Some day it will be warm again, I have faith!

So, how are we spending our winter?

oh y'know... desperately waiting for decent weather to return. Desperately. Look at this desperate face...


Soaking any bits of light that come through the window.


To the point where it gets a little pathetic. Irresistably cute. But pathetic.


Plotting to steal the cat food for sport. Props for devouring it all and not getting caught. Hmm...


These feet, they need to run... But they dont want to touch anything too cold.


sigh.

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By the way, if anyone is curious, Anton is feeling much better! His nail is even starting to grow back. All is on its way back to normal.

Patience and paint

So I hope 2009 has taken a good start for everyone. Its been a little difficult here.

One of the reasons is that Anton has a booboo. Yes, a booboo. He broke one of his nails all the way down to the quick. And he hasn't told anyone so by the time i saw it by randomly trying to cut his nails and seeing a big gaping hole where a nail should have been, it had enough time to get infected. So he's had a hefty dose of antibiotics and a bandaged foot.

He's being very dramatic about it. Like he'll be totally fine but the moment he sees someone looking at him he'll start limping. He's been on antibiotics for a couple of days now and I've been bandaging on and off. We'll be checking progress officially with the vet today.

I also have some new creations. The first I bring to you is a custom portrait of Mickey the mini schnauzer...

He is one of my favorite clients at the grooming shop. I've been grooming him for almost four years now, and he's been one of my favorites since the beginning. He is now a sweet, older gentleman. It was an honour to paint him :)


That's Mickey in real life.
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Last but not least I've got two new shells in my shop that I haven't yet mentioned here. My most recent addition is this Weimaraner:

I just love how silly he looks - sort of like a teenage pup going through an awkward growth stage. Where their ears are huge and their legs are long and they don't know what to do with themselves to coordinate. I'm sure this funny pup will grow into a very handsome adult some day.


The second shell I've got listed is an Australian Cattle Dog. They've got the coolest mottled coats, these dogs. Very smart, trainable and full of energy.

Both shells above are available in my shop, ShellVergel!

A different kind of paint

My apologies once again for the MIA thing. We've been remodelling my room and I have been stressed out beyond belief. Its mostly because my stepdad is doing the remodel entirely on his own, basically on nights and weekends and meanwhile i'm forced to live between the kitchen and my parents room. Now I don't do well in such dormatory situations (I had to quit Stony Btrook and transfer to a local college because i couldn't handle dorm life). I haven't had any time to paint or think or anything in the past week and a half, it seems.

My room's been a few colours over the decades, apparently. White and green and red and blue and bright yellow. I'm thinking of doing a lime/olive green number on it.

So far we've got the floors done, and Anton gave them a test run.
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I did get a few shells painted before the remodel started and i never had a chance to put them up. I'm having a calm quiet day today so I figured that this was a great chance to do so.

Westie, or more formally a west highland white terrier.

And on the other hand i decided to try something new...And came up with a kitty on a soft shell clam. I'm a little weird on it. The angle came out funny and the proportions look funny to me. But its a first. I've painted a kitty before but i never really released it to the public, so to speak. And cats are so... different to paint. They're so curvy and fluid, while I'm used to drawing streamlined and angled animals (ie dogs). But its a start.

And I've got one more shell painted but its extra awesome so i'll be devoting a whole entry to it later.

Adoption successful + feature

First of all, I reached the milestone i mentioned. I passed 100 hearts and now have 102 at the moment. How cool. It makes me feel good when people think my stuff is awesome :P

Second, my Scottie Shell got featured!



It was mentioned in Scottish Terrier and Dog News - a blog so spiffy I added a link to it on "other awesome blogs". Thank you, DogLady (ab.com)

Not only did the Scottie shell get featured, but it got adopted! It'll be going to its new home soon, with Dayna! I'm hoping to see a picture of the Scottie shell in his news digs soon too (hint hint ;).

Since we're talking about features and stuff, I thought I'd add another cool one that i stumbled upon...



Dog Art Today - a blog dedicated to beautiful dog art. It's updated daily and features a whole gamut of dog-inspired creations. Great stuff!

As a bonus, here's picture of Anton and Marco sunning themselves.

The creative process. With extra cat content!

So I thought I'd introduce everyone to a brief guide to my creative process. Do you know how the dogs appear on the shells? Guess! That's right, i paint them!


i start out with the archetypal messy artists' desk. Its actually just my computer desk, but with the help of a messy newspaper and some supplies all over the place, it becomes an instand studio. Just add cat.


These wind up on the shell, in concerted amounts and trivial locations.


i cannot, for the life of me, remember what kind of tea I was having. By the appearace of it, I'd say really dilute Lady Grey. Yeah if I'm feeling too lazy to brew a new cup of tea, I'll add water to half of an existing cup and enjoy some water-flavored goodness.


There's that cat. Tim thinks I'm *fascinating*! Ehh not really, he gets annoyed that i constantly poke and pord him in his favorite sleeping spot. So he tosses hair at me so i have to pick it out of my paints and brushes..


So uhhh i get that shell ready. This one is gonna be a pit bull terrier.


self-explanatory?


The newspaper isn't there to protect from messy spills. Its there for me to test paints.


Eventually I get started! First I fill in the bulk of it and then i go into details. Y'know, the logical way to do this.


and thus, the product. Meh, I'd have taken more "in the process" photos but i got awfully frustrated trying to blend the red and black, and no photos happened.

But honestly, the preparation and side details is the bulk of the "creative process" over here. Not pictured is me procrastinating and checking my email ten times while painting.

...its only fair if i throw in a few dog pictures, right?

There's Marco trotting off on some dirt path. We went to a lure coursing event Sunday. And after we got bored we decided to walk around the area. Turned out that the park had some awesome hiking trails!


After the hike, they piled up to nap. Anton, who was not with us during the hike, had a very long day "in spirit" and had to sleep it off as well. The hard life of a housecat..

Tim not included in the cuddling because he thinks its for pansies.