Given the chance Bored Panda also reached out to Mandy with some new questions!
Discussing the most challenging edits she's tackled, Mandy shared, "I wouldn’t say there’s just one 'most challenging edit I’ve ever done.' Each has its unique challenges. Some of the most time-consuming elements are reflections followed by harsh, full-sun ground shadows. There is no button I can push to generate a realistic shadow or reflection so I create them from scratch. If they are not done correctly, it throws the realism of the edit off, so just one reflection can take me at least 1.5-2 hours to get right before starting any blending work at all. I’m always most proud of these end results because I really had to draw on my creativity and understanding of shape, depth, and light."
The artist also recounted memorable reactions from clients, noting, "I pretty regularly receive videos of people opening these edits as gifts and I am always so touched and moved by how emotional a response the owners experience to my work. It’s a feeling unlike anything else. The imagery is incredibly powerful and I feel so honored to have been trusted to put something so meaningful together. How much people truly love their animals is a beautiful thing to witness."
To maintain her creative flow, especially when handling multiple commissions, Mandy has developed a structured weekly routine. "I’ve found doing things in blocks really helps keep my energy and flow in the right place. The first half of the week I spend communicating with clients, going through the photo selection process, putting together concept options and getting full resolution photos and approved mock-ups, while the second half of the week I spend finalizing edits!"
Regarding the tools and techniques essential to her work, Mandy admits, "I honestly don’t even feel qualified to answer this question, if you can believe it, because I am completely self-taught with Photoshop and likely don’t even use it to its full potential. I use the burn/dodge tool a lot to manipulate light and shadows as well as the color replacement tool to help get me on the right path to matching tones. And in Lightroom, I primarily use individual layer masks to bring the two together."
Finally, Mandy offered advice to aspiring artists looking to blend their passion for animals with digital art, saying, "The advice I have would be to just start and try not to worry too much about where you may end up! I started doing these for fun for my own dogs almost seven years ago now and it’s grown over time into something I never could have imagined it would, especially for such a specific niche. But believe a lot of my growth has happened because I was doing it because I loved it and was passionate about it. I never started with the idea that it would become a successful business, I just wanted to play around with something I thought I might be kind of good at."
