Tag: cat art

New Year's Resolutions–My Vision Board

Artwork by BZTAT

I meant to publish this on New Year’s Day, but I accidentally hit the publish button and it went on out into the RSS feeds. So I figured I would go ahead and publish it now.

Awhile back I received a Facebook message from a  friend suggesting that I create a vision board. The message included a link to my friend’s Facebook photos where she had made an album dedicated to her own vision board.

The message read, “So… the purpose of creating a vision board is to define your outcomes and goals and allow those things to manifest in your life… And… When you share that vision with others the more powerful your intentions become…”

That friend was Amanda Hite, CEO of Talent Revolution.  Amanda is a social media rock star and “change agent”,  and she apparently is quite famous in the field of talent acquisition/consulting.  I feel sorta honored that she even knows my name.

OK, so the message was a group one and not intended solely for me. But social media makes everything more personal, so I took it as an invitation to do something special.

Also, one of my social media strategies is to find people who are using social media effectively and creatively to make a difference in the world, and then try to incorporate some of their strategies into my own repertoire.

I have been thinking about it quite a bit, and I have decided to do my vision board here on my blog for my New Year’s Resolutions. Not that I will complete everything on the vision board in the next year, but I do want to dedicate myself towards making my visions real.

So, without further ado, here is my vision board. These are some of  the outcomes and goals that I intend to manifest in my life. Let’s see how powerful my intentions become through the process of sharing them with you.

MY VISION

Create one of the prime attractions of the Canton, OH Arts District

Inspire others through my art
Get off the "Super Size Me" diet
Make this guy have to change his byline

Paint lots of portraits of cool cats and develop enriching relationships with the people in their lives

Have appliances that don't require quarters INSIDE my residence
Have more appliances
Find a good left-brained person whom I can trust and who will tolerate my right-brained-ness to help me with all the details of running a business
Make the Brew's Posse more famous and influential than @Sockington's Army
Outsource this job
Write one of these
Be able to stamp this on all my bills and debts
Paint lots of portraits of cool dogs and develop enriching relationships with the people in their lives

Paint Bo Obama's OFFICIAL portrait
Explore licensing of some of my artwork
Explore licensing of some of my artwork

Create Dialogues Murals for major events, conferences and causes
Do my part for world peace in a way that makes me proud to be an American
Do my part for world peace in a way that makes me proud to be an American

Help children heal their hurts and find peace and hope in their lives
Change the world

What is your vision? What are your outcomes and goals that you would like to manifest in your life? Will you share that vision with others to allow your intentions to become more powerful? Please do share!

What's on BZTAT's Easel? Tiger Lilly and Tink!

Artwork by BZTAT

About this time last year, I completed my first commissioned pet portrait painting of a dog named Harvey. It is only fitting that I would complete the painting of his housemates, Tiger Lilly and Tink at the same time this year!

Like Harvey, I actually had the opportunity to meet my subjects for this portrait. I went to see Tiger Lilly and Tink at their home and snapped a bunch of photos.

Tink was quite the ham.

Tiger Lilly, on the other hand, was a bit more reclusive.

Both were very sweet and fun and lovable. They did show some disdain for their housemate Harvey, however.

Although I took several photos, I ended up using one submitted by their person for the basic structure of the painting.

I was really struck by the poses in this photo. It was not an easy picture to work from, because the cats are behind a window screen. The other photos helped me with details.

The First step in creating the painting was to develop a reference image from the photo using Photoshop filters, which I then traced onto a black canvas using a projector. I then started blocking in shapes with color.

Using my usual layering technique, I refined the colors and shapes, building up color by painting many layers of varied colors on top of each other. Each layer shows some trace of the underneath layers.

I tend to paint grayish cats in blue tones; striped cats with very simplified implications of stripes. My colors are what are distinctive about my paintings, so grays do not tend to go onto my palette.

As long as the character of the animal is portrayed, my patrons tend to enjoy the color absraction and the simplification of shapes and patterns.

The background of this portrait was designed to coordinate with the background in Harvey’s painiting.

Harvey

Tiger Lilly and Tink were so much fun to paint, as was Harvey! I am so grateful to them and their family for getting me started on this journey of painting the portraits of beloved pets.  It has been such a great year with each portrait being a grand adventure!

If you are interested in a pet portrait of your animal, info about the process can be found here.

Happy Holidays! may the season be filled with love, light and peace, and ADVENTURE!

Life is an Adventure!

BZTAT