Dog Paintings

Solar was another beautiful dog that I had the pleasure of photographing several years ago.  Sadly, he is no longer with us, but I hope his Siberian Husky spirit still shines through in his pet portrait painting.  Before I started Solar’s portrait, I knew that I wanted to put him in a setting suitable for his breed.  I only wanted the background to be a subtle suggestion rather than a highly detailed landscape, so I avoided using any reference images to make sure I wouldn’t keep fiddling and adding more detail!  I’m quite pleased with how this turned out, I think it portrays his bright, happy personality quite well.

Siberian Husky Pet Portrait Painting

Dog Breed Info: The Siberian Husky has been a pure bred dog for centuries, originally developed by the Chukchi people of north eastern Asia as a sled dog. The breed became popular as endurance sled dgos after 1909, when a large number of Chukchi dogs were taken to Alaska to compete in the long-distance All-Alaska Sweepstakes races.

The Siberian Husky has a lovely affectionate temperament and gentle, friendly disposition. While they are eager to please, adaptable and intelligent, their independent spirit can sometimes be quite a challenge!

Greeting cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Solar – Siberian Husky” can be purchased from my Redbubble giftshop:

Redbubble now offers a selection of three card products to choose from – Greeting Cards are now available in the standard 4″ x 6″ or magnificent 5″ x 7.5″ versions. They are printed on marvellous matted card using state of the art digital printing technology and hold a remarkable external photo quality while retaining a wonderful writing surface on the inside. Greeting Cards are posted ready to fold and each with their own envelope. The new Postcards are a standard 4″ x 6″ and printed with the same technology and high degree of craftsmanship as the greeting cards and the flip side is adorned with the image name, artists details and space for your message, stamp and address details.

The quality of these Redbubble cards is excellent – certainly the quality is high enough to collect these as Art Cards and frame them to create a lovely display of small format art! Redbubble makes this an even more attractive purchase option by providing a healthy discount for multiple purchases of the same size cards – 4 greeting cards/20% discount, 8 greeting cards/30% discount, 16 greeting cards/40% discount. Similar discounts or free shipping offers apply for multiple purchases of other printed items at RedBubble, so look out for those while you shop!

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Sophie is a gorgeous Shih Tzu puppy that I had the opportunity to photograph several years ago. Sophie’s all grown up now, so taking a trip back in time to capture her cheeky puppy personality in this painting was alot of fun!

Shih Tzu’s are an intelligent, active toy breed whose ancestry is rather obscure. Believed to have originated in Tibet, they are the oldest and smallest of the Tibetan ‘holy dog’ breeds.  The breed is known for their naturally long, flowing coat, however, they do require a lot of grooming and care, so many pet Shih Tzu’s choose to have their coats clipped short for easy care.

Shih Tzu puppy portrait

Greeting cards, laminated, matted, canvas and framed prints of “Sophie in The Sunshine” can be purchased from my Redbubble giftshop:

Sourced from: michellewrighton.com (© Copyright All Rights Reserved 2010.)

Busy, Busy Busy!  It seems like there is never enough hours in the day to get everything done – and that is my excuse for not updating my blog more regularly and I’m sticking to it!   One of the big things that is taking alot of time -many, many, many months – is a BIG PROJECT that is slowly nearing completion (click the link and follow me on Twitter for the announcement on that one).

I’ve also got a few new paintings to add to the blog, and a couple more that I am still working on, one of a dog painting, the other a horse and rider that is not flowing the way I would like it too, maybe a few days break from that one over easter will allow me too look at it again with fresh eyes.

Several people have asked how I complete my digital paintings with my graphics tablet and stylus, so I’ve also been working on a small series of articles explaining the different types of digital art and the process that I use to create my digital portrait paintings – some people seem to think that digital paintings are ‘one-click’ photoshop effects, but that explanation couldn’t be further from the truth!

In the meantime (because I have to run and feed the horses their breakfast!) this is a pet portrait painting I have recently completed of my gorgeous Border Collie dog, Taj (yes a painting for me!).  This is one of those paintings that just flowed without interuption, I suspect because I know the subject so well:)  Taj is a rather extroverted character, he’s never met a stranger and is such a show-off, he loves posing for the camera and really is the perfect photograhic and art model!  It may run in the family, because one of his uncles is the Border Collie in the Better Homes & Gardens television commercial.

