It's the moment you have been waiting all year for! The brand-spanking new 2008 Decopaw wall calendar is here and ready to purchase.

Complete with no less then 36 unique Decopaw art images of dogs (and a few kitties for good measure), this fun and colorful calendar makes a standout piece for your home or office all year long.

Searching for the perfect gift for a pet-loving friend? Search no more: this is it!

At only $19.99 you can afford to buy one for all of your friends and family members. Even your wicked boss!

OK, in all seriousness, this is the 4th year I have designed a Decopaw wall calendar, and every year they are a big hit both on cafepress (where I hold my online store) and with clients. I'd have to say that out of all of the products I offer (canvases even!) this is my very favorite.

These aren't your cheap, flimsy paper calendars; they are thick 100 lb cover weight high gloss paper, wire bound calendars complete with hanging hole. In a word, they are awesome. See all calendar images below. I can't wait to get one for myself! Yipee! :-)

To purchase click here.
































































































































































































































Do you love it? Wanna buy one? Easy as pie! Just go here.

Labels: 2008 dog art wall calendar, 2008 dog calendar, 2008 modern dog art wall calendar, decopaw design calendar, dog art 2008 wall calendar, dog artist's calendar, fun dog pictures 2008 calendar

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These adorable boys were photographed by yours-truly recently at Pioneer Square, one of my favorite locations for dog photography for my slightly edgier clients. These boys' mom was no exception and we totally hit it off. She's awesome and her boys? Just as cool. I mean, how many dogs can pull off a puffer jacket and still look thoroughly hip?

Chico. First shot of the shoot.
























Chico and his brother Pucci. I always calls pets who live in the same household siblings, but in this case these guys are actually littermates.
















Diablo, the older, non-littermate brother. More on that below.























I do not recommend this move when trying to get ahead in life. ;-)























Pucci, the guy with the most personality. They reminded me of the Outsiders. Pucci would have been Two-Bit, Diablo would have been Johnny and Chico would have been Ponyboy.























Great minds think alike, and apparently at the same time.














Chico, doing his 'poor starving puppy' imitation.























Ok, here is the funniest part about these guys. As I mentioned earlier in this post, Chico and Pucci are littermates. Diablo is the older 'brother' who already lived in the home for years before his little brothers came along. A friend of their mom's said that the younger boys are like evil adopted stepchildren, and Diablo has to just tolerate them.

In all of his actions he acted like he didn't know them. Chico and Pucci like to do some embarrassing things, so I can totally see why Diablo doesn't want people to think they are together. Throughout our shoot their mom was describing the dynamics of their relationship, but I think this image explains it perfectly. Look at Diablo leaning away from the younger boys. The look on his face just slays me. Hee hee hee whoo hoo. :-)













My favorite shot of Chico. Little vagabond alley dog. Love the green moss on the bricks.























Diablo was so easy to shoot. We stuck him in this planter and he was happy to just stay there and look up at me with his intense probing eyes.























In her paperwork, Chico's mom said that people always think he is the cutest, and in this shot I can see why.























Love Pucci! Totally digging the puffer jacket and studded collar.

















Hope you enjoyed my new chihuahua buddies!

Labels: chico, chihuahua dog images, diablo, dogs in puffer jackets, pioneer square dog photographer, pucci, seattle dog photographer

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I forgot to post this art piece I did recently of Darling Dozer. I just received it back from my printer and am getting ready to stretch it and get it ready to mail.

It's called 'Dozer Flutter'.























Also, since you my dear blog audience might find this interesting, here is my favorite proof I designed for them, called 'Dozer Whimsy'. Usually my proof names are pretty boring, like "Bailey blue sky grass" or "Spot brown", so I am trying to get better at coming up with more creative names.























I found out last week that Dozer's parents are expecting a new human baby (congratulations guys!), and will be commissioning me to do a 2nd piece for their baby's room, to go above the crib. Dozer's mom says she wants something with "butterflies and pastel colors if it's a girl or bubbles and lots of blue and green if it's a boy". I am so excited! We are just waiting to find out the sex of the baby. My gut says it's a girl.

Here is the image we will use for the baby's decopaw piece:
























And lastly, a photograph that Dozer's mom sent me this week of him playing tennis (ok, actually they were playing tennis, he was watching). So cute! Love Dozer. :-)




















If I don't have time to write again tomorrow have a really terrific Thanksgiving!

Labels: dozer butterflies art, dozer decopaw art, dozer whimsy, seattle dog artist, seattle pet artist

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I have gotten more shots of dogs laughing in the past week than I have all year. These guys are awesome! The only thing better than a smiling dog is a laughing dog, IMHO. Happy pet photography, yay!

