Attentive | German Shepherd Painting

Time for another series. I've been thoroughly enjoying my "Dogs With Toys" series, however, submissions of photos have been so slow...and I want to paint a VARIETY of dogs...so I just have to be patient and wait for people to send me their best photos of their dogs in order to do more paintings for that series. I *did* get two dogs at the local dog show playing with toys, so those will be painted for the series.

In the meantime, I decided I'd take a portion of the coolest of the 3,000+ photos I made at the dog show and do paintings based on them. :) Hence the new series..."At the Dog Show".


This is the first painting from the series, titled "Attentive", featuring Ria, the blue ribbon winning German Shepherd I met on day one. I've included a close up of the brush work using an impasto style technique which I am super-thrilled about! The original photo is shown here too.

This painting is available on canvas and paper (with matting and framing options) and also on cards and other cool gifts in my GalleryJai gift shop.

Thanks so much for stopping in to view my work and for sharing my website with fellow art lovers! Comments are always welcome.

InJoy,
♥ Jai
http://www.jaiart.com
Enjoy my mini art gallery on the front page, and shop for limited edition prints, cards, and gifts with your favorite paintings. Be sure to read the news page for upcoming series, events, contests, and more exciting things!

German Shepherd Painting

I hope you guys don't get tired of my German Shepherd paintings. Max is my built-in model, and I love to do paintings of him!

This is a traditional portrait of him which I completed yesterday. Since he has a lot of blue colors present in his fur, I painted him with a simple blue background.

Actually I planned on making this a montage painting, with two other views of him in addition to this close up face view. Unfortunately, I messed something up and it didn't work the way I planned...so I'll have to try that project again sometime. In the meantime, I'm pleased with this head portrait of him. He looks very regal. :)

Want to have your pet's portrait painted? Visit my custom pet portraits page for information and pricing.
http://www.jaiart.com/custom-pet-portraits.html

Thanks so much for stopping in to view my work and for sharing my website with fellow pet lovers! Comments are always welcome.

InJoy,
♥ Jai
http://www.jaiart.com
Enjoy my mini art gallery on the front page, and shop for limited edition prints, cards, and gifts with your favorite paintings. Be sure to read the news page for upcoming series, events, contests, and more exciting things!

White German Shepherd Portrait

My day's all screwed up today. Had a schedule change and for those of you who know me well, you know I freak a little bit when my routine gets messed up. I could have gone and worked at the pet store today, but it would have rushed me too much the entire day, and I don't feel I'd have done a good job. So I shifted things around to be able to go work tomorrow.

As a result, this gave me extra time today to paint. Since I hadn't planned on painting today, I didn't have a subject ready. Don't get me wrong - I have lots of subjects as many have sent me photos to be included as paintings in the Dogs With Toys series! However, I have to mentally prepare myself to paint, and I do that by studying my subject's photo(s) for quite some time before I ever start. It gives me a feel for the personality of the animal if I do that.

Today was different...I hadn't mentally prepared for one particular pet. So I went through my old photo archive with the intent to paint the dog who spoke to me. This white German Shepherd spoke to me in my heart, so he finally had his painting done today. :)

I thought you might enjoy a couple of in progress photos and explain a little about my digital painting method for these paintings.

My first step is to block in colors using palette knives of varying sizes (smaller for detail areas such as the eyes where I want to be very precise, and larger for the background and dog's fur). I do this very quickly, and very choppy, just enough to get the basic forms, shapes and colored areas laid out.

After I've done this, then I blend the paint. I don't blend all areas, as the hard edges from the palette knife give the illusion of fur and separation where I need it. So I blend some areas, and leave other areas alone, until I get the look I want.

I've shared a couple of close ups here so you can see the difference before blending and after.




After I'm satisfied with the main blending, then I use a softer and finer blender to soften some areas, and create tiny wisps of fur in just a few spots. It gives the dog's painting more of a sense of realism, without getting too realistic with my portrayal. My goal with these new paintings is to lighten up, work faster, and maintain a looser, more painterly, style than my realistic work possesses. I often find myself slipping into "realism" mode, striving to get a certain piece of fur as accurate as I can. It's at that point I stand up and walk away for a few minutes...that helps me to get out of that mode before it overtakes me. :)

And finally, the painting is finished.

Want to have your pet's portrait painted? Visit my custom pet portraits page for information and pricing.
http://www.jaiart.com/custom-pet-portraits.html

Thanks so much for stopping in to view my work and for sharing my website with fellow pet lovers! Comments are always welcome.

InJoy,
♥ Jai
http://www.jaiart.com
Enjoy my mini art gallery on the front page, and shop for limited edition prints, cards, and gifts with your favorite paintings. Be sure to read the news page for upcoming series, events, contests, and more exciting things!

