This was such a fun story, I just had to share!!!

I knew that the Pet Portraits of ‘Roux, Sally & Anook‘ were ordered for Easter and to be given a la an easter egg hunt… but what I didn’t see coming was the creation of this awesome hand made story book to accompany them!!

“The Adventure”

In a nutshell, this adorable Poem outlines the kitties’ travels to get a gift for their parents and then where it could be found:

My favourite line from the book:
“Let’s do something nice for mum and pop! They feed us, clean us, and play with us non-stop!”

The trio visited a robot, an owl, a TARDIS cookie jar on their journey, then went on a Doctor Who like adventure returning with the paintings. Which they left with the new friends they visited previously, so the story outlined where to find them! How adorable is that hey??? I so love it!!!

Easter hunt spots! With the robot, owl, and cookie jar TARDIS

And they were kind enough to take pictures of the whole thing and send copies my way & were willing for them to be shared on my blog 🙂 Just so happy!!

Paintings being opened

Roux & Sally kitties investigating the paintings

Oh man!! Just love these pictures and the story book so much. I’m so glad they loved the portraits and that they shared these great moments! Thanks again C & A!

Next up – doppelgänger shots!

Warning: 

This post may not be suitable for individuals who do not like cute animals wearing accessories!

Recently I was approached by a client to paint their three cats for his wife as a surprise gift. But this time round there was a unique twist:

Client – “I don’t know why but one of our cats just might need to have a monocle.”
Me – “…I CONCUR!”

This is the first time I’ve painted animals with human attributes, and I gotta say it’s been one of the funnest commissions ever! Here we have the very handsome Roux looking dapper with his custom monocle:

As not to leave his sisters out, we gave Sally a custom feather flapper headband:

And Anook a custom 20’s style pearl necklace:

I couldn’t help but giggle while working on these paintings, they just make me so happy!

Some of you might be asking – have we lost our marbles? And the answer is no. Definitely not. I realize anthropomorphic animal portraits may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but as a cat lover with a quirky sense of humour I welcomed this request in a heart beat! And I am so happy he asked me to do this for him, just so much fun.

He was so excited to give his wife these custom Pet Portraits that he couldn’t wait til her birthday… so we went with Easter! 😀

all packaged up and ready for their journey to Vancouver before Easter weekend

People do Easter gifts right? 😉 Anyway, I hope she loves her present, and I CAN’T WAIT to see pictures of Roux, Sally & Anook posing with their portraits!!

What are your thoughts on these accessorized kitties?

Anook, Roux, Sally – 6″x6″ each – acrylic on canvas – shown on miniature easels

This Pet Portrait of a cute little grey pup named Jamie was ordered as a gift from sister to sister. And since she was so excited and couldn’t wait to give the painting, she requested some progress shots to show her sister to get her excited too while it was being painted! I thought that was a cute idea, I hadn’t done that before, but was definitely all over that.

Here is one of the progress shots, from the very initial stages:

initial progress shot of ‘Jamie’

And here is an in progress action shot during the beginning stages:

studio shot of ‘Jamie’ progress

For this particular painting she opted for the detailed background add on, as she loved the background in the reference photo, vs doing a solid colour. Here is the finished painting of adorable little Jamie nibbling oh so cutely on a twig in a grassy field:

‘Jamie’ | 12″x12″ | acrylic on canvas

Typically for Pet Portrait paintings, I tend to sign my logo on the edge of the canvas, as not to distract away from the cute pet:

signature on edge of canvas

And here is a quick detail shot showing the upper background area:

forest detail of background

This weekend both sisters & fam are getting together for Easter, and the finished painting is being given! And word on the street is I may get to see some pictures of the real Jamie posing with her portrait! Oh how I love those pictures!! Crossing fingers 🙂

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Easter weekend!

____________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE (May 31st)
Check out some adorable snaps of Jamie posing next to her Pet Portrait painting here:
http://robynmillar.com/jamie-doppelganger-pix/
____________________________________________________________________________

Here is a photo ‘flipbook’ style video of the ‘Sandy’ & ‘Chansey’ Pet Portraits that I painted earlier in the month. It shows shots of the paintings in progress, as well as detail shots. Take a peek here:

Pet Portrait video flipbook

If you’d like to read a little background story on these particular paintings, check out this blog post: www.robynmillar.com/pet-portrait-birthday-gift-orders/

This is the first video where I showed two Pet Portraits progressing side by side at the same time, it’s a different feel for sure, but I’m diggin’ it! What do you think?