Super swamped with work at the moment but I had to share.

Enjoy!

Oliver, the dog who inspired this post. This shot made me giggle. Hard.
(Oliver has a sister pug and I promise to post more photos of them when I get the chance.)























Next up- Newman: Mr. Personality!


pardon the bad composition and background on this next one; it came from a decopaw sitting where I don't pay any attention to what is in the background, hence the junk. Also, I had some exposure issues with Newman's shoot because he was ready to roll straight out of the gate. Normally I take some test shots for a minute or two at the beginning of a shoot, but Newman was full of Kodak moments just seconds into our shoot. This was one of the first shots I took of him, just after stepping outside. Such is the case with pet photography! Must always be ready!




A very windy Seattle day yesterday shooting Hanalei the tricolor beagle. Love this shot. She is just as cute in person as she looks here. Wait till you see all of the flying ears shots of her!













And one more of Newman for the road! I have no idea what made his ears fly up like that.
























this shot was horribly overexposed, but I did some quick photoshop work and managed a moderately acceptable save. It will work for the art process anyway! pardon the bad colors for my talented photographer friends. If I had more time I would have done a 'real' fix!

Hope you're having a terrific Thanksgiving week! :-)

Labels: laughing dog images, laughing dog photos, seattle dog photographer of happy dogs, seattle dog photography, smiling dogs

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This pretty guy is Seamus, and he lives in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. We did his shoot last week on a particularly dark and gloomy day but since we did the shoot in Seamus' home, we couldn't have cared less what it did outside. :-)

Enjoy!

















Seamus was the first cat who decided the salmon treat I gave him was actually a toy.



































































Believe it or not he loves this. :-)























My favorite shot of him watching the pigeons on the roof nextdoor. His mom is holding him on her shoulder, something she frequently does for 5-1o minutes at a stretch so he can watch the birds. Now that's dedication!























Playing with string. You can just barely see it as a thin green line in the foreground.
















Daydreaming, ahhh...

Labels: cowbelly kitty photos, seamus kitty, seattle cat photography, seattle kitty photography

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Having a bad day? Need some cheering up?

This one's for you:























That's Lacey, and she looks pretty funny shot head-on with a 20mm lens. ;-)

Hope that made you smile!

Labels: 20 mm lens pet photography, lacey, wide-angle whippet

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Yesterday was my 4-year anniversary party for the business (which went great!), and I ended up bringing home a bunch of food and soda.

I'm not normally a cola drinker, but I had about 2/3 bottle of cherry vanilla pepsi that was so yummy that I ended up drinking the whole thing late afternoon and well into the evening.

Needless to say my caffeine-sensitive system never shut down, lol. Completely wired and on a massive creative streak, I stayed up all night designing these new silhouette art pieces of Fergie. (At about 6:30 am I finally got a few hours of shuteye).

In retrospect I am happy I drank the pepsi because I don't know that I would have ever had time to do these without sacrificing a night of sleep, or that they would have even come out of my brain as organically as they did. I am in love with these art pieces!

Here was my process, broken down.

I loved this photograph the moment I saw it, and loved the graphic quality of Fergie's shadow on the ground. I wanted to do more with it so I originally designed a custom shape with just the shadow (not shown but below is the photo that inspired all of the art pieces in this post). I cannot express how much I love really graphic vector art, so that is where my head was at with this photo.
















I felt the custom shape I designed was lacking, so decided to try it with her in the shot as well, which is what you see here below. I like it quite a bit but wanted to experiment with other photos to get more of a true silhouette of Fergie.

















After having a heckuva time finding profile images of her that would work as a silhouette, I found an appropriate image and designed this next piece. I love fleur-de-lis which is what her collar and name were inspired by. I originally tried to incorporate jacquard into Fergie but it didn't work. I may experiment more with that because I love jacquard too. Note the name on this one. :-)

















After I finished the fleur-de-lis piece I realized I had the beginnings of what could be a really cool Christmas card. So I designed the antlers and bell collar custom shapes you see below. Given that I do NOT have mad skillz with the pen tool in photoshop, these took me for.ever. I finally found a great quicktime movie tutorial on using the pen tool, AFTER I had finished the custom shapes, lol. (yes, of course).

Anyway, I'm thrilled with the results, and this is what my family and friends will be getting for Christmas. I am going to get some snow white linen envelopes lined in a deep red for them to go in. I'd love it if the red were sort of a metallic red. I think I'll make a trip to the Paper Zone.

















