Dogbusters! (Latest Art Commission)

Who you gonna call? Dogbusters!

…Problem is, they may never bother to show up. Because cats 😉

This is my latest art commission, and boy am I proud of it daddy-o! My buddy Mark wanted a caricature of his beloved cats, Yin and Yang, and after giving it a little thought he decided he wanted them as ghostbusters.

I first I was like “Okaaaay?” but then again, I react the same way with all the ideas suggested by my patrons, but then the initial fears recede a bit to let the creative juices flowing, and the thought of having a Slimer-like ghost dog immediately popped into my head –Mark named him Slober, which works even better.

As you can see, I really pushed myself with this one. I kept experimenting with the layer filters and the brushes, and at first it wasn’t easy because the ‘soft pastel’ brush available in Autodesk Sketchbook is VERY tricky to control –you start gradually darkening the area, and then all of the sudden WHOOPS! the last stroke is brighter than the previous one, so you need to be careful or you end up with a mess. I also ’tilted’ the ground to make the shot more dramatic which at first didn’t ‘feel’ right but in the end all the elements coalesced in a very satisfying way. I guess the lesson of the story is that great art is ALWAYS on the brink of being a total failure, but you have to be brave and keep soldiering on with your vision, until next thing you know it it’s finished and you can’t even believe that came out of your skull 😉

If you’re interested in one of these contact me here or on my Facebook page. I decided to revise my prices because these pieces take way longer than what I anticipated –hopefully you can see I put a LOT of love in them, too– so now $60 is the starting point, which I still feel it’s very reasonable considering the end result 🙂