Purebred Dog photos needed, can you help?

As the next step in developing my career as an artist, I am planning on doing a series of pure bred dog portraits to sell as open and limited edition prints. I am looking for permission to use personal photographs as reference material (credits for use of the photograph will be given) so if you have, or know anyone who has a purebred dog, I would love to hear from you!

There is absolutely no obligation whatsoever to purchase the original artwork or any of the prints created from the reference photos, but if you would like to a discount would be given as thanks for giving me permission to sell prints of the artwork I create from your reference photo.

Obviously some photos will be more suitable than others - because I work in a very detailed and realistic style, I do require photos that are clear and detailed, without any camera distortion and of course of dogs that are a good representation of their breed. The other requirement is that the person giving me permission must be the copyright holder of the photograph - generally the person who took the photo is the copyright holder.

And just in case you you are wondering, I have absolutely nothing against mixed breed dogs, its just that prints of mixed breeds are unlikely to be saleable, especially in the main venue that I will be selling them on.

Thanks!

Michelle

Black Labrador Retriever

This is my latest commission, a graphite portrait of a gorgeous black Labrador Retriever. Hasn't she got the sweetest looking face? I'm very pleased with how this turned out although getting good digital images of graphite work is near on impossible!

This scanned image is about the closest I can get to the original, although alot of the delicate shading in the original is not evident, particularly in the highlighted areas.



Labrador Retrievers are a loving, affectionate, intelligent breed that is one of the most popular dog breeds in Australia. Highly intelligent, loyal, willing, good natured and excellent with children they are ideal companions for families. Labradors are easily trained and need to be treated as one of the family, otherwise like many breeds they can become destructive. Labradors are medium sized energetic dogs that need a fair bit of excercise. Their smooth short haired coat, which can be black, yellow or chocolate in colour, is easy to groom and they should be bathed only when necesary. They have a life expectancy of about 10-12 years

Labradors originated in New Foundland where they were originally known as St John Dogs or the Lesser New Foundland (Newfoundland's are another breed of dog). Labrador is a peninsular in north-eastern North America situated between Hudson Bay, the Atlantic and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Labradors were originally developed to assist the fishermen in towing in nets as well as working in the snow and ice. These dogs were taken to England where they were bred as gun dogs and retrievers. Labs are easily trained and their intelligence and lovely disposition makes them very suitable for work as guide, service and customs dogs.

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Michelle

http://www.pencilportraits.com.au

Horse & cat "In The Night", German Shepherd & Gibbon & a Galah

I've managed to do the next two of the "In The Night" ACEO series, #2 is a chestnut stallion "Trojan In The Night" and #3 is another cat (yes I have a real big thing for cats at the moment:) "Boo In The Night". I almost couldn't part with them, but ended up listing these two and the first one of the series "Jedi In The Night" on Ebay.




Here are a couple more, "Kaiser" A German Shepherd Dog. I'm really pleased how this turned out, especially as the eyes are only about 3mm in size!


A Pink and Grey Galah (a common Australian native bird). I tried a looser more painterly approach with this one, which was created as part of an International Artists swap.



And a Gibbon (a primate) - when I saw the reference photo for this one I couldn't resist the priceless look on his face. I havn't quite decided what to do with this one, but need to come up with a suitable title first.



As well as getting these ACEO's done, I've also been able to get everything uploaded to the new gallery on my website, it looks much better now, and should be fairly easy for people to navigate.

And now its back to work:)