And the last piece I designed is below. I really wanted a shot of Fergie standing, so after searching through her images for a good 45 minutes, I finally found a shot that would work. (BTW: each of the shots I used came from our recent shoot at the Olympic Sculpture Park).

I knew I wanted pink in this one as it would be just for me and pink is my favorite color. And since Fergie is a little queen/princess (depending on the day), I felt the crown was fitting. The Rodeo Drive sign and sparkly necklace finish it off. The pink dots on the ground are meant to symbolize rose petals, which I also have as custom brushes, but prefer the look of these dots more- they are more modern and fun IMO.

I am so stoked with how this turned out, so much so that I think I will be printing it to hang in this cool black baroque Ikea frame that I have had (empty) forever.
















I'd like to see this shot with grass and maybe a couple of trees behind her as well (sans-crown). So many options! I'll have to get busy designing new custom shapes!

As you can probably imagine, after spending all night working on these I got pretty good at them, so will continue to experiment with other dog's images. Next up is a long, curly haired dog, probably wayyy above my skill level but I love a challenge!

Now, after leaving this post, one more thing. After I designed these and sat back to look at my handiwork, I realized I had designed a variation of a time-honored tradition- that of silhouette art. I recalled a Domino magazine article that I saw that had these cameo silhouette busts of people hanging on a wall, so looked for, and found the magazine late last night.

I found the article (April 2006 for those who subscribe) and at the end of the magazine there was a link to the website for the artist who does the silhouette art.

Let me just say that his work is blowing my mind wide open. He HAND-CUTS every single piece he makes. With scissors!

I can't explain it adequately, you just have to check it out here.
His work is ASTONISHING.

So there you go- my foray into the silhouette world, which I had always just referred to as 'custom shapes' in my photoshop-centric brain, lol. Now I know, they are called 'silhouettes' and they are an art form in an of themselves.

NOTE: I don't know that I would offer these as custom commissioned designs, it just depends on whether or not I could be consistently good enough to produce them repeatedly (especially with long-haired dogs). These were done just for me personally, and I will continue to design them for fun. If I get any good at designing them I may offer them as design options to my Decopaw art clients. We'll see!

The next time I stay up all night loaded on caffeine and come up with new art, I promise to post it here! If I succeed with any long/curly haired dogs I'll let you know!

Labels: dog silhouette art, fergie art, fergie silhouette art, fergie with reindeer antlers, silhouette of dog laying down

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As promised, I am posting some art proofs I recently finished that were gifts for the recipients.

The art canvases now live in their new homes so there is no fear of ruining a surprise. Yay.

Each of these was created from a pre-existing photo, which goes to show that with enough loving care in photoshop, magical things can happen.

Enjoy!

Chula. He lives in San Francisco, my very favorite city. I am hoping that someday I can go down and visit his parents and see his art hung on their wall. His piece was done totally on the sly as gift from Chula's mom's sister.

























Chula's original image:




















Jamila, Chula's brother. Such a handsome boy with those golden amber eyes. He looked a little bit sleepy in the original photo so I opened up his eyes a bit more.






















Jamila's original image:

















Inji, an adorable local gal. I really like the colors in this one. Normally it's tough to pair blue with a yellow-based green but it works here.
























Inji's original image

Labels: custom cat art, custom modern cat art, decopaw dog art, dogs in dahlias, seattle pet portrait artist

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Tara & Murdoch were photographed recently at their home near Northgate.

As most labs are, they were a ton of fun to shoot. Tara is the outgoing, goofy one with the blonde hair, and Murdoch is the dark, brooding boy who kind of reminded me of Eeyore. Awesome dogs, both of them.

When I saw these series of shots of Tara, I instantly thought of my buddy Ramone, photographed earlier this year. They would make a very cute couple.










The shot below reminds me of why, even though most of what I do is color, I do still love black and white pet photography.

















I just want to reach out and give Murdoch a big hug in this next shot. He is just as sweet as he looks.
























gawd he's cute.
























perfect visual depiction of their different personalities.
























Like most self-respecting labs, Murdoch lovvves his ball! Check out shot #2- I fear for the ball.



















More pug photos to come soon! I had the serious pleasure of shooting two more puggie pies today! That's 4 in one week! And I got to shoot yet another pug two weeks ago. Can't post him though because he is a surprise. :-)



labels: black lab photos, goofy yellow lab photos, black lab catching balls, seattle dog photographer, labrador retriever photographer, dog photography Stumble It!

These adorable pugs are Seymour and Charlie. Their shoot was last Friday, and I sent their mom her gallery link this morning. She said: "oh my goodness!!!!!! thank you! we love them :)" Yay.

