The Bow Stance

Ok so as many of you know I had asked for some reference on the Frenchies play stance. I was fortunate enough to get some and I was able to make this little guy. Still in the Works  but will be done soon. I know there is still lots to do on it but when it is done he will look great. Ill keep you all posted on the sculpt. Yes it is a miniature.  3"X 2" X 2" It is part of the original two I had made and I will be casting off a few more of them to have on hand incase anybody wants some. 

I was just not ready this Xmas to hand some out. But I assure you next Xmas will be better, I have some new ideas too, so bee looking out for them.

Erick

Precious Belle.

This is a portrait of a wonderful Frenchie named Belle. 

Belle is the companion of Mia which is the other portrait I had done a few months ago. 

Well to say the least the owners are thrilled with the portrait and so am I. 

It has turned out amazing. 

I sometimes regret doing them cause I don't want to let them go. lol they are my babies too. lol 

But seriously I hope you like what you see.

Erick

Contact Erick@

ittybittybullies@gmail.com

This was a Lawn Plaque design I made for a lady in the States.  On her driveway to her home she has this stone. i designed her frenchies cartoon style to be peaking from behind the stone greeting  visitors. lol  

Some teaser pics

Just a couple of pics from the Halloween Parade.

Frenchie HaLLOWEEN pARADE

Well it was our yearly Halloween parade for the bat eared frenchies. I took my group down to the beaches on queen street and we had a mini parade. It was great and the frenchies had a great time. See the pics at the link posted.

http://www.meetup.com/toronto-frenchbulldogs/photos/

Erick

Viva Les Frenchies

I have been Published again.

I am excited and love the article.

I hope everyone has a chance to see the new beautiful magazine. It is classy and colorful.

VIVA LES FRENCHIES 

You got to see their site and if you like you can get a magazine.

Lots of great articles and lots of show pics.

Lots of frenchies to go Googoo Gagga over too. lol

See thier link in my links section.

Erick

I have found my art groove.

I have started two more art projects. One is a Frenchie who is too cute but I cannot mention his/her name till I finish the portrait cause it is a surprise for a client.  The second is a new painting. I am texturing the background right now and just exploring different lines and hatches and so on. There is nothing to see yet cause it is in white Gesso. When I add colour I will take a few pics to show what I have done so far. But this one is for my shows. This is a Toy Rat Terrier, looks like a Chihuahua, very cute and cool looking little tike. lol

Look for it as the weeks go by.

Erick C

Pudge Completed and Officially Tagged

I have finished The Pudge Portraiture painting and I must say it turned out awesome. 

I took Pudge to the pooch Party show and got tones of compliments and requests for 

future portraits. He was a show stopper and head turner, lol  But seriously everyone

loved it and I was delighted with the reaction from everyone. I finalized it by adding 

a shadow behind and below him as to show directional light and to give the character some truth of being there in the location. Meaning the background. 

I also placed my Gold, Signed  Stamp of Authenticity.

So you know it was done by me.

Hope everyone enjoyed the process and I have a few more orders to complete real soon so be looking out for more of my documentary style works.

Erick Cervantes

Pooch Party in Richmond Hill

I had my first showing of my work at the second Annual Pooch Party in Richmond Hill.

For me it was a great success, I met lots of new people and made some really great friends. 

Had lots of people come by and ask questions and take a card for future work. the Pudge painting was a great attraction and so was the sculpt. My drawings got a lot of compliments and yes I felt good and proud about everything. People were really happy and pleased with my talents and I was excited to see the reactions from everyone. But what really made the whole thing special was when a crowd of my Peeps from the T-Dot Frenchies showed up,  frenchies in tow and everyone was going nuts loving the Frenchies. lol it was great. 

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hi to me. it was my pleasure to have met all of the new fans. I look forward to hearing from you.

Erick

Ittybittybullies website is now closed.

Just to inform everyone that my original itty bitty bullies website is now closed. It is no longer operational. To follow my work and to my many fans, my work will continue just in this Blog Format.  So I hope everyone will continue to see my name and my work throughout the Frenchie world and links.

Erick Cervantes

https:www.cafepress.com/bittybullies

The Pudge is 99% Done

Ok so as you can all see I have been working hard on getting the Pudge on here. lol  I took three pics of it just to see how the light affects it. I am really pleased with this one, I just keep getting better and better, not bragging.

I did lots of touching up and lots of viewing, I am just about there and feel it will be an awesome portrait. Love the colours and love the pose. His eyes really make the image and I am deliriously happy with it. I need to step away from it and leave it for a few days, then go back to it and see where I can improve upon it.

