Cheetah Cub ACEO

It's been a while since I posted, I know. But I haven't been being lazy! :) I've been working my tail off, at my jobs and at my true love...my art. Recently I found some fabulous pieces of illustration board (with vellum), precut to standard ACEO art trading card sizes of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". I bought one package, and it has 5 boards in the package. I decided to complete a series of 5 miniature paintings to try out this board.

First, let me say, I LOVE IT! I have missed creating art in miniature! And I love the feel of the illustration board. This first painting shown here is titled Cheetah Cub and is completed in Prismacolor pencils. It's the first in the series, which I've titled "Cubs". Keep watching my blog for the other 4...I promise I'll post them!

I've put the original up for sale on my website dedicated to my big eye animals.


This photo here is taken outdoors and shows the original miniature art in natural light.

And this is an example of how the mini art might look when matted and framed.

--Jai

My Heart

I had completed this painting before as a digital work of art and after several months, I decided I wasn't too thrilled with the work. I decided to add this delightful kitty to my big eyed animal art collection, so I completed the same art again, this time in Prismacolor and with - of course - big eyes!

This is little Oreo. Her original photo had her holding a tennis ball, but I thought I'd create her holding a stuffed heart instead. You can check out the in progress photos on my website (though I didn't put as many up of this one as the previous ones). I've also added this art to lots of fun cards and gift items in my shop.

I've started my next work, which will be a delightful Emu. Watch the in progress page for her progression. There's one in progress photo up at this point. I would have worked on her more, but I got sidetracked when I stumbled on a fabulous tutorial. The tutorial covered burnishing and layering in great detail. I have used the techniques in depth on previous works...it definitely creates an amazing sense of aliveness. For about 10 minutes I thought about delving into that with these recent works. But then I changed my mind. I like the looser feel I'm getting with these works, and I'm not sure it would serve the pieces for this series well.

I have to admit though, I'm now feeling that little thump-thump in my heart to create a piece with extreme realism again, just like I used to do. Perhaps I'll burnish the Emu's nose and beak area on this current painting just to get it out of my system. But for the rest of it, I think I'll just keep things loose and free form. :)

--Jai

Maine Coon Cat | A Return to Realism

For months now, I've tried to loosen up in my art, trying a variety of different brushes and styles and color palettes...but deep down, my anal, realistic side keeps fighting to get out. So this week, I allowed it to emerge as I painted this portrait of Sassy, a Maine Coon Cat we had stay with us for a short time. If you love Maine Coon cats, you can purchase fine art prints here and gift items with his handsome self here.

As for whether I'll stick with the realism...I'm going to do another painting in this manner and see how I feel. :)

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!

RIP Rowdy

This week, I had to say goodbye to a dear friend. Rowdy is the second cat we lost from the original group of the three wild kittens we raised. Oreo was the first.

Last Sunday, Rowdy became very ill. I knew he was sick from the way he was acting, and he also felt warm. I got him out of the bushes where he was hiding and brought him up to the carport. He slept in the same place on the love seat all evening.

The next morning, he was still in the same spot. He hadn't moved all night. A few hours later, he got up and he could hardly walk. His left front foot seemed injured, and he seemed dizzy. I immediately gathered him up and took him to the vet.

I left him at the vet while I went to work and waited for a phone call. Honestly, I thought he had contracted a cold or something, the vet would give him an antibiotic and he'd been fine.

A girl from the vet's office called - they wanted to draw blood. I said okay. She called back and said his white blood count was too low...which is indicative of feline leukemia. They wanted to test for it. I said ok.

The next call I got was from the vet himself...when I heard his voice, I knew this wasn't good. Rowdy tested positive for feline leukemia. His fever was 106. He was very, very sick. His white blood count should have been around 5000 - it was 1000. The vet told me, he most likely would be picking up everything that came along as his body didn't have the defenses to fight off anything anymore. He also told us this was very contagious, and could easily be given to the other cats, if it hadn't been already.

It was time to make a tough decision. I went to talk to Bill, who is a "co-owner" of these cats and who loves them all dearly. We decided it was best not to put Rowdy through continual sickness and pain, and it was best for the other cats, as we had no way to separate him.

So we went to the vet's office to say goodbye to our dear friend. Rowdy was with us two years. He touched our hearts in more ways than you can ever imagine. He was unique and special...and we will miss him forever.

I made him his own personal grave marker. It's pyrography on wood with color pencil, and sealed to protect it from the weather. Linda is going to plant some pretty flowers on his grave, too.

RIP my dear Rowdy...we loved you the best we could, and we are so sorry we had to say goodbye too soon.

*The other two cats we have left tested negative for this horrible disease and have also been vaccinated for it. The vaccine is only about 70-80% effective, and there is no cure.

