In 2012, I started drawing silly sketches of my cat, Irina, in outer space. Soon I had her piloting rockets and claiming a stake on the moon. The drawings were a fun way to spend my free time, but once I shared them online, people started asking me to draw their pets in space, too... And that's when things got interesting.
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At first, the sketches were pretty simple.
I've always enjoyed drawing as a hobby, but with work and school and real life getting in the way, I didn't always make art as often as I'd like.
In 2012, I decided I was going to start sketching more often. The drawings didn't start out as anything fancy -- I'd just received an iPad as a gift, and I wanted to learn how to use it as a drawing tool.
I was still getting the hang of using the touchscreen, so my early drawings were pretty quick and not very polished.
Things quickly got out of hand.
The first image I drew of my cat in space got a good laugh out of my husband and positive comments from friends and family when I posted it online.
So I kept drawing Irina on space adventures while I practiced with this new digital drawing tool. Here she is planting a flag on the moon.
Things changed when I started to get bored...
I couldn't keep doodling pictures of my cat forever. I thought the concept was fun, but I'd started to exhaust my material where Irina was concerned. So I started drawing dogs and other animals in space, too.
Suddenly people started asking me to draw their pets, too!
As I posted my drawings online, I started to get requests from friends and family members to draw space portraits of their pets, too. So I set up an online shop and soon I was in business.
Most of my requests were for cats and dogs, but I occasionally had requests to draw rabbits and other small animals. Those are always my favorite.
Soon people I didn't even know were requesting portraits.
Word started to get around, and soon I was getting requests for portraits from people I'd never even met! I started to develop a more streamlined process for drawing the pictures, and as I practiced, the drawings started to become less sketchy and more polished.
Sometimes I got requests for multiple animals in the same picture.
It's always fun to imagine the different scenarios people's pets might find themselves in. It helps if clients give me some idea of how their pets might normally interact with each other at home.
Things started to get... personal.
Some of the requests I get are incredibly specific. This drawing was done for someone with a chihuahua who was obsessed with chicken. The client asked me to show the dog "with a mischievous look, beaming up a chicken leg."
(This might be one of my favorite requests I've gotten!)
Some people gave me free reign.
Other clients simply sent me photos of their pets and told me, "Do whatever you want!" I haven't had a complaint about the results yet.
And some people started to request portraits a little closer to home.
One of my friends liked to joke that the strange little stray she adopted must have come from another planet and crash-landed near her house. Naturally, I had to illustrate this amazing origin story.
Oh, and I adopted another cat.
In the summer of 2014, my husband and I adopted a second cat, Ollie. I haven't gone as crazy with the space portraits this time around...but I did draw a few to commemorate the occasion.
I still take requests for custom portraits, by the way. Visit spacewoofs.com to learn more!