My Yellow Friend German Shepherd Painting

Yesterday I finished this painting of Max, my German Shepherd, with his favorite toy - a stuffed Garfield. He's slept with this toy since he was 10 weeks old. He carries it with him *everywhere*. If he gets nervous, the first thing he does is find his Garfield and snatch him up. It's like a security blanket to him, and is truly his best friend.

This painting titled "My Yellow Friend" is part of my new series I'm working on this month titled "Dogs With Toys". Your dog could be chosen for the series! Read my news page to see how.

And here's an extra treat for my blog visitors today. I finally captured some photos of a couple of our bluebirds. I've been trying for a few months to photograph them. I still wish I'd have been able to get closer to them, but these are some fun shots anyway. Hope you enjoy seeing them!

Eye of the Shepherd

Eye of the Shepherd Fine Art Prints by jaisjewels

Allyson loves shooting up close photos of our German Shepherd dog Max, and I've been waiting for one that I felt was perfect to publish. I think I've found it in this photo, titled "Eye of the Shepherd". He has his "intense" look instead of his "worried" look. (he's very good at doing both of those looks!) I've made the photo available as fine art prints, as well as cards, magnets, buttons and even a mousepad at Zazzle.

Max is very glad the roof is done...those guys being here for a week had him all wound up! He finally did get used to them, but he still prefers his routine. This is probably the most routine dog I've ever had! And he can tell time, too...he knows *exactly* when walk time is, and when it's time to go outside for his morning and evening potty times. He's actually way too smart...I can't even say "It's time for the you-know-what" because he knows what "you-know-what" means. Guess I'll have to change terms again just to stay one step ahead of him! :)

Bitter

I think it's time for a new tennis ball. :)

Prints available here.

ACEO Art Card Miniature Photos available here.

Waiting (German Shepherd photograph)

Waiting patiently for Mom to come home.

Prints available here.

February 16 - this photo by Allyson was chosen as featured photo in the Cats & Dogs group on Red Bubble - thank you!

German Shepherd II

German Shepherd II

Prints Available here.

Jewelry Lessons, One Irritated Cat, and One Sad Dog

I know, I've been really lax in posting. I've been getting ready for my jewelry show which opens March 1, 2009 at http://www.artjewelryshow.com. Thanks to Allyson, I have a few new photos to post!

Here's Oreo, checking out Mom's semi-finalist winning entry on http://www.jewelrylessons.com. My heart necklace Revelation became a semi-finalist in the 2009 Valentine's Day contest. Oreo has decided she likes this website, and she might even want to take some jewelry lessons herself. I'm *sure* she would do wonders with wire and beads...:)


Nikko, on the other hand, is really irritated with the cold weather and high winds. Here she is, sitting on the neighbor's roof, trying to get as close to the sun as possible. Check out that look on her face! NOT HAPPY!


And here is Max...giving the ole German Shepherd pout he's famous for. He is tired of all the attention these kitties get, and with one in the house *at the computer with mom*, it just did him in. Poor Max....:(

Snow day for the crew!

We *finally* got some snow here in TN. Here's some photos of the crew:


This is the 1st snow for the kittens. They walked in it, looked at it strangely, shook their paws off and went back to bed. Here's Mom and the girls, huddled under the heat lamp all together, looking less than thrilled with the white stuff and colder temps.

And then I let Max out. The fun begins:

Wow...this is fun!

Do I look older and more distinguished with my white moustache?

C'mon Allyson, throw that snowball! I'm ready!

Where'd it go?

I can't find it in all this white stuff!

It's got to be in here SOMEWHERE....

Well I'll just make a new snowball!

This stuff is cold on the feet! Gotta keep moving!

Found me a good stick...
'll just run with that instead of fooling with those disappearing snow balls!

There's nothing like...

A little dog love.

Keeping up with all these cats....

...simply exhausts me.

The Big Boy

Another photo from Bill trying out his new lens...."I'm very proud of the new lens and its ability to get sharp shots. The kittens are wonderful subjects. But we shouldn't leave out the big boy should we!"


Max loves his 50-cent yard sale stuffed football. It's his new favorite toy (other than the stuffed Garfield he takes to bed with him every night!).

Max is Getting Ready For Halloween

Max - the silly dog - is practicing being a ghost for Halloween in this photo. He found a BAG blowing down the street...I told him to bring it to me. As he was running, it blew back over his head...and he looks like a half-ghost!

What's Happening at the Johnson Zoo

So what's been happening at the zoo lately? Well, Boots has been VERY active at night. She *loves* nighttime - as that's when she can get in the most trouble!



Pistol, on the other hand, likes to zen out at night. Here he is in his Budda pose....meditating away.



Rowdy is just like mom...he loves night time. On this particular night when we only saw ONE moon, somehow his energy managed to bring two more planets out of the darkness.


And Oreo....well she's been singin' on the stump on sunny days. :)


Nikko has been eating well, as you can see. She's gonna be one HUGE cat when she gets full grown!