As you can see I really love working on the face, the body is second to me. Cause really when a person looks at the Portrait they will focus on the eyes and see if there is anything there. I love putting life into the eyes. Not to say that the body should be ignored, cause that too is important.  All my paintings have little things in them that give the portrait that certain something. I think Pudge has some nice subtle copper highlights, looks real nice. I usually do mostly bust images but this one was so cute I chose to do the whole thing. Love his little bear sit pose. Both back legs through the front legs, lol very cute Pude.

Erick Cervantes

The Pudge Portrait

Ok so here I am during the process of the painting.

Mr. Pudge is being Immortalized on Canvas.

I am working on the eyes, even though I thought I was done with the left eye I will be working on that one again cause they both have to look uniform. Trust me the eyes take a very long time to do, due to detail has to be just right this is no Yoke, lol trust me. lol heheheeh 

I must be feeling better now. lol ..........the bad jokes are coming out, lol 

You see to have a beautiful portrait worth bragging about, you need to be a bit of a perfectionist, I am not talking about a pickass, or a tightass perfectionist, I am talking about a cool, relaxed, chilled out kind of perfectionist, some one who lets the brush lead the hand and then the eyes follow. See what I mean. I still let the brush just flow baby, just let it flow. 

I do get great results too, so who could complain. 

Erick

Oh The " Pudge "

In this last image you see that I have continued on the Muzzle and mouth area.  I fixed the colour and did both ears to my satisfaction. Now looking at both eyes I see that I love the second eye but I will work on the first eye to get it looking more like the second eye. I am very happy with the results so far though. I have already put several hours in this today. i am talking like 4 hours jut today, so you can see what I mean by when I say have patience cause NICE work takes hours. GOOD work takes days, GREAT work takes months. 

I will most likely be looking at this image over and over again till I am happy with it. I will be touching up this and that and adding somethings and removing somethings but in the end, you all gonna love it.

So enjoy,  and the lesson continues later.

Erick Cervantes

" The Pudge"

So as you all can see I have been busily working on this beautiful Pudge Painting. In this image you see  the image of his face shows the difference in colour from both sides. But I have so much to do still. It will eventually get better and better. there are so many layers and colours and textures that you wont even see when I am done but together they all make the image right. 

I am getting excited on the results thus far.  I hope you all see what I see. Let me know Peeps.

I just love it when the eyes start talking to me. that is when I know it is all coming together.

Erick

The continuation of Pudge

So here now you see that I have updated the one side of the face. Pudge is slowly becoming an immortal, lol 

Believe me it  takes hours and  layers and layers of different colours to get the effect you are looking for. Just his one side alone has an array of colour such as reds,  grays,  blues, yellows, shades of white related to the colours stated above and then some black to punch up the dark areas. 

The eyes are what takes the most time to do. Cause the image can look great but if the eyes are off, the whole things looks wrong.  So as you can see how nice he is looking. But like I said before, just let the brush flow and don't worry too much about the details till you have the base colours down. 

Hope you all like the progress so far.

Erick 

Pudge Painting Documentary

Ok so as you see now I have added some base colours to the Pudge painting. I use all light colours and apply them accordingly to what my eyes see. There are blues,  reds,  yellows, browns, greys,  blacks, and so on all a shade of white. 

I know it looks funny right now but the end result is what it is all about. 

So feel free to leave comments or advice and we will get to the end. It will be a nice pc when done. I myself do not know what it will end up like but I am sure it will ROCK. 

Erick

Here is a new shot of Chulita, she is slowly transforming. Such a joy to drive her around. 

Erick

Ok so now I start with the painting of the background. I chose colors that are similar to the home that will be surrounding it. I like punchy colors and I like to do my paintings free flowing, not straight lines or perfect joints. Just let the brush flow softly and with dimension also with texture. Let the paint have texture cause it adds a feeling of three D.  So here you go.

This is the start of color.

Erick

How I Work a Painted Portrait.

So here is my next commissioned pc. This beautiful Lovely Frenchie is named Pudge, I am hoping you will all enjoy the progress on how the painting comes together.  I will show step by step how I do what I do. 

So step one is get many pics from the client. Then pick the best one for the portrait, then enlarge to size on my printer and tape together all parts, then I do a quick outline trace of the image, just to give me an idea of where everything is and goes.  

Then Step two I transfer that trace over to the canvas and that is where all the magic happens. The color starts to get applied. 

