Make it personal.

Affordable custom art for yourself or to give as a gift.

Thanks to my life-long friend, for asking me to create these beautiful pieces for her daughter and for letting me share them with you here.

In this blog I wanted to talk a little bit about custom art pieces. I am often hired to create commercial art for companies and organizations, but I am also available to create custom pieces for you or for you to give to as a gift. Another opportunity for me to help #spreadbeauty!

It started with fur babies.

A few years ago when my black lab Tessa was getting older I created an illustration of her, shown here. It was based from a photo of her in her favorite place, our family camp on a small lake in Vermont. She would spend hours in the lake, and then equally as long, drying off on the porch. My favorite part of this illustration are her eyes. It captures her sweet, kind personality.

Prior to the holidays this year, I was working on a few illustrations for clients, greeting cards, LinkedIn posts, but I wanted to do something more. I thought it would also be a good idea to try to promote pet portraits. Using the example of Tessa and a few others, I posted them on Instagram. I quickly had a few requests and I was in business!

My favorite part of this illustration are her eyes. It captures her sweet, kind personality.

Working from photographs and a little information about each pet from the owner or gift giver, I set out to capture their personality. Like the illustration of Tessa, I often focused on the eyes to do this. People had different reasons for wanting a portrait of their family pet. Often a gift for their spouse or another family member. In some cases, the pet had recently passed and they were giving their family member the portrait to memorialize their fur baby.

I don’t draw humans, but I will give it a try.

One of the people who contacted me about a portrait, was a life-long friend. She wanted to give her daughter a pet portrait as a holiday gift. She wanted to give her three in fact. She sent me a few photos of several of their pets. One featured only a dog, not a problem. But two other photos featured the family pets and her daughter! “I don’t do people, there is too much pressure to make them look like themselves, and they make me nervous. But for you, I will try.”

After working, reworking and agonizing over every detail of the illustrations, I finally deemed them “finished” and sent her a proof. She loved them, thankfully. The results are shown here (very top and left). I had them printed using my favorite fine art printer on archival Gilceé paper. My friend recently let me know again how much her daughter loved them and they had them framed to hang as a triptych in their home.

I guess I can no longer say, I don’t do humans! So if you have a need for a pet portrait, or a human and pet portrait, (yes I would prefer there is an animal in it) let me know.

Get your prints (and greeting cards) HERE

I hope you are enjoying my blog. Please consider sharing with a friend. If you are interested in a custom piece of art please contact me. Thanks again!