Cody is the Last DOG on MY BLOG

Here he is, Cody, the Last Dog on My Blog.

Cody's fur reflected  purple, blue, pink, brown, grey and black tones.

 I've enjoyed drawing these black dogs and adding the colors I see reflected in their fur. They're very difficult to photograph well. In fact, did you know that dog shelters put down more black dogs than any other color because they just can't take good pictures. Think about it, you want to adopt the "cute" dogs. So next time your at a shelter looking for a cat or dog - take a good long look at the cute ones with the black fur.




Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent in their dog pictures for this promotion. Each one of them was adorable and very special. We even had a rare Oscar Spaniel sent in from Columbus, Ohio. No one loves us quite like our dogs. I think one of the reasons they're on the planet is to teach us what unconditional love is.

So in celebration of the warm Spring weather, although today is rainy and cool, I'd like to send each dog owner the portrait I did as my thank-you gift to you for your support and encouragement through out the year. Your likes and comments on my blog and Facebook page have given me continued confidence to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. Please email me (moreart@jillraefinallyart.com)  the address I can send your picture to. I ask that when you get the picture you send me a photo of where you're putting the picture, or showing it to your dog. And thanks again for everything.

And for you patient cat owners I'm just waiting for the purrrrrrfect time to do a cat promotion.

Nila Mani May is This Afternoon's DOG on MY BLOG 2014-03-27 11:55

With the temperature predicted to hit 61 on Saturday I felt a "Two Fur" was due for today. (Or at least two dogs)

Nila's owner, Kim tells the story of how she came up with the names Nila Mani May;

"And just a little background on her name.  I purchased her from a breeder in Virginia, Jewel's Shar Pei and I wanted to give her just the right name so I held a contest at work and with family for who could find the best name.  She is a blue Shar Pei and I knew I wanted to fit the color and the breeders name Jewel somehow into her name.  She was born in April but I purchased her in May.  I offered a $25 Best Buy gift card to the winner and got lots of great names.  When I saw her name I knew it in an instant.  There were actually 2 winners, a coworker and Katie.  The coworker came up with the name Nila Mani (knee-la man-ie) which is sanskrit for 'blue jewel' (although it is actually blue gem).  Then Katie added May at the end completing the name I registered her under, Nila Mani May.  Both the coworker and Katie got a gift card and I got many many years of happiness."

Someone asked me to post the progress of these drawings so I thought Nila would provide a good example.

I started the drawing using both bright dark blue and a pink tones to block out the darks and lights.

Then I added a grey-blue tone to quiet down that blue a bit and read more as a grey.  I added just a bit of black and noticed that Nila was getting lost in my background so I added a touch of green. 

At this point I got out my pencils and added some highlights and blacks.

To finish things up I blended a bit more to loose the rough pencil texture. I still wanted to leave some... A  few highlight, a signture and it's done.