Brutus - You're my Inspiration!

There's one colored pencil drawing I can't part with, it hangs in my home and goes to shows with me. It's at the top of this blog. It's my very first colored pencil portrait, Brutus, my niece Valerie's dog and the story of how he inspired me to be an animal artist is really fun! My husband, John, and I flew down to Florida to see Valerie and her husband Tony and their first baby, Anthony. We were ooohing and ahhhhing over Anthony, camera in hand, when I spotted poor Brutus, pouting on a leather chair. He looked so pathetic and so comical!! I shot this photo of him. I had been experiementing with colored pencils as a fine art medium. I liked the way you could "paint" with the lush and vivid colors while getting great detail. When I got home to Pennsylvania and was printing out the photos, well....I took prismacolors to paper.

Actually, this is the very first serious piece of art I made. As you can see, the photo has issues. Not cropped nicely, with background clutter and too much flash from the chair. It was the first time I made choices about what to include and what to leave out and how to convey this story.

Anthony is now six and an artist himself (and magician!) And Brutus has stopped pouting and loves Anthony as much as we humans do! I'd love to hear your reaction to my story! Send me an email or comment here. Robin -- Oh! And you can see more of pet portraits I've done on my website: http://robinzebley.com