Kitten Portrait | Head Study Painting

I didn't have much time to paint yesterday as I had to work and then we had tornadoes coming through the area all afternoon! By the time the sirens and storms were done, I had a massive migraine headache. :(

Anyway, I did paint this quick head study of our kitten Oreo yesterday. I hope you like it! The painting is available on a wide variety of gifts and cards.

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!

Lion Portrait

Lions are my favorite "big cats". Perhaps because my birthday is in August, and I'm a Leo. :) Or it could be that I just love the regal nature of this wild cat, and I aspire to have the calm, confident, and secure nature these creatures seem to exude.

In my living room hangs a neat piece of lion artwork - not created by me. Ever since it's been there, I've want to create a painting worthy of comparison, which features a lion. I'm pleased enough with this painting, I believe it can easily hang in concert with the other, and the two will compliment each other exquisitely!

Fine art prints, cards, and other gifts featuring this lion portrait are available from my website.

Thanks so much for stopping in to view my work and for sharing my website with fellow animal 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!

Have a Maine Coon Christmas

Our Sassy, the stray Maine Coon, makes a beautiful model in his Santa hat for Christmas. His painting turned out fabulous, but what do you expect with a subject that's so handsome? :)

Sassy's Christmas portrait is available on a variety of fun gift items at the GalleryJai.Com shop.

buy unique gifts at Zazzle

New Painting: Too Much Tuna

This painting features a rare glimpse into Pistol's life. Most of our photos of him are crap, due to him being an indoor-only cat -- and due to the fact our house has poor lighting in the room he's normally in -- we always have to use a flash. Which distorts his colors and features. With him being a solid black cat, it makes it even worse!

Allyson had captured the below photo of him on Paul's bed. He was sitting (laying?) is his OH-MY-I'M-SO-STUFFED position. Despite the fact he doesn't eat tuna fish or anything other than his normal cat chow, I could "see him" with an empty can of tuna to go with his bloated look in the photo. So I decided to do a painting of him -- in the way I thought the scene should look.

I've titled this painting "Too Much Tuna". Cards, prints and other cool gifts are available at the GalleryJai.Com shop on Zazzle.

Life Lessons from a Cat 24 Month Calendar

I finished Oreo's new calendar and it's now available via Zazzle. Click below to see all the photos you get and words of wisdom from little Oreo. Even though she's gone, she will live on through her photos and messages! Individual greeting cards, note cards, mousepads, fine art prints, and collectible packs of ACEO art trading cards are also available with Oreo's Life Lessons here.

Life Lessons from a Cat Calendar

Preview Christmas Cat Digital Painting - Nikko

Continuing on with my Christmas cat painting...working on Nikko now. Here's a preview, including her original photo I worked from. Click on the photos to see larger versions!

And here's Nikko and Rowdy together:

Christmas Kitten & Wedding Kitten photos

Christmas Kitten Gift Tag Cards by jaisjewels

Yesterday I added one of Oreo's Christmas photos to Zazzle. The photo is available on a wide variety of gifts, but my favorite are the gift card tags for Christmas packages shown above (click the link to see the back of the cards too)

Wedding Kitten Card by jaisjewels

This is Oreo's wedding photo...also available on a variety of gifts.

Oreo's Not Happy & Some Other Photos

Oreo is NOT happy. She had to have a vet visit today. "Grandpa Bill" suggested I take her because she's lost an excessive amount of weight this past week, and I agreed she needed to go. It was a good thing I took her...she has hookworms! She got poked and prodded and had a Feline Leukemia test (negative, thank goodness!). Then she had worming medicine, and she has to have this other "high calorie food" which is like a pasty-vaseline kind of stuff that will help stimulate her appetite and get her weight going back the right direction.

She's not happy about ANY of it. NONE. So...since I'm the one who took her to this "monster" who manhandled her, she's mad at ME. I've tried to explain it was necessary to help her feel better, but she has no interest in hearing anything I've got to say, as you can see by her photo.

Here's some other recent photos for you to enjoy. Here we have Mr. T. He's not unhappy with me (though he also received worming meds when I got home)...in fact, he just wants his belly rubbed. Upside down, he looks like a skunk! Gotta love this pose. :)

This next photo is a bug. I think some kind of moth. Bill told Allyson it is a Sphynx Moth or something like that. I think it's one of the most artistic looking moths I've ever seen!

And here we have one of our neighborhood mushrooms. A cell phone is next to it for reference as to the size. This is the biggest one I've seen so far this year. Looks like a HUGE pancake!


Allyson has worked on a series of cat photos - which I'm going to be doing a project with for Christmas art. I look forward to sharing those with you soon!