Ps – a video of ‘Chopper & Ceilidh’ (also from the above blog post link) is coming shortly, so keep your eyes peeled!

Thanks & take care

Recently I picked up a Sensu Brush Stylus, as I wanted to try out some digital drawing on the iPad. Of course you could do this with a regular stylus no problem, but as soon as I saw a clip about this paint brush version in an e-newsletter I went out and bought one! What can I say – it called to me 😀 .

Personally, a paint brush just feels more natural in my hand vs a short stylus handle, and even the feeling of the bristles touching the surface is just more comfortable to me. This probably explains why I splashed out on a set of Mac make-up brushes years ago, lol! It’s one of those things that once you have them you wonder how you got by without them. Anyway, as a painter brushes just feel right at home in my hand I guess was the point I was trying to make there haha!

Sensu Brush Stylus:

Conductive brush bristles work on touchscreen devices:

How cool is that??? These clever folks figured out how to make brush bristles work on touch screen devices (eg: smartphones, tablets, etc)! So very cool indeed. I haven’t had much time yet to play around on the iPad with it, but I’m already hooked. Tonight I was tinkering with an abstract and experimenting with different layers / transparencies:

my first abstract experiment using new Sensu brush stylus on iPad

What I did learn in a hurry though is not all drawing apps are sensitive to the pressure and varied widths of the brush strokes, so keep that in mind if you decide to pick one up for yourself. Some will react, some won’t, but that’s ok because there are lots of apps out there so you’ll be sure to find ones that work the way you like. I got my hands on a couple that I quite enjoy  (like Paper53, and SketchPro) and I totally dig the brush effects you can do in some of them:

horrible text haha, but wanted to demonstrate the strokes the brush can achieve in the ProCreate app

I’m sure there’s various places around Calgary to pick one of these babies up, but I happened to grab mine at Kensington Art Supply here in town (perk of having new products on e-newsletters folks! 😉 ).

For more info, be sure to check out Sensu’s website: www.sensubrush.com

This week I wrapped up two Pet Portrait orders that I knew were both for birthdays, but then I found out that both birthdays are today! So that was kind of cool! Like last summer when I delivered two wedding gift Pet Portraits around the same time frame, just neat when coincidences like that happen.

One of the orders was of two dogs painted on a canvas together with a scenic backdrop from husband to wife for her birthday. When we were chatting he let me know that he wanted to do something more personal this year for her instead of going to Tiffany’s… to which I said: “Holy Moly”! My art wins out over Tiffany’s in this scenario? That was pretty flattering I must say, as I don’t know about you other ladies out there but I’d have a heart attack if I got Tiffany’s I’d be so excited haha! Anyway, it was a very sweet sentiment and I’m so glad I got to be a part of this special gift. Here is the finished painting of their beloved late pups:

‘Chopper & Ceilidh’ | 18″x12″ | acrylic on canvas (with detailed background upgrade)

Although it doesn’t always work out, we were able in this particular situation to combine two photos to create this composition of them sitting together. We also opted for the detailed background add on (vs doing a solid colour like usual) to create a unique memory of one of their family camping trips.

The other order was a set of two canvases with brother & sister doggies, and these were from a group of siblings to give their brother for his 60th birthday. Instead of painting both pups on the same canvas, we went with headshots of each for a contemporary look. I love these little faces:

left: ‘Sandy’ / right: ‘Chansey’ | 10″x10″ each | acrylic on canvas

Sadly I found out that all of these little cuties had passed away, making both orders memorial pieces in the end. So sad of course, but always so touching when people ask me to paint such special pieces to them.

Wishing safe and happy birthday celebrations to both families today!
Take care

This week I got my hands on the Winter ’13 issue of Best Home Magazine for Western Canada, and on pages 83-90 there is a feature on Hyatt Homes’ “Castello” show home in Bearspaw AB… and guess who provided the custom original artwork for this luxurious home? Moi!

