I see that you use to live on a farm, might I assume that your pets inspired you to do what you do?
I have grown up with animals, we've always had pets, my first pet was a hamster when i was five. We've also had rabbits and guinea pigs. When I was 13 we moved to the welsh countryside, my parents bought a smallholding, so I was absolutely in my element! I'd never had chickens before, and I was fascinated by them and they used to wait for me at the gate when I came home from school! They could tell the time! We had cows, pigs and sheep. My job was to feed the runt baby piglets. When you're a child you never really realize that the animals are being raised for food and I absolutely loved these piglets and named them, but it never dawned on me that they were going to be sold at the market! So animals have been a big inspiration, they are a part of my life and I will always be surrounded by a clutch of hens and a field of pet sheep!
How did you get your first pet portrait job?
My first proper commission when I started my business was actually a friend of the family, I painted both her dog and cat, I can't remember what the cat was called but the dog was as black spaniel and he was called Muffin. That was the start and I've never looked back! Starting my own business was very hard and it took many years to establish a steady flow of work.
Other than advertising locally in vets and shops, I advertised in a variety of UK magazines which enabled me to reach a wider audience. People would telephone and request a brochure of my work. To produce the brochures we invested in a word processor. It seems very old fashioned now, it only printed black-and-white and of course was very difficult to design anything on, so eventually I had to bite the bullet and buy a PC.
This was before your average household had a PC, we'd learnt a little at college, but it was a huge learning curve me. I had to learn how to use a desktop publishing program and I scanned and printed my artwork and bound it in a more professional looking brochure. This gave me a head start against my competitors and made me look a little bit more professional. I started getting more work, particularly as my desktop publishing skills improved.
The majority of the commissions I received were of dogs and cats but at this stage my prices my portraits were very low and it wasn't a full-time job, so I did work part-time at an elderly care home in 1994 to pay the bills. However I only had to do this to six months, in that year my commissions doubled! So things were looking up!
As the years progressed I made myself a web site, I learnt web design, the orders increased, my prices raised and I'm still moving forward in this way today, and now its definitely a full-time job!
Did you work in a creative profession before deciding to go the pet portrait route?
No, I pretty much went from school to College and then straight into painting portraits for clients – so you could say I was pushed in at the deep end!
How long does it take you to complete one of your paintings?
It does depend on the size and complexity of the portrait, for instance a small head study in oils probably takes three to four days whereas a larger full body portrait with a full background can take anything from 1 week to 2 weeks.
What is a typical day like for you?
I'm quite an early bird, my day starts around 7 a.m. I check the emails, I reply to clients, a lot of my work comes from America so many e-mails come in overnight. I usually have breakfast at my computer perhaps doing website updates, checking my forum (I run my own pet portrait artist forum) and then I like to start painting around half 10 in the morning. This will take me up to lunch time, we usually break for about an hour and then I worked through painting until 4 or 5 p.m. Around this time I stop to get a meal and then we work from about 7.30 till 9 or 10pm depending on how busy things are in the studio. I work 7 days a week, but having said this we work on flexi time so if something happens and we need to take a day off then we do take time out. I am lucky that i work here in the studio with Nick my partner. He is also an artists, he specializes in horse portraits in oils and pastels on velour and so we are great company here for each other all day.
Can you describe your process for going about creating a pet portrait?
The first thing I do when I receive the clients photograph, is to remove the background of the dog and either place it on a plain background or if it's a full body, try to amalgamate all the photos together to show the client visually what the portrait could look like painted.
I have used this process, called a mock up, since college when we had to amalgamate many photographs together to create one final painting. Back then of course we cut lots of pictures out and arrange them, or sketched out how we felt the final painting would look, as we didn't have access to computers as freely as we do these days.
Once the client has seen the mock up and they are happy, I draw the portrait on the canvas and block in the basic colours of the dog and the background. I like to blend the dog into the background to give the neck a soft edge if it's a head study. I then leave the portrait to dry for a few days, and this allows me to work on other portraits at the same time. This is the reason for having 4 work in progress pages. I then go back and add in the detail and work up the areas until I am happy. The oil portraits usually take about a week to two weeks of dry fully and then they are posted to the client. I use copious amounts of bubble wrap and I hear lots of funny stories about my clients getting lost in bubble wrap when the portraits arrive!
I see from looking at your site that by far the most portraits are done of dogs. But you do paint other animals too I assume?
Yes I do paint and other animals, I trained in natural history illustration so I've painted many animals from birds – a Californian Condor, to an Australian rainforest tree frog. I have been commissioned to paint ferrets and rabbits but I think my favourite of the more unusual animals to paint, have to be chickens and sheep. I don't get a lot of time to draw my pets, perhaps one day I will!
If someone decided they wanted to do what you do, what's the single best piece of advice you could give them?
I think the best piece of advice I could give them would be for them to visit my forum, there is so much advice available for pet portrait artist starting up in business its an invaluable resource. As far as i know its the only pet portrait Forum on the Internet. I started it up in January of this year (06) as I became increasingly aware there are so many new up-and-coming pet portrait artists out there. I use to receive at least one e-mail a day asking for advice on various things. It came to a point where i was unable to reply to everyone and felt we needed a resource for artists to come together to share their own experiences. I never believed it would take off as it has, and there are so many talented artists on their with some fantastic topics being discussed.
Do you paint for your own recreation at all or does painting pets leave you burnt out for painting anything else?
I don't really get a lot of time to paint for myself these days and I think in my spare time in the evenings I much prefer veging out in front of the TV with glass of wine or two! Of course my animals to take up a lot of my time, and I wouldn't be without them.
Do you have any painter or artist or anyone who inspires you?
There are many artists that inspire me from the pet portraits pencil artists Mike Sibley to the portraitist John Howard Sanden, i think he is a fantastic artist. There are just so many wildlife artists too, each with their own styles and techniques to admire. The Internet is a great place for inspiration!
Are there any pitfalls in what you do? There has to be a horror story or two no?
I'm not sure about pitfalls but running your own business is very time-consuming and sometimes quite tedious. Painting portraits is only a small proportion of the business, the everyday admin, yearly accounts and the behind-the-scenes work on the website can take an awful long time. So I think one of the downsides is that if you are considering starting a business in pet portraits don't be surprised if you have to work long hours.
I think the only horror story that have really had, was with one particular client at the start of my career. He didn't pay the final payment for his portrait. I used to accept a deposit, complete the portrait send it to the customer and they would make the final payment however Mr Flewers from Canvey Island, London neglected to pay the final payment. After many fruitless attempts to contact him, I tried to take him court and I even tried two separate debt collecting agencies to get the money, but both failed, so I put it down to experience and now always ask for full payment in advance.You live and learn!
Ever gotten any strange requests? I know some pet owners who can be pretty finicky about what they want with their pets, or do customers mostly just say here's my pet, go with it?
Most clients are generally quite laid-back with a portrait, many say 'you're the expert, I leave it in your capable hands'. I think the most unusual portrait I have done is for an American guy who wanted a head portrait of his dog with the dog's toy rubber ring in his mouth and the owner's hand pulling the ring. It looked quite bizarre - a disembodied hand protruding into the painting, but that's what the client wanted!
Any additional things you'd like to tell us about your work or yourself?
I think that i have covered pretty much everything, thanks for inviting me to do this interview and i hope someone out there finds it interesting! : )
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