3 Reasons I Love Painting Pit Bulls

Reason #3: Huge, happy pit bull smiles

I love to paint smiling dogs, and pit bulls don’t hide their emotions! When pit bulls are happy, their faces show pure joy! I like to show off their blissful, comedic side!

Side note: Are you wondering if dogs really smile? Here’s a quote from Patricia McConnell, a Ph.D certified applied animal behaviorist and professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison: “When dogs smile – and I believe they do smile – they dog’s jaw is a little relaxed, the mouth is open a little, the lips are pulled back and they’re panting slightly. We have the same smile as dogs, except that we don’t pant, well, not usually. Also, dogs eyes are a little squinty when they smile, and ours are too, it’s the anti-bo-tox look. That smile is one thing that attracts us to dogs.“

For more on this subject, read Patricia’s book For the Love Of A Dog: Understanding Emotion In You And Your Best Friend. Highly recommended!

Reason #2: Coats of Many Colors

Pit bull coat colors include the whole dog fur palette and then some! Not to mention spots and stripes in every possible combination. Eyes run the gamut … anything from yellow to green, light brown, dark brown, and occasionally blue.  Ears might be cropped or natural … and natural ears are so ador-a-bull … sometimes floppy, half-floppy, sometimes ears up, or one ear up & one down (my personal favorite)! A dog painting person couldn’t ask for anything more fun!

Here are some of the “technical” pit bull/am staff colors:
Black, Brown, Red, Tri-color (black and tan or blue and tan), Black with Brindle Points, Smut, Sable, Dilute Sable, Buckskin, Fawn, Blue Fawn, Brindle, Fawn Brindle, Blue Brindle, Black Brindle, Chocolate Brindle, Red Brindle, Mahogany, Brindle, Blue Brindle, Sable Brindle, Blue, Blue/Fawn, Seal, White, Cinnamon

Reason #1: To Know Them Is To Love Them

Pit Bulls are people-loving, attention-craving, intelligent, fun dogs. One of the first pit bulls I got to know was my cousin’s dog Lily. I fell hard for Lily when dogsitting her. She did these extreme side-ways zoomies around her house like a motorcycle racing around tight curves. I should mention she was more than 10 years old at the time! Every pit bull I subsequently met was like Lily – affectionate, bold, fun-loving, silly, and certainly not deserving of a bad reputation.

Thanks Lily!

If you don’t know a pit bull and want to learn more about them, a good place to start is Badrap.org. Be sure and check out Breed Info and Monster Myths – lots of GREAT info!

A painting from start to finish

Here’s a quick video showing my painting process from start to finish:

New Little Paintings

I’m trying out a new style (in addition to my normal paintings), and people are liking these! Here’s a couple of “outline paintings” I have done over the last month. These paintings are 6″ x 6″ x1.5″, acrylic on canvas.

This pup was my first:

This Pit Bull was the first one, and it was purchased from the WOOF Factory Etsy Store quickly.

The second one is based on a photograph of my husky mix Takoda (RIP). It’s hanging on my wall under her big painting. Side note: my house is becoming a little Takoda shrine since she left our world in February of this year. She’s very, very missed!

I draw these in Illustrator and then sketch them on to the canvas and paint them by hand. I’ll be doing lots more of these soon … if you have a breed request send me a message!

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/wooffactory

National Pit Bull Awareness Day!

Saturday, October 23 is National Pit Bull Awareness Day! If you’re in Iowa, check out “Knowledge-A-Bull”, a Pit Bull Awareness & Celebration Event from 4-6pm at the ARL of Iowa. You will also have a chance to win a custom WOOF Factory painting of your dog, and other prizes!

My painting of Nala, a sweet pit bull girl recently adopted from the ARL, will also be on display:
Hope to see you there!

WOOF Factory.com 3.0 Unleashed!

I haven’t been very good at blogging lately! I have some new work to add but first here’s what’s new…

WoofFactory.com got a facelift!

WOOFFactory.com new home page

I have  just unleashed WOOFFactory.com 3.0 … now with MORE drool, MORE fur, MORE teeth, and MORE tongue. Woofalicious right?

WOOFFactory.com was previously just this blog, but now it has it’s own fluffy new website with a Great Dane sized dog art painting gallery. I have also added some of my phoDOGraphy and illustration. Now I can get back to painting!

I have also started a blog for my husky mix, Takoda: Takoda.tripawds.com.
For the past 8 years, Takoda has been my adventure girl and my best dog friend. On July 19th we  were devastated to learn that she has bone cancer. Takoda’s back right leg was amputated July 22nd.

Right now she is doing very well! Which is dang good – because I’m completely unprepared to lose her anytime soon!

