Fingerprint guest books with dogs

I sometimes find myself looking at a tree and trying to add up how many times I have drawn it….so it is so nice when someone contacts me to see if I can create something for them that is a little different or has those special personal touches.

Anyone who knows me or my work knows I have a passion for dogs, I have 3 adopted dogs here in Spain, they drive me nuts but I love them all and I think they appreciate the space to run, get muddy, chase rabbits, birds, frogs, and the odd cat that strays into our patch. The snakes and tortoise that get in however are met with a lot of barking. I also love to draw and paint them, I don't know what it is about them, something in their eyes I think that captivates me to create them.

So because I have a lot of dog portraiture on etsy I often get requests to add dogs to my fingerprint guest books.

Here is Buster, he was sent as photo dressed in his cardigan.

But for a wedding I though he needed to be more formal. 

So I gave him a bow tie :) I decided not to colour him black as his details would have disappeared, and it was in keeping with the style of the tree to just do line.

A request came in that was very open to my suggestions, Barrett was turning 2 and his mum wanted to somehow include 2 golden labradors into the guest book picture as they had 2. We toyed with ideas of how to tether the fingerprint balloon strings and include the dogs. Ideas of a large 2 with the dogs lying next to it, dogs with strings in their mouths…..then I had an idea to do a hot air balloon basket with the dogs in. This would then allow all the guest to create balloons with an inked finger and help them fly away!!!

 Originally I was going to do 2 generic goldens, but I couldn't do that…It had to be their dogs so using some pics sent to assist me with colouring, I created the dogs without telling Barrett's Mum.
She was so excited when I sent her a preview pic
              

 A softball bat, 2 mitts and a ball plus 2 family pets were the request of this wedding guestbook.

And here were the 2 beautiful dogs that were drawn above.

      

I am always open to new ideas and a bit of diversity when creating a guestbook, I just think those special personal touches are what make an occasion even more special.