New pet portraits by Terry Albert

I have several new pieces to share with you that I created for an upcoming show. The Canine Art Guild will debut its "5 x 5" show on April 1, but I wanted to give you a sneak preview of my entries, plus a few more.

Every piece in the show is 5” square, and I found I love this small format. I really got on a roll, and produced 5 paintings, but I can only enter 3, so you get to see a couple of extras. Each is for sale for $95 framed (except for the Lab, which is not for sale).

This beautiful Viszla, Sherman, spends lots of time flopped on my couch, and I could paint him in about 10 different poses, all a jumble of toes and nose. He’s a frequent visitor, and I love him.

This one is not in the show, because I finished it after I had already entered the others. I took a photo of this scene almost 20 years ago one morning in Huntington Beach. I was taking picture of my brother Dan surfing, but you know me, always sidetracked by dogs. I loved the silhouette against the bright morning sun. These two were having a great time together. 

This Chow was photographed at a dog show while his owner brushed out his piles of fur. It’s a long laborious process, and he patiently endured the primping. This painting is also not in the show.

Tally is one of my favorite Labs, and she has been a pet sitting client for many years. As you see she is the happiest dog on earth, and I loved capturing that in this painting. She is actually a Lab/golden mix, bred for Canine Companions for Independence. Her puppy raisers kept her when she didn’t make the cut, and she is a beloved pet. I did another painting featuring a CCI Labrador many years ago for the Labrador Retriever Club National Specialty Show.

And last but certainly not least, this little sheltie is my Bonnie, I call it “My Bonnie Lass.” I adopted her from Sheltie Rescue about 5 years ago. She is enjoying a quilt I bought at an estate sale in Kansas City several years ago while sightseeing with my Aunt Bobbie. I love bight colors, and this quilt and the dog are very special to me.

I hope you enjoy my latest creations. Contact me if you are interesting in purchasing one of these works. Thank you!   

© 2010 Terry Albert. All Rights Reserved.

Labrador Retriever painting- my latest!

I have just completed one of my favorite projects. I have painted lots of labs over the years, and I just love it. This one is of three Labradors from Adora Kennels in Ellensburg, WA. I showed you their new logo that I did for them a few weeks ago. This painting is about 16 x 20 inches will go on the wall in their wonderful wilderness home. 

I always do an underpainting in watercolor (shown at left). I found with pencil that you can always see the paper underneath  unless you burnish your drawing very hard and go over it multiple times. I just don't have the patience, and am not such a purist that I have to stick to one media. So technically this is mixed media: watercolor and colored pencil, which is what I most often use. It would not be eligible for a colored pencil show or a watercolor show. But then, I'm not entering it in a show! 

For this painting I did something I've never done before. I blew the photo up very large on the computer screen and looked at it while I painted. This gave me the chance to see lots of detail I miss when I'm looking at a printed photo, even when I use a magnifying glass. The black dog's eyes were shut, so I had to improvise. The chocolate dog's eyes were squinting, so I had to open them up a bit. 

There's a lot to think about when painting a dog portrait. If a dog hunches over while sitting, then his neck will be too thick and look awkward. If he is nervous while being photographed, his ears will go back and not look as natural as they do in this painting. If the ears aren't perky, it can ruin the pose. All three of these dogs are very alert and intense.

Getting a good photo of a black dog is difficult. This dog was photographed in the sun in the snow, so there was a lot of glare, and he was closing his eyes. The best way to get a good photo is to shoot it on an overcast day. Shadows that are too strong from the bright sun hide all the detail that is in the shadows. Sometimes I have to look at photos of another dog to see all I need to know for a painting. I loved this pose- he's a big dog, very noble, and the shadows were easy to define. 

Photoshop is a wonderful tool. I can lighten the exposure so I can see detail that seems lost. I don't always get such nice samples to work from. Then again, sometimes a lousy photo makes a great painting. It may have a dumb background, poor color and all sorts of other problems, but if the pose is good, I can change all the rest. Sometimes I can see detail (especially the dog's markings) in another photo that doesn't show up well in the one I am working from. 

It seems like I spend more time on the layout and sketching than the final painting. By the time I pick up the brush, I have worked out a lot of problems. I do have to stop and set it across the room occasionally to be sure I haven't added a tree growing out of the subject's head or other dumb mistake! And when it's all done, I put it away for day or two and I then take a fresh look. If I see something I want to change, I will sometimes photograph the painting and mess with it in Photoshop to see if the change will make it better. Then I go over and fix the original. It's nice to try something without risking ruining the painting!   

My latest dog painting

This is my latest painting, a logo for Adora Labradors in Ellensburg, Washington. It is done in watercolor and colored pencil, and is 15" wide. The puppies in this picture are all their pups, from a selection of over 350 photos they sent me! Bruce and Mary will use the art on their web site, and on mugs t-shirts and other items. Plus they can frame the original for their home or office. I had a lot of fun with this one, deciding which pups to use, getting a good variety of black, yellow and chocolate, and thinking up some fun elements to add, like the swallowtail butterfly, the tennis ball and stick. 

The concept is part of my NameGames line of designs, where I incorporate the name of the breed or other title into a painting of the dogs. I have done 13 breeds and numerous kennels, clubs and events in this format. 

I have enough puppy photos to last me for awhile now! I have done so many Labrador puppy paintings, that I have used up most of my favorite poses, so this is a gold mine of new reference material. The Labrador Retriever Club National Specialty t-shirt features puppies every year, and I have done that art for 9 or ten years now. This year's design is pictured here.

My next project is a portrait of three of their adult dogs, a black, a yellow and a chocolate. I will share it with you soon!

Hans & Rosie

Read about my latest pet portrait, Hans & Rosie, at the Canine Art Guild blog

Australian Terrier Painting

Check out my latest contribution to the Canine Art Guild blog, Art with a Bark, and read about my painting for the Australian Terrier Club of America National Specialty.  The art shown here is their logo which was made into pins, two versions to feature both colors of Aussies. 

Click the title above to view all of the artwork for the specialty

Welcome to my first post

I have finally decided to start a blog, and hope you will stop by often to enjoy what I have to say. This is my chance to hone my writing skills, and I hope your chance to learn from and enjoy my stories. Here are some subjects you will hear about in the coming weeks:

• My artwork: Pet portraits, which encompasses paintings, drawings, logos, t-shirt designs, and trophy packages for dog shows. I also paint subjects other than pets from time to time, and will share those with you here.

• Pet sitting and pet care: I may start a separate blog for my pet sitting business, but here I will concentrate on the fun side, not the business side of caring for pets.

• My writing: Although I have been a writer throughout my career, only recently have I returned to focusing on this aspect in a big way. Watch for my first book, Your Happy Healthy Pet: Basset Hound, which will be published by Howell Books in November, 2008. More about that later!

• My pets: Bonnie, a sheltie, is the little cutie you see at the top of this page. She came from a puppy mill in Texas, and I adopted her from Southland Sheltie Rescue almost four years ago with Lily, her littermate, or maybe her mom. A blog is a good excuse to write about my own animals and my experiences with them. And there have been a LOT of them over the years. More about that later too.

• The bigger picture: There is more going on in the world of animals than just my little universe, and occasionally I will address a topic with an editorial opinion that i hope will get you thinking, and taking action on behalf of our animal friends.

I'm looking forward to your comments!