My last portrait portrait for 2011 features Teddy – the adorable Shih Tzu dog. I didn’t think I would make the Christmas deadline for this one, but owner Dan decided to order the portrait anyways. Due to a schedule change, I was able to get the portrait to him before the Holiday. WHEW!

Please visit my Custom Portraits Page for more samples of previous portraiture work along with pricing, terms, etc.

This summer I was contacted by Cher H. of Canada. She wanted to commission a portrait of her brother’s dog as a gift for his upcoming wedding. However the family is quite spread out, and they were all meeting in CA for the wedding. This made shipping the portrait and consequently carrying it in a suitcase problematic at best! Cher was delighted that I would supply a scan of the portrait so that she would have something to easily print out and transport as a gift. As the wedded couple lives Sedona, I was able to deliver the gift personally upon their return!

“Scooter” is a rather famous dog in Sedona. She was rescued by some wonderfully caring people in 2009. At the time, Scooter was giving birth to a litter of puppies … in the street! She has come to be loved by all who meet her, and I was so very honored to be chosen to create her portrait!

Please visit my Custom Portraits Page for more samples of previous portraiture work along with pricing, terms, etc.

This summer I had the pleasure of drawing a portrait of “Smokey” the Husky dog. Talk about an expressive creature! His mom Tricia sent many wonderful photos which allowed me to come up with a composition she liked. The portrait turned out great, and evidently Smokey has a mind of his own as he sent me followup pictures expressing his joy at being immortalized LOL! 

The key to getting good reproductions is the image scan & prep. You need to start with a top quality high-res image scan. This scan then needs to be edited for reproduction use via a program like Photoshop.  Once that is done, the rest is easy – you can have the end result file printed through a variety of outlets – a local printer, a print-on-demand website, etc. (My current favorite source for POD (print on demand) fine art prints is Fine Art America. I have a number of my open edition Horse, Dog and Cat prints available there now.)

Preparing images for reproduction is a specialized area, and what needs to be learned & understood could not be covered in a single blog post.  So, if you can find a local graphic designer that has a good scanner and specializes in pre-press work, that would help a lot. If not, you might try Fine Print Imaging.  They are based out of Colorado and can do just the scan, or the editing work and even the reproductions.  I used them once when I had a drawing too large for my scanner and their service was great.

Slide show courtesy of Fine Art America:

Customizable and Royalty-Free Equine Art Logos

I now offer a number of my horse logo designs for royalty-free use. These designs may be purchased on products through the new Horse Logos Zazzle store. All designs are fully customizable. That means you can add your farm name, business name, contact info, etc. You can also scale and move the logo around on the product! Create your own customized business cards, envelopes, letterheads, t-shirt, mousepads, mugs and more! The Horse Logo store is open for business now.

Best,
Kelli Swan

I have updated my Custom Pencil Portraits of dogs, horses, cats and familes page to include Muri’s portrait. And new to the page is a Slide Show featuring a sampling of recent custom pet and family portraits!