Portrait of a Little Girl with a lot of Flair!

Here's the portrait of a little girl I have been working on off and on for a while.  I did her sisters portrait months ago, but before my Christmas rush.

For you artists, here's my skin color palette info...prismacolors and colorsofts in pinks, peaches, yellows, whites, tans, lavenders, reds and blues.  No "clay rose" or any other greyed color.  I found that they just deadened skin unbelievably.  The blues and lavendars did the job with the shadow sides without making it look pasty and unnatural.

I also didn't copy the photo, it was shot indoors in the shade, so the skin color was way duskier than it really is.  I am lucky that I had an array of photos to consult and could bring out the sunny and youthful skin color.

I am hoping to get my children's portraits out there to the real live public, not just online.  I have two more samples I want to do to be able to take with me to shows...a tiny tot ballerina and a teenaged hockey player.  Of course, I accept commissions online, too, I just want to expand my audience.  Come visit my site full of samples of my pet and childrens portraits!  You can also order via my email, and here's where you can see my animal paintings

Cat Painting, Horse Painting & Pet Portrait Gift Certificate

  While I work on pet portrait commissions with a Santa deadline, I decided to give ebay a shot with a few of my small painted pieces.  I have no idea at all what the market is there now.  So I have listed a few things rather than have them sitting here waiting for me to do a show or sell them in another way.  It will be fun to see if they sell, I priced them well below what I think I could sell them for in an "in person" venue, but on ebay, I think the question is whether anyone will even see them in the mountains of items there.  There's lots of marketing techniques to build up following there, but since I listed these 2, I got another commission and don't have time to market and increase visibility there.  But no harm, you never know.  Here's where they are on ebay, if you'd like to bid, please do!  All the details are on there, they are acrylic on gallery wrapped canvases.

Like I said, it will be a challenge to get that commission in under their Christmas tree on time, so have to curb all of my online work for a bit.  Now, an interesting thing has happened...I've been getting emails telling me "time to paint for galleries" from art friends I respect.  I don't know.  I like the contact between me and the people who buy my work.  But it's meant as a compliment, and I do appreciate it.   And of course, I'd have to double my prices, since galleries get 50%.  So a lot to think about, and I do appreciate any and a, but first things first.  AND I really have bake those Christmas cookies....how about you?

Tiger Painting in Colored Pencil "Jungle Look"

Here's a tiger I painted just for fun in colored pencil.  Or did I draw it?  Never know what to say...if you're a fellow colored pencil or pastel artist, you know the controversy...the pigment isn't wet, so it's a drawing?  Or...the pigment totally covers the support in swaths of color, not lines, so it's a painting?  Anyway, I really enjoyed this piece!  I used a copyright free photo of the tiger himself.  But what surrounds this big cat is what made it totally "mine"! 

I wanted it to really look like he was in a thick bamboo forest.  So the combo of the dark, mysterious and misty background and teh more detailed dense bamboo foreground were essential to make it look like you suddenly encountered this guy while on your adventure...or while lost...

It's 11 x 14 prismacolors on Mi Tientes pastel paper. 

He's kicking off my Christmas Animal Art sale on my sister blog: http://artandanimalsgallery.blogspot.com/ .  Pass it on!!

Drawing Day Entry

Today I participated in the International Drawing Day event. We artists from all over the world celebrated the backbone of of art and the community of artists by drawing whatever and wherever today! This is my entry, in colored pencil. He's actually a miniature, the size of a playing card. I mentioned previously that I am thinking about offering some of my mini art again on ebay.

I really really want to get more horse commissions so am going to be doing a lot of samples of them, along with the two legged animals who ride them! Of course, I always love those dogs and their humans as well!

Guerilla Marketing! Artists and crafters take over the media!

Guess what? My art is indirectly in the Wall Street Journal!

Yesterday I blogged about Etsy day, which was so successful, it was the most tweated-about topic on Twitter!

Here's what we did:
One artist, a photographer, thought up the idea. If we all publicize the Etsy site, itself, instead of just our individual shops, we could...maybe...create a big enough buzz to be noticed...without spending a cent. We discussed it online for about a month, brainstorming, and set a date, and yesterday was the day and we sprang into action.

We spent no money, except for paper and ink to print up some signs on our own computer/printers from free designs to put in car windows and shop windows all over the world.
We wore buttons we made.
We Twittered.
We Facebooked.
We Blogged.
We Craigslisted.
We handed out cards.

We created a buzz! Wallstreet Journal isn't the only medium to pick up our story and further our self generated publicity! It shows what can happen when we pool our energy and resources to positively promote all things made handmade!

As you might know, my Etsy store is just in its infancy and I need more pieces before I'll really be able to roll with a shop, but here it is...taking its baby steps! www.robinzebley.etsy.com. I still sell all of my pet portraits directly from my website: robinzebley.com

The second exciting thing that happened to me yesterday is that I was accepted into the Printsy Group, a group of talented printmakers who sell on etsy! What an honor! What a fabulous medium...original AND affordable art!

Okay...beautiful day here outside of Philadelphia, I have lots of things to get done today including working on my Yorkie portrait, yardwork and a visit to Fleisher to attend the closing show where my full sized cat woodcut print won the printmaking award! TTYL. Robin
I'm pet portraitist and animal artist, Robin Zebley. Want to be notified of a new blog post? Click "Following my blog" to your right. Want to see my whole blog? Click on the banner. Thanks so much for visiting and I hope you buy some orginal art today to enjoy forever!