I am blogging our journey here>

Takoda

Mario the Pitbull

My latest pitbull painting is a donation to Out Of the Pits, a non-profit organization in Albany, NY focused on educating the public about the true nature of the American Pit Bull Terrier. Check out Outofthepits.org … they have a really cool slideshow on their homepage that shows some of the amazing things dogs rescued by Out of the Pits are doing now … everything from princesses to law enforcement pitties!

This photo is based on Mario, a New York pitbull who is looking for an adopter! Out of the Pits says “Mario is a 3-year-old, 43 pound delight. He is fantastic on a leash, but he doesn’t just walk – he prances down the street like a thoroughbred horse. He doesn’t pull, he appears to have been leash trained and been well taken care of. His coat is thick and beautiful. Mario loves to play and wanted to do so with everyone we met – people and other dogs. He appears to be housebroken, loves to be petted and kissed, and is a complete gentleman!”

Thanks to Julie and her Out of the Pits alumni dog Willow for the invitation to donate pitbull art to this great rescue group!

Mario’s photo:

WOOFStock

I spent this afternoon surrounded by tie-dye and peace-loving woofs at WOOFStock, a fundraiser for the ARL of Iowa. Here are some highlights:

I took lots and lots more photos, you can view the whole set on Flickr>

English Bulldog Dog Art Painting

I just finished painting an English Bulldog! I have had this painting in mind since I took this photo at the Drake Relays Most Beautiful Bulldog Contest in 2008. It’s a contest in which about 50 bulldogs compete to become Drake’s bulldog mascot for the year, and it is always fun to watch.

This painting is 20″x16″, acrylic on canvas. Here’s more:

Smooshy cheeks close-up

That’s one LONG tongue!

Original Photo

German Shepherd Dog Art Painting

It’s finally finished – meet Vegas, my German Shepherd! This painting is XL size, 5 foot wide by 4 foot high. Vegas is XL size too, so the big painting is very appropriate.

A closer view
Here’s Vegas looking quite pleased with his larger than life twin.

Close-up

“My what big eyes you have.”

“And teeth!”

“All the better to eat you with my dear!”

Where it all starts. Paint, brushes, and water.

For the painting, I cropped in on this photo, which I took at the lake last fall. I chose to paint this sloppy, dripping Vegas with heavy waterlogged ears since swimming is his favorite activity and something I will always want to remember.

More Dripping Vegas throughout the years:

WOOF Factory update

Howl-o dog and dog art lovers! Sooooo long without an update. So what have I been up to? Here’s my top 5 happenings over the last 6 weeks or so:

1. Doggie vet visits – in addition to our routine annual check-ups, we have had a torn cruciate ligament, inexplicable swollen lymph nodes, and an oozing hot spot. The hot spot is gone, the two more serious ailments remain in progress.

2. Vehicle break-in while in the vet’s office – crazy, yes. Post-vet appointment looked out the window at my Jeep and noticed there was a man inside it, ransacking my center console. The burglar made off with a few dollars in change. I am sure he was disappointed to find that my Dog Hauler contained nothing of value if you are not interested in poo bags, dog treats, leashes, water bowls, and an infinite amount of dog hair (which tends to float up your nose when you open the door). The burglar ran off following a confrontation and brief scuffle.

I have made every effort possible to convince my dogs that the man or woman in the white coat sticking them with needles, inappropriately touching, and making them bleed really is good and not evil, but I had not properly prepared the pups for this interesting twist on an early morning would-be routine vet visit.

For the record, my outlaw dogs were not bothered by the bad guy, but were visibly  uncomfortable with the dark-uniformed, hat-wearing, gun-toting police officers.

3. Home stuff – Replacing windows (found out dogs bark less with double-paned windows!), fixing fences, attempting to re-grow grass in the dog customized backyard, planting trample-proof shade-loving plants, growing herbs and a few vegetables, enjoy the outdoors.

4. Working lots of overtime at the “real job” – I’ll spare you the details on this one.

5. Volunteer dog walking at the ARL of Iowa – I started in February and it has been a wonderful experience. At the moment I can only spend an hour or so per week, but I am sure that every little bit helps. It is a pleasure meeting and spending time with the dogs and giving them a little bit of love and exercise in hope of making their time in limbo between homes a little easier. I would highly recommend volunteering at your local shelter or a rescue – the rewards I’ve received in tail wags and kisses alone have made the experience beyond worthwhile.

Last but not least, if you were a fan or friend on Facebook you may have noticed that my pages disappeared. In an effort to better organize, I have re-created a WOOF Factory Facebook page. At the moment, I’m the only (and lonely) person who “likes it” – so feel free to join and get my updates!