I had so much fun shooting these guys! I know I always say that, because there is never a shoot where I don't have fun, but these guys were special because they are pugs.

For those who don't know, I adore pugs, and wanted to adopt one before Fergie came into my life. I still dream of having a gaggle of them someday. I'd like a black pug and a fawn pug and a mastiff. And an English Bulldog. And a French Bulldog. And another Fergie. And a bigger house. :-P

Seymour. A cutie-patootie.

























Charlie. Very outgoing little guy, although he looks pretty mellow in this shot.
























Goin' for a walk and clearly having a good time.
























"All the better to eat you with my dear" Seymour seems to be saying.
























Wait- Charlie is a cutie-patootie too! He looks like he is being punished here, lol. Trust me when I say there are no punishments that take place in my photo shoots.
























Normally I would take issue with the warm color balance in this next shot but I actually really like it.
























Happy, running, playful, precious PUGS!
























Love the little corkscrew tail on Charlie.
























Ha! Can't stop laughing! In this next shot, Charlie looks like he wants to kill me, but it's just because his lips were stuck and I caught him turning his head toward me. Thank god for my fast lens! Hee hee hee...
























Awww, and the little puggy paw-paw. And teeth. Two of my favorite things.

























I personally find this next shot hilarious. Why? Look at the ground they are sitting on. The shot is totally tilted. But the boys' heads are straight up and down, which means that they were tilted too. Too funny.
























And one of my top favorites of them. There is something about a pug against a solid blue sky backdrop that I find immensely appealing.
























Hope you enjoyed my darling new puggy friends!

Labels: goofy running pug dog, photos of pugs running, pug photos, pugs in seattle, seattle dog photographer, seattle pug photographer

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Lisa Wogan, published book author, regular contributor to the Bark and Seattle and CityDog magazines, and citizen of the fair city of Seattle, has a fabulous new book out titled "Unleashed: Climbing Canines, Hiking Hounds, Fishing Fidos, and Daring Dogs"

I had the chance to check out the book at the launch party on Saturday 10/20 at Urban Beast. Lisa was there along with the talented Bev Sparks, who photographed the cover, and the gals signed books all night to a large crowd of happy dog owners.

It was a successful turnout, and a great party as always by host Katie Rockwell, illustrious Urban Beast owner.

Sadly, by the time I had sold a gift certificate to a new Decopaw art client who had stopped by the party, and had them get their book signed, and caught up with Nichole of Dane & Dane and Brandie of CityDog, the books sold out so I didn't get a chance to buy a copy. I was bummed but will pick one up the next time I am in Urban Beast, where you can find copies, along with on Amazon of course. BTW: Bev's cover shot is just what Fergie looks like when she is doing her dock-jumping!

Lisa also has a new book coming out called "Dog Park Wisdom" in which she interviews yours-truly, so watch for a post on that book here in the future!


labels: unleashed: climbing canines, lisa wogan's new book, bev sparks' book cover, dog park wisdom, urban beast party, unleashed launch party Stumble It!

This fall has confirmed for me that without a doubt, fall is my favorite season.

I love the crisp, cool days, and the sunny blue skies contrasted with the warm tones in the leaves and the greens in the grass. Seattle is positively gorgeous at this time of year and I feel so lucky to live here.

The images below were from Abby's shoot, done on a recent Saturday at Discovery Park. It was one of my favorite shoots ever, and as a photographer I was in heaven with the choices of backdrops.

Abby has the best family in the whole world, and I had a blast shooting them and Abby alike. They showed me all of their hidden spots that they like to take Abby every weekend, and I vowed that I would create my own rituals there with Fergie.

In fact, I had so much fun that day that after our shoot I promptly drove home, picked up the Fergster, and drove her back to Discovery Park, for her very first adventure there. We explored darn near every trail, romped through the tall grass, chased leaves through the air, and had so much fun we were there for nearly 2 1/2 hours! Man was I sore the next day, lol.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from Abby's shoot. Hope you like them!

The colors that day were so super crazy bright that even though I had my saturation setting on normal in my Canon, I still had to desaturate the images before posting them.
























one of my favorite shots of her...
























the Olympic Mountain range in the background, fronted by Puget Sound

















this was at the very edge of a heart-stopping drop-off. thankfully it was worth the shot.
















grass-munching.
























in front of a beautiful old church that is apparently slated for tear-down. So sad!!

















