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If you've been following my portrait of Annie.… after the portrait was finished the clients asked me to create a custom Christmas card from Annie's portrait by combining it with the portrait of Briscoe (Border Collie) that I did for them last year. I combined them and customized it in Photoshop by changing Annie's "princess collar" to holiday colors, and added the Santa hat on Briscoe. It made a fun Holiday card! I thought you’d enjoy seeing it. 🎨 Both portraits were created

🎁 I have a gift for my artist friends and coloring book enthusiasts!  As you know, I share my colored pencil artwork in progress on this Blog, with explanations about my techniques. I have a growing following of artists who tell me that’s useful and they've learned a lot. I've decided to expand that to help artists and colorists develop their Colored Pencil skills by creating a "grayscale" Coloring Page that you can print on paper of your choice and color. 🎁 It includes a

One of the great things about doing portraits is getting to know the wonderful dogs my clients love. Annie is one of those. I have done 10 portraits for these clients, Carolyn, Gloria, and Tammy. Each of the three women shared more with me about Annie, in individual emails, then they have with any of the other dogs that have graced their lives. Below the portrait is what they told me about Annie. From Carolyn: “Annie is a small Weston terrier mix of some sort. She was origina

Looking for an affordable gift for all the dog lovers on your Holiday shopping list? Overflowing with cute and charming puppies.... Doberman Puppies Coloring Book for children or adults who love to color! 24 Coloring pages of delightful Doberman puppies, from original artwork by Kevin Roeckl. 🎁  Creative line-drawings and their captions teach children about puppies and what their puppy needs to be happy, healthy, and well-behaved. 🎁  Adults will enjoy coloring these sweet a

Making a fade-out at the bottom of a head-study portrait can be tricky. Sometimes I use Photoshop on the client’s reference photo (or on my layout if I’m combining more than one photo) so I can see where to make the fade out. How far down the neck or body to start the fade so it makes a pleasing overall composition with the subject’s face as the most important feature. Sometimes I fade out the bottom very carefully, as though the realistic detail is becoming fainter and faint