New cat photos, one Goldendoodle, and one lonely bird. :)

Recently I met a girl on twitter who raises Goldendoodle dogs (a cross between a Golden Retriever and a Poodle). These dogs are beautiful! So I decided to do a digital portrait of one, and this is what I came up with. I love the purple background against his golden color! This painting is available on a variety of products and gifts here.

Today, I decided to work with some photography. The first design I completed features this adorable photo of Nikko dipping her toe in Bill's bird bath. I decided to put a little motivational message with this one. :) This photo is available on products and gifts here.

Check out this *excellent* photo Allyson captured of Sassy the other day! He is such a beautiful cat, with very unique markings. I love the green of his eyes with the tiny bit of green from the background - it almost matches exactly! Sassy's gorgeous face is available on products and gifts here.

Then I came across this photo Allyson shot of one of our cardinals. I titled this design "Corn Husker". He posed very nicely for her with a piece of the corn in his beak. I thought Cardinal lovers - or any backyard bird fanatics - would like this photo, and it's available on products and gifts here.

And then we have Nikko again. I think she misses Bill. :) This was taken on his front porch, where she was hanging her head over the bars with a longing look in her eyes. I can almost hear her saying "I miss my belly rubs!" (not like she hasn't had any belly rubs from US...haha) I put her photo on cards and other gifts. I can see this making a terrific "Thinking of You" or "Miss You" card...and being you can customize the cards in my Zazzle shop, it's very easy for you to make Nikko say exactly what you want her to say. :)

White Persian Cat Painting

I finished this SWEET white Persian Cat digital painting this week. Isn't she just adorable? Persian cat lovers can pick up cards and gifts with this painting in my Zazzle shop. :) I also put up some fun sayings in my shop, and a new Christian design as well.

Hello? Hello? Hello!

Allyson got these shots of Nikko the other day...I think I know what she was saying! Click the link below to see the inside of the card....:)

Hello? Hello? Hello! (Cat) Cards by jaisjewels

And here's a new creature in our jungle here on South Dixie:

Isn't he (or she?) just adorable? Sat right up and posed for Allyson! I love rabbits...I hope we see it again!

Hope is like the sun.

Little Oreo is the subject of this inspirational photo design I just completed. Take a look at the cards:

Hope (Cat) Cards by jaisjewels

The verse reads: Hope is like the sun. As we journey toward it, the shadows of our burdens fall behind us.

Say few prayers for Oreo, please...she has a cold and she is still coughing some. I hope it will clear up okay without a vet visit. I'm kinda "vetted out" lately with Lady's vet visits and medicine. Lady is feeling better (because of the pain meds), but the problem has still not been solved, and unfortunately, I can't afford the x-rays needed to find out what's going on. I hate it when my babies aren't well. Just like kids...you just want them to feel better and be okay!

Cat Art on SHOES!

Siamese Cat Portrait Slip on Shoes by jaisjewels

I never thought I'd see the day when my art was available on shoes...this is simply amazing! Featuring my Siamese Cat Portrait.

New Kitten Design Featuring Oreo!

All of Oreo's fans will LOVE this sweet design I created, which features a pop art image of Oreo along with the words Kittens are angels with whiskers. See all of the cool products this design is featured on in my Love Beat shop.

I've also added her design to my Zazzle shop, which has even more of a variety of neat products and t-shirts, like this one:

Kittens by jaisjewels

A cool feature Zazzle has which I *love* is they give the customer the ability to CUSTOMIZE - you can make the image larger or smaller, add text of your own, and more! Visit GalleryJai.Com on Zazzle.

Have your pet's image turned into a custom pop art pet painting and placed on products too! Visit my web page here which describes the process.

Cat Painting #11, Listening...a black cat painting

Pistol, our black cat, loves to sit on the kitchen chairs and catch a little sunshine. On this particular day, he was listening intently for the sound of our German Shepherd coming down the hall. See, they have this little game they play...it's one of chase, and they've played it since Max was a pup. Two and a half years later, nothing's changed...Pistol still sits in the chair, his gaze fixed on the hallway and his ears listening for the sound of those dog toenails. :)

This painting was a tough one for me...it's been so long since I've painted a solid black animal, which, of course, is NOT just solid black. There are so many colors involved. After I got my brain wrapped around the direction I needed to go, the painting went smooth and fast. I think Pistol looks very handsome in all his colors. :)

This painting is available here:

Listening, oil pastel on board, size 8x10" $100

Cat Painting #11, black cat portrait in progress

Today I'm working on a black cat portrait. It's been a long time since I've painted a black animal - which any artist knows, doesn't involve *just* black. :) There are many, many colors in the fur of a black animal...it's just a matter of being able to see them. He's coming along pretty good so far. This is our black cat, Pistol. He's an indoor only cat, so most of the photos I have of him are not so hot....plus he doesn't like to pose for me, which makes it difficult. As usual, it's challenging, which I love. :)