the flaws in it as soon as it's done. Course..a mural is slightly less permenant than a tat...

Pedro

Now that the sun is setting later lately, I've got more time after work to excercise my dogs...and man do they have a lot of pent-up energy. I took pedro to the dog park this weekend, and he spend much of the time there just zooming past the other dogs at full speed trying to tempt them to chase him. He's so fast! I know i'll probably never capture his chasemechasemechaseme run on camera...but he looks pretty darn cute when he does it. He raises his hackles and his tail gets all weird and curvy and I swear his feet only touch the ground every other stride or so. And so far none of the other dogs even came close to catching him.

Bigfoot again

Process

Started working on this illustration last night. It's too late for Illustration Friday, but oh well. I'll add more as I progress.

Bigfoot again

It's just an Urban legand that Bigfoot stinks. The truth is, he bathes on a regular basis.

destructive dog vent

Not exactly art-related, but I feel the need to vent. A while ago I traded a portrait for a dog collar. A really nice dog collar that I was extremely proud of. Here's bella modeling it:

Well the collar is no more. Pedro destroyed it. (see below mug shot of the little devil)

I left them alone for maybe 20 minutes, and that was enough time for Pedro to convince Bella to lay still and let him chew her collar off (after which she probably actually helped him eat part of it.)

Choose

Illustration Friday's theme for this week is "choose." Such a great topic, its hard to choose what to draw. (haha)
ANYway...the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of "choose" is choosing between doing what's right and what's wrong. Again, so many posiblities. I might have to do more than one...
For now though, I decided to go with original sin. Of course, Eve had to choose to take the first bite, but I thought a scene of her handing the already-bitten-into fruit to Adam; and him hesitantly taking it would be more interesting. Here's the rough sketch:

Still need to figure out the bite in the apple, his sholder/arm (to the left of his hand) and his hair...

What's in the basket?

Really the "wolf" was not a villain, he was just Grannie's pet wolf who had gone out to meet Little Red and walk with her the rest of the way to the house. Then, when they got there, the wolf did not eat Grannie, he ate the dog biscuits little red's mom had been considerate enough to add to her basket.

another one

my friend Matt and his ball python, George

my friends are weird

my buddy, robert as a Rob-a-lope:

just a little cartoon

my sig. other likes bigfoot. so sometimes I draw him stupid cartoons of bigfoot.