Home
> Pet News > Artist finds pets doggone good subjects
Artist finds pets doggone good subjects
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ordogart0405dec04,0,4977517.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange
 Artist
finds pets doggone good subjects
'Good-natured, not fussy, and they are never in
a bad mood,' caricaturist Brian Nutt says.
Sonia Chopra | Special to the Sentinel
Posted December 4, 2005
Brian Nutt used to draw caricatures of people.
Then he found a clientele that didn't complain
so much -- pets.
"When you do portraits of people, They ask,
'Is my nose really that big?' or 'Are my eyes
really that far apart?' " Nutt, 32, said
In his Pets Ink studio, the Orlando artist now
creates clever likenesses of people's pets from
the photos they give him.
"I have never had a dog ask me why a portrait
came out the way it did. They are good-natured,
not fussy, and they are never in a bad mood,"
he said, grinning.With his military-style haircut
and casual demeanor, Nutt could easily be taken
for a college student.
But he is a professional with a mission in mind:
"I want to draw pets because everyone else
is doing people. I want to specialize in this."
Nutt has had years of experience drawing his
dogs, first his German shorthaired pointer Harper
and now Pixie.
He began sketching pictures of his dogs. But
whenever he shared these with family or friends,
they would ask for one of their pets.
"By the end of the year, I decided I could
turn 'Do my pet next!' into a business,"
Nutt says on his Web site.
He started drawing pets at dog shows and other
dog-related events and has been at it since.
Nutt started showcasing his talent in kindergarten.
"I did a picture of Clifford the Big Red
Dog, and I got many requests from my friends to
make the same picture for them too," Nutt
said.
"I did it happily because I got a lot of
attention for my art, and it helped me make friends,
too."
Growing up, art was something he squeezed in
between academics and basketball.
"I knew art school would be too expensive,
so I didn't think about it as a career then,"
he said.
Now Nutt does caricatures at events such as the
Halloween pet costume party organized by The Doggie
Door on Park Avenue and the Fall Festival of Dogs,
both in Winter Park.
He was born in Miami but grew up in Orlando.
After graduating from Boone High School, he went
to Valencia Community College and the University
of Central Florida, where he took classes in elementary
education.
He ended up going to work at Disney as a caricature
and portrait artist in 1992.
That's also where he met his wife, Carol Beier,
28, who worked in the company's administrative
office.
Today, Beier, originally from Brazil, is his
business partner and helps at events and with
his Web site and line of My Dog products -- T-shirts
and mugs -- created with pet-image portraits.
Nutt admires George Williams, a New Orleans artist
who paints pets. He is not, however, a believer
in art schools.
"When you do things on your own, you realize
your potential because you work a little harder,
you try things that are unorthodox," said
Nutt, who points out that many famous artists
had no formal training.
"You make your way because you are not walking
on a path that has been mapped out for you."
Back to Pets
in the News
Browse our most popular
pet supply categories:
|
