I used to paint hundreds of rocks - making them into cats and wolves and rattlesnakes and selling them at art fairs. But when we moved away from the beach in CA, finding smooth pebbles became difficult. Carrying them to art fairs also became a real drag. My greatest problem: I'd spend every minute between shows on replenishing my inventory, with no time left for serious painting and no option to make any prints. So I gave up on this venue, even though the rocks were still selling like the proverbial hot-cakes.
But Facebug brings up old memories and my fb friends saw pictures of old rock pets. So requests came in. But they were not for generic cats or wild-life, they were requests for portraits of individual dogs. I should have thought twice about that challenge. But one pair of dogs was super cute and the photos were usable. So I found a rock in our backyard and started sketching:
After the first dog, the Pomeranian Jazz, was painted and I liked him, I was afraid that the second portrait as sketched would destroy the first. Luckily acryllic paint is forgiving, so I whited out the sketch and turned the little face.
After fleshing out Molly's little Papillion Face I liked the outcome, even if one has to look at them from 2 different angles to do them both justice. That's the curse of a curved surface.
Most importantly, the owner loves it. Success!