Max has been practicing his yoga moves...it keeps him toned up for the sports of kitten and squirrel chasing.

P.S. Rowdy does sleep sometimes...during the day, of course. Here he is, zoned out in a new cat bed Allyson got him...replenishing his energy for the nightly activities to come.


And poor Lady...she used to be the only one and now she has to put up with all these others. Here she is sneaking around the back of the house, trying to get away from it all. Oh, and I see my gutter spout is not on top of the concrete block...better go fix that before I end up with water in the basement!

Gusto!

Max was turning it on with a gusto yesterday while playing ball, and I got this fabulous action shot of him. Click on the photo to see it larger...the tennis ball is just about ready to be secured by those big jaws!

InJoy,
Jai

Experiments with Max

Well of course you KNEW I'd have to figure out this indoor shooting dilemma and how to get a good photo without the flash. The main problem is when the flash hits the subject, it 1) gives the pet "demon eyes" and 2) changes the color/hue of the fur. I learned I needed to somehow bounce the flash off the ceiling, rather than have it bounce off the animal. The problem is our camera as a built in, pop up flash, which only points in one direction - right at the subject.

So using Max as my model, and a piece of white cardboard, I came up with a solution. I took this small piece of cardboard and positioned it under the flash and by slightly moving it up or down while taking several photos, I finally got this shot of Max. His coat looks natural, and his eyes aren't glowing. The whole photo was not as bright, however, so I had to do some further editing.


On this round of editing, I adjusted brightness and contrast, and I also took out that little section of my ugly blue/green carpet that was in the upper right corner of the original photo.

By now, I'm liking this much better, except for one thing...the rug Max is laying on is almost the same colors as his fur. So I needed to do something about that.

On the third photo, you can see I took out the color on the rug, and using the burn tool on my software, I enhanced the rug markings a bit more. I think this is the look I was after...a good look at Max, his color, and his expression, with him being the focus and not blending in with that rug!


Then I decided to take Max outside and work on some motion shots. As you can see from this final photo, Max soon got a bit irritated with all this picture-taking. All he wanted to do was play, and here I was with that blasted camera in between him and I. So he was kind enough to share his displeasure with me. :)


InJoy,
Jai

Pistol & Max

Well we've finally done it....Allyson and I have been talking about starting a pet photography business, so we have. We're working in the Jackson, TN area and rather than the standard "bring your pets to a studio with backdrops and props", we go to the pet's home and photograph the pet in his/her natural environment....just like we do our own! We've set up a website...check it out at http://www.JaiAllyson.Com.

One of our test shots of Max is shown here. I took about 75-100 photos before I managed to get this one....this is the profile look I've been after with him for a while. It's difficult because this dog is ALWAYS moving!

At this time, we're only going to focus on outdoor photo shoots...indoors is just too tricky with lighting. We may still be able to do some indoor shoots - IF the lighting is decent enough. We were practicing on our indoor shooting in our home...(bad lighting here...very dark in our house except for a few rooms). And we picked our black cat Pistol to practice with, which was super challenging.

I didn't want to use a flash as that distorts his coloring and makes everything look...well..."flashy". We've taken probably 1,000 photos of this cat over the years, and I finally....yes...FINALLY....got a decent shot of him yesterday! Thought I'd share a few examples here.


This photo is a good one of him...but the coloring is too warm. After some adjustments in my software, I toned down the warmth and got the coloring more accurate, as shown in the second example.





But the final photo shown here really takes the cake...it got the coloring true right off the bat! To photograph him, we took him in the front bedroom. The sun hits the front of the house late in the day. So we opened up the curtains and turned on all the lights in the room so I wouldn't have to use a flash. Most photos turned out blurry because he kept moving, but I'm glad we managed to get these two.


So until I figure out a solution to indoor photos with no flash, I think we'll try to stick to outdoor shots. :)

InJoy,
Jai

#53 Boss (otherwise known as a nightmare photo shoot with Max!)

So Allyson had this bright idea to put a tie on Max for a photograph. Michael gave up his money tie for the event. First of all, Max does NOT sit still - EVER. If you are standing, he is moving. Second of all, we discovered Max does not like wearing ties! He was not happy about this ordeal at ALL, but I managed to get two decent photos to work from - to the left is the image I designed for German Shepherd fans like myself.

The second photo hasn't been touched yet, as I am waiting for a good work or business-related saying/verse to come into my brain...and it's not here yet. Yes, Max not only physically exhausts me, but mentally as well!

The other two images here - while blurred (remember the dog is ALWAYS moving) - represent a couple of different expressions I got from Max while trying to do this shoot. I thought you'd find them amusing. :)

InJoy,
Jai

P.S...how do you like my fancy photo "studio"? Yes, that's where I shoot all those kitten photos too!