Check out my ‘Through the Trees’ triptych and ‘Extending Cherry Blossoms’ triptych on page 88:

left: pg 88 of the magazine, middle: close up of upper photo, right: close up of lower photo

I was so excited to see page 88, that at first I totally missed my ‘Antique Cloudscape’ triptych on page 89, haha!!

left: close up of magazine pg 89, right: detail shot I took of ‘Antique Cloudscape’ in master bedroom at the show home

After I realized that I missed that one, I played a bit of where’s waldo and located my minature abstract from my ‘Tile Series’ in the living room on page 85 as well. Teeny tiny, but still worth noting because I have a sense of humour like that, lol:

left: magazine pg 85, middle: close up of my miniature abstract in the magazine shot, right: detail shot of my “Tile #214″ (5″x5” | acrylic on canvas)

And here are a couple snaps of ‘Through the Trees’ and ‘Extending Cherry Blossom’ that I took at the show home in case you wanted to take a closer peek:

left: ‘Through the Trees’, right: ‘Extending Cherry Blossoms’

So there it is, four of my paintings in Best Home magazine 🙂 So happy!

Today I picked up my drawing pencils for the first time in ages! It’s been almost 5 years since taking drawing courses during my time at ACAD, and somewhere between then and now my sketching materials seemed to get tucked away while I focused on paintings.

Out of sight out of mind didn’t just apply to my watercolours it turns out… And for the second time in recent weeks, picking up an old medium was spurred by a new found handy little storage tool bringing them back into my line up so nice and neatly.

Why draw myself? Simple – because it was the last thing I wanted to do lol, so thought it was the perfect challenge to take on first 😀

Recently I popped into Kensington Art Supply, and it was definitely like a kid in a candy store type scenario for me! I actually stopped in to grab a cool paintbrush stylus (will write all about that in an upcoming blog entry), but quickly found myself distracted and happily exploring all the nooks and crannies filled with art gadgets and fun supplies that were in store.

A handy little thing that caught my eye was this small wood storage box for pencils that also doubles as an easel for them. So they can stand up next to your work area making it easy to grab what you need, then close it shut for easy storage / organization. Win win! And it was only $9. Sweetness.

Now you see them now you don’t – handy pencil storage box/easel

Somewhere over the years I must have transported all of my sketchbooks from school into storage, because I couldn’t find one in my studio anywhere lol! So it was time to buy a shiny brand new one if I was going to play around with sketching again:

What can I say – I love kraft! Wire spine wins over bound version for practical reasons

So with pencils comes sharpeners, and somehow I can never seem to find a pencil sharpener when I need one. So I dug up a cool small storage container that I found last year on my shopping travels, and there we have my new perfect pencil sharpener / shavings holder:

Galvanized metal book shaped box from Cozy Cottage Interiors here in Calgary

And now that I’ve brought my sketchbook and drawing materials off the back burner, I’ve designated a drawer in my wicked awesome new desk for just drawing supplies! I don’t know if you’ve heard… organizing is one of my favourite things! lol.

“drawing stuff”… I’m so eloquent haha

I’m excited to practice sketching again. Trying new mediums and techniques. Not sure how often I’ll get to play around with drawings, but I’m definitely looking forward to experimenting and practicing more often now 🙂

This adorable lil bengal cat is named Grace. She was painted as a gift for mother from son & father, and they gave it for her birthday which I found out is Feb 29th! How cool is that? I’ve never met anyone with this unique birth date before. But which day would you celebrate it on for non-leap years? Hmmm…That’s the melon scratcher part lol….. but cool nonetheless. Anywho, here is the finished painting of her beautiful green eyed kitty:

And here are some shots of ‘Grace’ on the go:

Progress shots… Who says you can’t paint in your pyjamas some times? haha

Pet Portrait painting, reference photo, and palette / paint tubes

I’m hoping to get some doppelganger shots of Grace with her painting shortly, and will share them as soon as I get them of course! Those are my fave. 🙂 Will keep you posted.

In the meantime, here are a couple detail shots:

What beautiful green eyes you have Ms Grace!

Detail shot of chest & whiskers, love the patterns in her fur

Grace’s family runs Crazy Cat People Bengals, in Kathryn Alberta, and do they ever have adorable cats! Check them out on facebook at: www.facebook.com/Crazycatpeoplebengals, I believe they have a cute video of Grace on there, as well as other fun cat pix / info. Love their name too! As you may or may not have heard yet… one of my goals in life is to one day become a crazy cat lady myself haha, stay tuned.