K KAY'S
Her art world revealed
Jan 23 2010
Puppy Dreamer Themed Arts – Dog Lover Gifts
The Puppy Dreamers © Theme Series Art - 2 weeks ago - admin
Hello and welcome all dog lovers to this blog post. Today I am going to reveal the process it took for me to develop a dog breed themed art series that I came to call the Puppy Dreamers.
I went to a pet expo in 2001 and walked around looking at the dog related gifts the venders were offering. I raised Coonhounds at this time so when I picked up a stuffed dog that kind of looked like my favorite dog breed and asked the gentleman what it was suppose to be, he replied “a coonhound”. I sat it back down and shook my head… the thing had German Shorthaired Pointer ticking all over the body with a black head and did not have enough ear length. Like so many other Coonhound items being offered at this time, it was close but no cigar.
That night I started thinking about how I could create something for Coonhound lovers that would represent the breed correctly and to do it with my God given talent. Over the six months to follow I thought about the marketing aspects too, how do I create something appealing to all ages, something for both genders, something that would appeal to pet owners and breeders alike.
I sketched out a few ideas and this suddenly came to me. The puppy of the breed sitting as if to be thinking about what it wants to do or be when its all grown up. I wanted to be able to add a word, phase or saying to the art for marketing reasons so I included a black rectangle block (a bumpers sticker) in front of the puppy.
I showed this around to fellow coonhoundsmen and they simply adored it yet being an artist I could not help but see what it would look like with colors.
I went on to do other arts and the idea for this dog theme kept turning in the back of my mind. There is just not enough to this art yet… maybe I need to present this with a full blown scenery in the background. Thus by 2003 created this stage of the Puppy Dreamer and painted seven breeds, the six Coonhounds and the Basset Hound.
I knew I had something good started and promoted the 3rd stage and several dog lovers emailed me asking if I could remove that black “blob” in front of the puppy. “I want to see all of it”. So I went back and revised the Coonhound arts yet decided to keep the red and white Basset Hound as is and create a new one presenting the tricolor Basset Hound. The last revisions took my about four months and finally the theme was set in stone, or at least I thought it was.
One last adjustment to the theme… The story is good but there is nothing in the art to promote the dog breeds origin. The puppy is already set in an outdoor scenery why not utilize this by adding foliage and flowers native to its country of origin with the puppy. Yeah, that will work yet though people may not realize why this flower or that shrub is used it will have meaning to me. With this is new origin aspect to the theme required additional education and research on where flowers and foilage were native to which country.
The Puppy Dreamer themed arts are an artistic adventure of self education on each dog breed added, each art takes me roughly a month to do. A lot of it is reading up on the breed’s history, breed structure, reviewing the breed at different ages, botanical history, and then running the art by breeders and lovers to be sure it all is as should be.
To date I have these following breeds available as a Puppy Dreamer for which the art is taken and placed on dog lover gifts – such as – coffee cups, tiles, wall clocks, magnets, note cards, and etc. I am a small format artist so the art is either 8×10 or 8 ½ x 11. You may purchase the Puppy Dreamer dog lover gifts at my sister site http://www.kkaysgiftsnart.com
American Water Spaniel, American Brittany Spaniel (liver and white), Basset Hound, Beagle (blue tick and tricolor available), Bichon Frise, Bloodhound (black and tan and red available), Bluetick Coonhound, Boston Terrier (brindle), Boxer (brindle and fawn/white available), Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Clumber Spaniel, Dachshund – longhair (cream), Dachshund – shorthair (dapple), English Cocker Spaniel, English Coonhound, German Shorthaired Pointer, German Wirehaired Pointer, Golden Retriever, Gordon Setter, Irish Setter, Irish Wolfhound, Komondor, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Otterhound, Plott hound, Pomeranian, Rat Terrier / Feist dog, Redbone Coonhound, Small Munsterlander Retriever, Treeing Walker Coonhound, Viszla Wirehaired (ac Hungarian Wirehaired Pointer) and the Weimaraner.
I have taken a break from painting any new breeds for this dog lover theme for a few years, yet have plans to start again soon. It is my personal goal to present at least 100 breeds to this theme for you — the breed’s enthusiasts, lovers, and breeders.
If you want to see your breed, send me an e-mail or leave a comment here. If you can help me out with puppy reference images (especially for the less popular breeds), when they are around 5 to 6 months old, that would be greatly appreciated
Jan 23 2010
Scottish Tartans – handpainting them is a process
Scottish Santa Claus figurines - 2 weeks ago - admin
I began offering custom painted Santa Claus figurines for those with a Scottish heritage back in 1995 when at this time there was no competition of such Scottish Christmas item.
Painting a Scottish tartan is not all its cracked up to be exceptionally when the pattern has be done small enough to meet the dimensions of Santa figurine’s kilt or gown, sash and hat.. The tartan has to be broke down to know which color and strip comes first. Here is my Scottish tartan painting revealed.
For this revealing I am going to use the Anderson clan tartan since it is the most stripped tartan and complicated tartan out there. Just so you know, the simplest Scottish tartan is the Rob Roy. Painting a tartan is very much similar in creating the tartan fabric.
First you must examine the plaid and distinguish the base color. The base color of the Anderson is medium blue.
Second color or the first strip is wide and black done so the base color and it are of equal strength. This strip however is not made with a solid thread count so when the strips do not over lap each other (the horizontal and vertical pattern) is creates a dark blue. To achieve this with acrylic paints I dilute the paint with water (making it more like watercolor density).
The second strip work is black and since the black thread count is increased it creates a solid black, no blue can bleed through. This stripping is found on the edge of the wide black ones.
So far this is the easy part of this particular Scottish tartan.
The following strips again are black… so all blue and black in the tartan must be completed before moving on. The additional strips are heavy is thread count so I simply use the acrylics density straight out of the bottle. Please note that I use liquid acrylics for all my ceramic painting and two dimension works. This set of three strips are equally separated in the center of the medium blue area.
Now out comes the number 10/0 brush work. Since the next set of strips are red yet go extra thin, to thin, extra thin, then thin, extra thin and then thin, seven red strips in all, evenly spaced down and across the wide area of the black strips that are not solid in thread count. Are your eyes crossed yet? My eyes tend to need a lot of rest as I do this. The thread counts on the red strips are not minimized so again some of the black or dark blue bleed through the red, creating a dark red except were the red strips intersect, vertically and horizontally, were the thread count becomes solid on this color.
The next set of strips are also red, the first red strip is weaved over the black strip center on the blue areas of the tartan this creates a dark red to the eye since again due to the thread count. The additional extra thin red strips are on the edge of the black strips on both sides of the center strip. When painting these lines one much have a lot of patient and to be precise can be extremely difficult.
There are just two more colors to add. The next strip color is yellow. These are very thin, in twosome, and off set to the inside of the two solid black strips on the edge of the wide looser black strip.
We are almost there! The last strip is white and is placed on the outside of the solid black strips on the edge of the wide looser black strips. Again the thread count creates the white to look like a light gray to the eye except were the white strip intersect.
The tartans were developed much like coat of arms, with the exception that anyone could wear such patterns, to seperate and recognize the family clans. Today the tartan is still used for such purposes, and Scottish clothing is normally only worn during Scottish games andvarious other Scottish events outside of Scotland.
To have me create you a Scottish Santa Claus figurine painted to your Scottish tartan of choice please visit one of my sister sites at http://www.scottishsanta.us
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