Jacquie Lawson Animated E-Cards

Chudleigh animated e-cards from Jacquie Lawson

I love these wonderful animated e-cards from Jacquie Lawson. If you have never seen these cards, you should definitely stop by her website and take a look. The cards are animated and often feature dogs like Chudleigh, cats, birds, and other animals. There is a card for every occasion!

The cards are not free to send but trust me when I say that the annual subscription is worth it. Jacquie has worked hard to make these wonderful cards and as a spectacular artist she deserves a contribution for her work. I love her cards and only wish I had even half the talent that she does.

Wordless Wednesday – Artwork of “Her Name Zeppelin” and “Charm & Lily”

Time for me to show off my artwork again. I’m not at all modest, am I? It’s because I love to draw so much and am extremely happy when my pet portraits turn out well. This is Zeppelin. She is aptly named for her lovely figure. I drew Zeppelin for a friend, Meghan. Meghan is an expert with Google Adwords and, in return for this lovely artwork, gave me some tips on how to optimize my Adwords account. Thanks, Meghan, for the help and for giving me this opportunity to draw your beautiful girl! If you’re interested in me drawing your pet, visit my art website, NatureByDawn.com.

Photograph of Zeppelin

Sketches from rough to finish.

Background first.

Face and feet next. (The hardest part.)

Halfway done!

Ta-da!

I drew my cousin Aimee’s horses.

Photograph of Charm and Lily.

Sketches from rough to finish.

Background first.

Eyes, noses, and ears. (The hardest part.)

Charm is done. She is a strawberry roan and the roan was very difficult for me to do.

Yippee!

For more wonderful pet photos, visit our PetAutoSafetyBlog for the Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

Showing Off My Pet Portraits Artwork

I’ve been busy with my pet portraits artwork lately. I have three art pieces in progress which I would like to complete before I get more orders for the holidays. No hurry, though. I don’t want to rush them. These are all very special.

The first step is completing a rough sketch. In the rough sketch, I start out with basic shapes and slowly start adding detail. Sounds easy, right? Especially when you look at the simple rough sketch of my dog Sephi below. But what makes it difficult is that this wasn’t my first rough sketch. Oftentimes, I do a rough sketch but when I look at it I can tell that it is not proportioned properly. So I have to start over again. It took three sketches before I got this one of Sephi to where I felt it was proportioned properly. If you look closely, you can see the circle I drew of her head and the lines through her face that I made so I could properly place the eyes and nose.

After I get a rough sketch to where I think it looks proportioned right, I start adding detail. The next two sketches are final sketches. They are not the final artwork pieces, just the final sketches. These final sketches will be used to begin the final artwork pieces in color.

This is the final sketch of Zeppelin. She is aptly named. In her rough sketch, the first shape I drew was the shape of a zeppelin. The hardest thing about drawing Zeppelin was her feet. Drawing the feet of any animal is more difficult for me than any other part.

This other final sketch is of Lily. Lily will be drawn along with her friend horse Charm. I have completed a rough sketch of Charm, but the nose was too long so I have to start over. I will post the final sketch of Charm at a later date. And I will also show you the final pieces when these are all ready.

Interested in having me do pet portraits of your dog, cat, horse, or bird? Visit my website NaturebyDawn.com and email me at naturebydawn@aol.com. Be sure to put pet portraits in the RE section so that I know it is not spam.

Wordless Wednesday – Pet Portrait – Dougie the West Highland White Terrier

This is our friend Dougie. He is a West Highland White Terrier, or Westie. Isn’t he adorable?

Rough sketch. Notice I changed his back and tail a bit.

 

Finished sketch. I think his eyes are too far apart and not quite big enough so I make sure to correct this when I transfer the sketch to the pastel paper for the finished piece.

I traced the sketch with the big eyes closer together modification onto acid free pastel paper. Then I completed the background. This was my second attempt at a background. the first one did not come out well so I threw it away and started over.

Next I worked on the hardest, most important, and the funnest parts – they eyes and nose. If the eyes are not right when drawing people or animals, the rest of the artwork won’t look good either.

Then I did Dougie’s body and drew in his cute pink tongue.

I’m almost done!

Done!

Check out my other artwork in progress pages at Nature by Dawn.com. If you would like me to do a pet portrait of your dog or cat, email me at naturebydawn@aol.com.

For more great photos of pets, visit the Wordless Wednesday blog hop by clicking HERE.

Wordless Wednesday – Pet Portrait of Davinia

It has been so long since I’ve done any artwork. I have been so busy. But when I saw this photo of Davinia on the Two Little Cavaliers blog, I was taken by inspiration. After getting permission from Felissa the blog owner, I began the art project. Here is the finished piece completed in pastels.

Here are some of the steps I took to get to the finished piece.

Final sketch

To see more of the step-by-step process, visit my artwork website, Nature by Dawn.

For other great pet photos, check out the Wordless Wednesday blog hop HERE.

Wordless Wednesday – Davinia Art

This is Davinia from the Two Little Cavaliers dog blog. I got permission from Felissa to draw her (the original photo is from one of her Wordless Wednesday blog posts). It is not finished yet. I plan on doing a finished piece in color, probably pastels.