Prints of Taj’s portrait painting will be available for purchase from Redbubble and Zazzle shortly.

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My original oil painting of ‘Angel’ the American Staffordshire Terrier was featured as Today’s Best product – considering that Zazzle has millions of unique designs this really is a huge honour!

American Staffordshire Terrier Pet Portrait in Oils by Michelle Wrighton

When I painted “Angel” I really wanted to portray the loyal, loving devotion that these beautiful dogs have towards their family when they are bred and raised by ethical, responsible people.

Unfortunately not all American Staffordshire Terriers and Pit Bull Terriers are as lucky as “Angel” and don’t always end up in responsible homes.

If you would like to purchase a print of ‘Angel’ or to view a range of gifts and merchandise featuring this artwork, please visit my Zazzle Giftshop or Redbubble.

Sourced from: michellewrighton.com (© Copyright All Rights Reserved 2010.)

Jack at the Beach

Sourced from: michellewrighton.com (© Copyright All Rights Reserved 2009.)

Digital Painting of a German Wire-Haired Pointer

German Wire Haired Pointer

“Otis”

Tan & White smooth coat

Jack Russell Terrier

Original acrylic painting

8″x10″ on 1.8cm deep gallery wrapped canvas

$135.00 (includes shipping)

10% of your investment in this artwork will be donated to Russell Rescue

"Otis" original acrylic painting by Michelle Wrighton

The painting is continued on all four edges and is ready to hang.

*The copyright watermark is a digital addition to the image below and is not on the original painting.

“Otis” is also available on merchandise and prints, and this is the first time this original painting from my personal collection has been offered for sale.

“Grey Ghost”

11″ x 14″

Artists Colour Pencil on Drafting film

by

Michelle Wrighton

"Grey Ghost" Weimaraner portrait by Michelle Wrighton

This colour pencil painting received an Honourable Mention at the 2007 Kelmscott Show, which was quite an honour considering that it was the only non-human artwork in its category!

LOL, I tend to walk to the beat of my own drum and don’t always follow tradition (self taught artist and all that;) I consider much of the art that I produce as ‘portraits’, the fact that they are non-human is not really relevant in my humble opinion, so I went ahead and entered this one in the ‘Portraits’ category (the rules didn’t stipulate which species the portraits had to be of, so I thought it was a reasonable option).  LOL the judge either agreed with me, or was also a dog lover as well.  I did win a couple of first prizes in other categories with other animal art I had entered, but the ‘Highly Commended – Portraits’ award for this one was pretty sweet;)

Two new dog breed portraits have now been added to the Dogs gallery, a Shiba Inu and another Shar-Pei (I just can’t resist wrinkles!). Both of these are color pencil/acrylic on drafting film.

Suki - Shiba Inu Pet Portrait

Aspen - Shar-Pei Painting

Buy Art prints and cards featuring this artwork from

Sourced from: michellewrighton.com (© Copyright All Rights Reserved 2009.)

This is a small acrylic painting I am working on of Gilley, a rescue Greyhound from the UK. Greyhounds have the most beautiful, liquid, expressive eyes that are an absolute joy to paint. As a breed, Greyhounds have such a regal bearing that the deep purple background seemed appropriate for Gilley’s Pet Portrait.

With these smaller paintings, I am really trying to loosen up and capture the essence of the animal without being totally pre-occupied with capturing every last detail like I normally do in my pencil portraits.

I usually do my initial sketch on paper then transfer it to the canvas, but I thought I would just sketch straight onto the canvas this time.

But graphite on canvas dosn’t erase very well, so next time I will transfer my sketch the usual way.

Gilley’s face still need some more work and I need to finish painting the sides of the canvas as I have the painting continueing around the edges.

(8″x10″, acrylic on gallery wrapped canvas)

Michelle

Sourced from: michellewrighton.com (© Copyright All Rights Reserved 2009.)