R.I.P. Sparky 052108-020123

Somehow an entire year got past me.

I was shoulder-deep entrenched in student support of a popular online writing cohort which literally filled most of my week tending to needs of a global enrollment.

Had a few days off in between, but it did take up a ton of my time and energy such that I did not actually get to be doing the writing and posting and building of my studio that I initially took the same program for.

Ironic, I know.

Gave it up at the start of February for a number of reasons, mostly following Sparky’s passing on the 1st and my mother getting a “no change, time to up the treatments” verdict from her doctors.

So while I have things to be catching up on, none is more important than sharing the tribute video I made honoring Sparky’s life and influence left behind here at my studio.

Meet Big Dogue!

Among other things going on in life right now, I’ve challenged myself to join in #the100dayproject challenge.

My project is #100daysofBigDogue and I’ve gotten just over 20 sketches of him developed thus far on my Instagram account. I’m doing this as a character study to spend time focusing on just one dog character and see how it speaks to me over the next three months.

To get to know Big, be sure to follow my Instagram account @BigBlackDogStudio for all of them!

Happy Howlidays Pibble Stickers

I’ve been working the past two months on Pitbull and mixed rescue dog art and in addition to the fabrics available on my Spoonflower shop, I decided to get playful with the Happy Howlidays theme and made eight stickers over on my Zazzle shop. Check them out here and thank you for supporting my itty bitty small business this weekend – the bits and pieces of commissions I get from sales of stuff with my designs on it pays for Daisy’s annual exams and heartworm meds as well as Sparky’s.

My Pitbull Stickers

Lotsa Cats gift wrap

A collection of the cats I have drawn in the past year was already one of my Spoonflower fabrics, and now you can get them as gift wrap to fluff up your gift giving and make folks purr! Plus, Zazzle always has some sale and discount going on, so check out my collections:

Girls in the Coop gift wrap

Find Ruby, Pearl, Daisy, Leslie and Olivia all together on our adorable Girls in the Coop wrapping paper now in our Zazzle shop! Six color backgrounds to choose from.

We also have this as a fabric through our Spoonflower shop for those of you who can envision some home decor and even wallpaper featuring the girls 😉

https://www.zazzle.com/collections/chickens-119969178988151272

Olivia and her Chicks in 2 sizes!

My fabric chicken collection is growing! Now the Fat Quarter project size has a larger, Full Yard project size! Perfect for those of us who don’t work so well with tiny pieces any more!

While most people choose their basic cotton quilting fabric, I highly prefer going with their Performance Velvet as I like the color and crispness much more than the basic cotton.

See all of my chickens in the coop currently on our Spoonflower Shop here.

Petember Pawtrait month going on

If you haven’t yet ordered your custom pet portrait, this month is the purrfect time to do so! Last year we experienced so much delay in shipping and there’s no real reason to expect that trend won’t continue over the holidays, so best to order earlier than later!

$10 out of every order per pet commissioned goes to one of our participating rescue groups, so take the opportunity to make a difference!

Order yours today at our Etsy shop!

2020 Studio Year End Report

To all of my customers, family, friends & Pack Members!

I hope you are all enjoying what is left of the holiday season with your wonderful pets that make life so much better! For those who purchased Giclee art prints, shirts, fabrics or print goods this year, I thank you soooooo much and hope both you and the receiver (if they were for gifting) love them as much as I loved creating their portraits!

I do have new things in store for next year and can’t wait to share it with you – I post mainly on Instagram and communicate through email and my studio’s weekly newsletter, Furday News.

This week, I sent out my weekly newsletter with my 2020 Studio Year End Report and Plans for 2021 to my subscribers. It is something that I also want to share with those who are helping me get a great start by purchasing something I’ve made for you. Rather than simply forward this week’s special edition and have it go straight to everyone’s spam folder, I am simply linking it here for you to read online at your leisure to see what’s in store for the coming year: 

http://tiny.cc/2020studioreport

Dog Mom Anthem

This seriously just made the whole year better.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BarkBox (@barkbox)

Shop Small Biz Artists

Purrs and wiggle-butts! It’s merch time! Did you know that by subscribing to our Pack’s Furday News, we’ll not only keep you up to date on new designs as they come out, but subscribers get exclusive freebies to enjoy?

Sign up today at BigBlackDogStudio.com and get a welcome pawprint mandala page as our tail wag of appreciation!

Our studio designs include fabrics, home decor, gift items, t-shirts, planners, journals and coloring books. We have so many at this point, we broke them up to separate so you can just click the links from my bio, which are described on the following    

Our BONFIRE SHIRT SHOP – I have been very pleased with the shirt printing quality through Bonfire and they are now my go-to, so please check out my link!

Our Spoonflower Fabrics – From repeat patterns of Labs, Pugs, Pyrs and Cats, to cut-and-sew style projects, I am having a blast designing items animal rescue groups can use in their fundraising events. Some of these designs are also available on my Society6 Shop (see below).

Our Stationery Collection on Zazzle – I have been very happy with the stationery printing quality through these guys – there are cards, matte finish mandala stickers you can color, and even a self-inking stamp in my collection to check out.