Initial outlined sketch

Sketch with harder outlines

Sketch with eyes and nose more defined

At this point, I didn’t think it looked like Davinia. After looking at it more, I realized the nose needed to be closer to they eyes and the angles of the eyes and nose were a bit off. So I have done one more sketch so far.

Final outline sketch

This is where I am at so far. My next step is to make the final outline sketch with complete shading, a full pencil drawing. If I am satisfied with it, I will then transfer it to pastel paper and begin work in color. To keep up with my progress on Davinia, visit my artwork website, Nature by Dawn, and check out the Artwork in Progress III page. You can also check out my I and II pages. These pages show my step-by-step progress of other pieces of art that I have completed.

Visit the Two Little Cavaliers dog blog for more great articles and a link to other Wordless Wednesday posts from other great dog blogs.

Harry and Lola Children’s Books by Jean Nave

A Home for Harry and Lola by Jean Nave

One of our readers left us a great link to some great dog children’s books.  Visit HarryAndLola.org and check out “A Home for Harry and Lola” and “Harry and Lola with Smoki the Magical Cat”.  At this website, you can learn about the author and you can download the e-books for free.

The author, Jean Nave, lost her Scottish terrier, Mac Doogal.  He was a very special dog so she didn’t get another dog for some time.  She just missed Mac Doogal too much.  But then someone told her about a Scottish Terrier rescue group and directed her to PetFinder.com.  That is when Harry and Lola came into her family’s life and inspired her to write (and do the artwork for) a couple of children’s book about Harry and Lola.

In her first book, “A Home for Harry and Lola”, Harry and Lola come into their new home and meet the family cat, Smoki.  Then they meet other dogs nearby and make friends.  Each dog has his own personality and Harry and Lola learn each.  In her second book, “Harry and Lola with Smoki the Magical Cat”, Smoki takes Harry and Lola on an outdoor adventure to meet a Raccoon.

The artwork is colorful and well done.  The stories are adorable and entertaining.  You can download the book in e-format for free at www.harryandlola.org or you can purchase a 99ȼ version on Amazon.  The benefits of purchasing from Amazon rather than getting for free is that the proceeds go to the Scottie Rescue.  Visit our Amazon a-Store to purchase these great dog children’s e-books.

Finely-Crafted Dog Themed Woodcraft Art by Jon Fine

Ever heard of Etsy.com?  It is a website for individual craftsmen to display and sell their wares.  If you are looking for hand-crafted art for yourself or as a gift, this is the place to visit.

One craftsman we found had some great dog themed woodcraft art.  His name is Jon Fine from Mays Landing in southern New Jersey.  Check out the above product and more at his Etsy website – http://Jonpsu77.etsy.com.

We love the above piece as well as one called “Dog miniature wooden desk clock”, “A Spoilt Dog Live Here wood mug holder”, “The Dog Lady wood display”, “I Love My Lab wood sign” and other dog breed wood signs.

Jon is 55 years old, happily married with two grown sons, and has a pit bull and three cats.  The quality of his dog themed woodcraft art makes it obvious that he is an animal lover.  Jon’s dog themed woodcraft art is a unique gift for anyone who loves dogs.  And his work is reasonably priced.  If you like his work but want something a little different, just ask!  He is more than eager to help make you the perfect gift.  Contact him and find out more at his Etsy website http://Jonpsu77.etsy.com.  Etsy is safe and secure and full of quality craftsmen like Jon.

New Stained Glass Dog Breed Animal Figurines

Looking for an extraordinary Christmas gift this year for your dog lover friends?  Check out Johnna’s decorative stained glass dog breed animal figurines.  These items are hand-crafted by Johnna who has been working with stained glass for over 15 years.  She has custom made pieces for people all over the world and has even published her own stained glass pattern books.  The stained glass dog breed animal figurines are her own design.  We have provided a few of her stained glass dog breed animal figurines on our site.  Visit Animal Figurine Store.com and check out each dog breed group page to see if your dog breed is available.

Animal Figuring Store.com has a Golden Retriever and Weimaraner stained glass dog breed figurine on the Sporting Dogs page, a Basset Hound and Dachshund stained glass dog breed figurine on the Hound Dogs page, a Schnauzer and a Doberman stained glass dog breed figurine on the Working Dogs page, a Schnauzer, Scottish Terrier, and West Highland White Terrier stained glass dog breed figurine on the Terrier Dogs page, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and a Pug stained glass dog breed figurine on the Toy Dogs page, a Dalmatian stained glass dog breed figurine on the Non-Sporting Dogs page, and a German Shepherd, Border Collie, and Corgi stained glass dog breed figurine in the Herding Dogs page.

Information on the Shetland Sheepdog Dog Breed

Cassie

Cassie was the name of my Shetland Sheepdog.  She came into my life when I was 10 years old.  As a Shetland Sheepdog, she had a lot of great qualities and was the perfect dog to lighten up the life of a ten-year-old girl.  Read about these great qualities on my Squidoo page titled “Information on the Shetland Sheepdog Dog Breed”.

Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) Figurine