My favorite shots- in the leaves.























and lastly, no Discovery Park shoot is complete without drinking from the water fountain!

























labels: discovery park dog photography, seattle dog photography, seattle parks photography, abby golden retriever photos, seattle dog photographer, golden retriever in the fall, dog in fall leaves Stumble It!

I received the final canvas back today from my printer, just in the nick of time for the Crave show tomorrow.

Donna and I were putting the final touches on the final proof last Sunday night, and I have been waiting for it this week with baited breath.

It turned out fantastically. I wish I could describe in words how it looks on canvas, the online proofs just don't do it justice. But I'm going to show it to you anyway! It's awesome!! It's called 'Carnivale'. It is 20" tall by 46" wide- a big canvas!












The jacquard background was inspired by both Donna's interior design in her home, as well as the custom couture gown she recently made for Merry McKaig, of PamperedPuppy fame.

The elements you see in the piece are special and unique to each dog: Gus has his favorite big red plastic ball that he carries everywhere with him; Grace, her adored garden glove, which, if you recall from a previous photo of her, sort of turns her into an imp when she has it, hence the ironic halo, and then Pez, with his favorite little stuffed purple zebra bear which doubles as a pacifier.

I love designing pieces that have really special touches like this that are meaningful to the animals in them. It just makes it that much more personal.

The 'Carnivale' piece will be going up at the Crave show tomorrow in the Primp Doggy booth, on a hand-forged metal stand, custom-made for the canvas art piece by Donna's husband! The Primp Doggy booth is right next to the fashion show stage- a prime location I am told.

If you are looking for something fun to do this weekend and live in the Seattle area stop on by and say hi, check out the fabulous Primp Doggy goods, watch the canine fashion show, check out the 'Carnivale' Decopaw canvas triptych of Gus, Grace and Pez, and meet the Cowbelly mascot Fergie, who, by the way, will be modeling a Primp Doggy original in the fashion show; a wine colored faux leather vest with faux fur collar. Fergie is just as excited as I am!

Have a great weekend and hope to see some of you there!


labels: crave show, primp doggy fashion show, seattle pet photography event, seattle women business event, crave fashion show for dogs, decopaw design at crave show, crave show seattle colorful dog art Stumble It!

First off, I want to apologize to my clients who have been waiting to either a) hear back from me on a voicemail or email they sent or b) are waiting on art proofs or their gallery.

I am getting super swamped with client work, a good chunk of which is holiday art commissions for folks. This is the way it usually goes, through the end of the year, with each day, and each week, getting busier than the day/week before.

I have a little bit of a wait list right now for new art commissions, about 2 weeks. What this means is, I will only be able to have a couple of handful of clients on the wait list that I'd be able to complete art commissions for in time for Christmas, given that the process takes 4-6 weeks.

Photography is looking very similar, with many of my weekend days in November already booked, and a couple of weekdays booked each week.

SO, what all of this means is that, if you are a potential client who has been following my blog, or has stumbled upon it via my website, and are considering doing something for the holidays, now is the time to contact me! :-)

For those who wait until December 15th to contact me to do an art commission (trust me this happens every year), I will have really fabulous little gift certificate packages I can offer you, and will be doing something really special for my gift certificate clients this year.

For those who want tangibles to give (prints, art), pick up that phone or get those typing fingers ready, and drop me a line! Time is of the essence. ;-)

Thanks so much!

Jamie Cowbelly


labels: pet photography deadlines, custom decopaw art deadlines, holiday pet photography orders, pet lover gifts- seattle, seattle holiday gifts for pet owners Stumble It!

As a visual artist I am very picky about how things look aesthetically, and this carries over to what my dog wears. She has had nothing but the finest leashes and collars, from the coolest little companies, which she promptly destroys with her tomboy behavior at the dogpark, lol.

In any case, I keep trying to get her the prettiest collars, and figure that spending $35+ per collar per year is worth it to keep her looking good.

Her (and my) favorite leash & collar brand thus far is a company called Bella Bean Couture. They are hard to find at stores in Seattle, but can be purchased at Lucky Dog Outfitters in Tacoma (253- 274-9663), and of course online.

Fergie wears the Modern Loop in Espresso, a gorgeous combination of purples, oranges and pinks set against a chocolate brown background. Not too girlie but not masculine either. Just perfect for a ruff and tumble gal like Fergie.

My other favorites are: Changing Leaf in pine, Cupcakes, Modern Brocade, Poochie Prints, and Toadstool, pictured above, (sooo cute!).

Go check em out and get one for your own pooch!


photo copyright: Bella Bean Couture

labels: cool dog collars, unique dog collars, bella bean dog collars & leashes, fergie's favorite collars Stumble It!