Our Studio’s Notebooks and Planners – Animal Lover designs to the max over here!

Our Boatman Books Notebooks and Planners – Boatman Charlie’s line of Lake & Mountain, Salt Sea & Sand, Dog + Me outdoor adventures, and other nature inspired designs between the Adirondacks and the Florida West Coast.

Our Booger Books totally obnoxious line of gag gift notebooks along with the children’s books that spawned them – Suzy Knotz pen name, because when you get it, you get it. Yup, that was the inspiration from a friend’s little boy, so outta the mouths of babes!

Our Society6 Shop – This is one of those places where I can put designs I do for folks onto “merch” similar to the Zazzle website. Pretty much for custom requests I post items over here, but the Lotsa Labs repeat fabric design is one of the designs available on numerous items for y’all to check out!

Our Amazon T-Shirts – Got my teeth whet in shirt printing over here, but there’s too much competition, so I switched over to Bonfire. Shirts are still posted and available, so definitely take a look and use that Prime membership to your advantage!

Poll time

POLL TIME! I’ve made coloring pages for many years for the various churches and nonprofits I’ve worked for and the folks who love it, love it. Those that don’t care for coloring were the word search fans and their’s was on the flip side of the activity sheet each week.

So, since I love making coloring pages for those who enjoy that, let me take a head count of who might be interested:
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1. Anybody else doodle or tangle on your own or do you prefer the adult coloring book craze with the doodles drawn in already?
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2. If you doodle, are they random doodles on a blank page or inside graphics like the dog coloring book, kinda like this cat?
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3. Do you wild card your own doodles or prefer calm structure like zentangle?
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4. If I make a coloring book of doodled pets like Thomas here for you guys from this year’s Petober portrait event, who would be interested in getting it? Breed specific or general?
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5. And if coloring isn’t your thing but it is your kids or grandkids’ thing, what age group are we talking about?
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I want to put it out there to y’all and ask first because not everybody likes the “doodle look” and although enjoyable to me, I do have things I’m working on in my studio as the mini portraits are still in progress…..like the Petober Mini Pet Portraits!
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Thanks, y’all! I appreciate your input! 🥰

Lotsa Labs are now on Spoonflower

All of my posting has been to my Instagram & Facebook pages – sorry for neglecting the .com! But it’s because I’ve been really, really busy drawing DOGS! Check out my Spoonflower fabric shop for the “Lotsa Labs” and “Beach Day for the Labs” as well as the cut-n-sew fat quarter projects!

For dog lovers, and especially Labrador Retriever lovers….my Spoonflower shop has Lotsa Labs to boast!

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Want to see even more? All my links are here.

And since you’re here, you know that pop up with the cat on it? Join The Pack of our email subscribers to be kept in the know about the latest! It’s not gone, there’s a sign-up at the top right of the page.

Woof!!!

Celebrating Pet-ober

Over on my Instagram, there is my annual Dogtober/Catober free mini pet portrait festival event going on.

Every year I attend several large regional adoptathons in my area, but this year everything was cancelled. So, since I can’t walk around making sketches of people’s pets in person, I decided to do it virtually on my IG.

It’s going great, and my IG is growing – something I have wanted very much since I can help more rescue groups via the more people connected.

Check it out – Follow @BigBlackDogStudio on IG and become one of our active fans and email subscribers today!

Beach Sunrise featured on new 2021 Weekly Planner and Gratitude Journal

One of my paintings of the beach at sunrise makes a rather nice cover and phone case. Check them out here.

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How to Build a Dog

Friday Flashback! A quick process video of my favourite dog sculpture of Rico, completed in December 2014.

Children’s Book published this week

“Each Booger Is Unique” is our newest children’s book to help adults discuss the sticky subject of boogers with little ones.

Both the full-color picture story book and the companion coloring book can be ordered directly through Amazon here.

See our quick promo below….

 

Puppy Love for Valentine’s Day

Who doesn’t love puppies? Now these sweet notebooks can keep that warm, fuzzy feeling with you even when you are apart from your favourite pup.

 

Check out more of our “Puppy Love” Series available on Amazon by clicking the cover below!

Getting Purrsonal

Our adorable 5×8 mini notebooks as well as our 8×10 combo dot grid plus lines notebooks are available on Amazon. Check them out below:

Check out more of our “Purrsonal” series on Amazon by clicking the photo below!

Dog Fur on My Clothes, Pawprints on My Heart – Blue cover

More of our 12 Days of Christmas Gift Ideas for Dog & Cat Lovers with this other bestseller ❤

Know any DOG LOVERS who’d like their own planners, too? Check out our FlipBook video on our Dog Lover Planners here to see the entire interior: https://bigblackdogstudio.org/dogflipbook

Because Cat

Well, of course! Surprise a Cat Lover this year with a weekly planner designed just for them by a Crazy Cat Lady who gets it ❤

Love CATS and COLORING PAGES? Our 2020 Weekly Planners will fit the bill! Check out our full FLIP BOOK video to see every page inside this year’s CAT LOVER planners here: https://bigblackdogstudio.org/catflipbook