All About Babe

All About Babe

"Babe" 8"x 6" watercolor ©2014 Tina M Welter
Babe is a beautiful 7 year old Great Pyrenees who belongs to my friend Carol in Kentucky. Carol is also an artist and when I shared with her my painting of Kirk, she asked about a commission for her dog, Babe, whom Carol says is the "best dog she has ever had."

I started to feel my inner 'Fraidy Cat start getting nervous & fluffing up her fur. I was fairly confident about painting Kirk because I was able to take the photographs myself, could I paint a good portrait from someone else's photos? Could we communicate well enough through e-mail if I needed to make adjustments? What about packing and shipping original art from New Zealand to Kentucky? How to get paid? Plus, white fur! When painting white, it means you use a lot of colors to give the illusion of white, it is tricky.

Here is the original photo from Carol's phone that she sent me. This was her favorite photo of Babe. It was quite small and I wondered if I would be able to work from it.

What helped me calm my 'Fraidy cat the most was how much I wanted to do this painting. A strong desire plus dealing with one anxiety at a time. It feels like such an honor to be asked to paint a beloved pet. I know it is a painting that will be loved and enjoyed, and that means a lot to me.

Facing the anxiety: I could lighten and enlarge the photo using the preview tools on my Mac computer. Using the larger photo, did sketches to move Babe's favorite toy forward. Looked up postal shipping rates online. Found Saachi art had a great tutorial on how to pack paintings to ship. Did palette and small watercolor sketch tests to figure out the colors. E-mailed a photo of the completed painting to Carol. Carol wanted a small adjustment to the eyes, and I was able to do that too. I was a bit anxious waiting the three weeks it took to arrive in Kentucky, but it did make it just fine. Paypal took care of the payment. Success!

The lesson I am trying to remember when my anxiety fur gets raised is this:

Just because I haven't done it before, doesn't mean it can't be done!
#creativeanxiety

This seems simple, but for some reason I often forget this lesson, even after I have been successful. I don't know, but I hope writing about and sharing it will help me to lock it in.

Happy fear-less creating.

>^-^< Tina

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