May 2023 update
Commissions completed
May has been another productive month as I continue to grow my pet portrait business. I’ve completed five commissions and been able to post one of my favourite ones yet. It’s of two dogs who obviously had a lovely relationship with each other. It was such a privilege to draw them. Sadly, as with many of my commissions, the subjects are no longer with us so I hope this picture is a suitable memorial for them.
BTW, I am now booked up until October, so if you were thinking of commissioning a pet portrait for Christmas, or recommending me to a friend, now is definitely the time to start thinking about it!
Website content added
I have added even more pet-related content to my website. There are articles on my top 10 cat quotes, my top 10 cat sayings, my top 10 dog quotes and my top 10 dog sayings. Most of my clients have dogs or cats in their life, so I hope they will find these collections interesting and relatable. I’m also hoping they will help pet lovers find me and my website via Google.
I’ve also written an article about how pet portrait artists can restore faded memories by creating pet portraits from less than perfect reference photos. In it I share some recent examples of how I have filled in missing detail, brought subjects into sharper focus and corrected colours and contrast. Here is a fun swipe I made of a challenging kitten commission:
Pinterest pins posted
As always, I’ve been active on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. I’m hoping that Pinterest will be another source of traffic to my website so I’ve been adding more pins to my Pinterest business page, with lots more lined up for the next few weeks.
My print shop is now international
I regularly ship my pet portraits all over the world but so far I’ve only shipped prints and cards to the UK. I get a lot of international traffic to my website (see the purple countries below for May visitors), so this month I added US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden and France to my shipping destinations with more to follow.
Next month already started
I have lots lined up for June. A lovely looking oak plan chest should arrive to store some of my paper and materials. I still want to get more feedback and reviews to help advertise my business, and there are many more commissions lined up for the last month of my first year as a full time pet portrait artist. As always, thank you for your help and support. It’s so much appreciated!