But that is another episode. lol so keep an eye out for it. Here are steps one and two.

Erick

Finally I have my new baby in my hands. She is solid and can't wait to start working on her to slowly get her to the look I want for her. The heart is strong and the body is straight. First things first, new rims and tires, second new exhaust pipes and then a loose tail light  wire and we are good to go cruising. wooooohoooooooo. 

Erick

1962 Chevy Bel-Air

My new Old Ride. This here is a 1962 Chevy Bel-Air.

I love the classic cars and have been looking for this year and this style in particular for a bit now. I finally got my hands on one. Now I just need to work on it to get it looking Sick.

My Love for Photography

My Love for Photography is displayed to your right under my links. One is dedicated to objects and the other to landscape and scenery in and around Ontario. Mostly the GTA.  It is amazing the things you can find when you open your eyes.  

Erick Cervantes

Ok so here are some pics of my babies. i guess you can say Frenchies are my life.  I love photography and so I take every opportunity to take shots when ever possible. I do a lot of art photography and nature and just creative imagery. I will be showing such pics in the near future. 

Erick. 

Ok so here is my latest Portrait. This little beauty is Little Mia, although she is not so little anymore she is still a darling Frenchie. Full of energy and ready to take on the world. 

It was a pleasure to do this commissioned Portrait for a really nice family. They know who they are and they loved the image.  I too was very happy with the result. Mia has so much character in this pic and it showed in the portrait.

It always takes a great photo to make a great portrait. Happy birthday to Alicia the Happy owner of Mia's Portriat.

Erick 

Saturday June 7th we went to the biggest dog event of the year in Ontario or should I say North America. We had a great time seeing so many dogs and meeting so many people. It was great, lots of vendors and food and just an all over great time.

I did not get as many pics as I would have wanted but here are two just to show. 

Erick 

Here are a couple of pics of our Late  little girl Sunny. Enjoying her time with each of us. She was definitely a love bug. I was going through our many pics of our babies and it broke my heart to see Sunny as she was before the Cancer and during her illness. there was such a change and it took place so fast. I am glad she passed her last year with us to love us and to bring us joy. Sunny is so missed and it hurts not to have her here in the flesh to hug her or to sniff her nacho scented ears.  Every time my wife sees her pics she breaks down and cries. But this is all part of loving and letting go. 

I often wonder why she came into our lives for such a short time. But regardless she really touched our hearts. Missing our little girl Red (Sunny Sun Sun Cervantes)

Erick

Not long ago when I had my little Red girl Sunny, her mommy Gabby and I would spend some days relaxing about the living room couch.  Here you see a pic of such events.  The girls love nothing better then spending time with their daddy. 

The Progress on the sculpt

So just to update everyone on the Frenchie Bust, I had made the rubber mold on it and then I had covered that with the hard shell material and I missed a few steps in between which caused the shell to stick too much and the rubber to be damaged, also the sculpt broke in a few places and I did some repair work on her and she is good as new now. But now I have learned my lesson and will not skip any parts to the mold making or casting of the sculpture. I have to re do the rubber coating now and then the hard shell exterior again. This time the right way. So bear with me as I learn the proper way to do things, this being my first time doing something of this scale. 

Life is a learning process and what is the best way to learn, ............ by making mistakes. 

Erick

French Bulldog Lawn Plaques

I have made a few of these now and they always look so cute. they are a great way to express your love of the bullies.  Set them up on your lawn or mount them on your wall or fence. Up to you.

I make them to resemble your Frenchies colours out of plywood and hand paint them. Cartoonish looking just to give them a cute look. You can add the bone in the middle with your house number or what ever you would like to put there. They don't have to be in this position either.  

I can make them to suit your wants.

Erick C

Frenchie Lawn Plaques

At the end of every tunnel...........

This is my latest  pc to finish. It has taken me 2 years to complete.  It is my version of the saying,

"At the end of every tunnel, there is a light of Hope".   (the Frenchie) 

It is an abstract style rendition from my mind. 

This one is up for sale.

 It is 20 x 24 inches in size and painted in Acrylics on stretched Canvas. 

Going price is set at $300.00 Canadian Plus S/H

If you are interested in this pc. Please contact me  with your info.

Erick C

ittybittybullies@gmail.com

The Rubber Coating

So now that the Bust is complete I started applying the rubber moulding compound. This is a very good detail capturing rubber that will give me a great result in the end. I need to put like 4 layers of the rubber coating and between each of the layers it has to dry approximately 1 hour.  At the back I need to build a wall about one inch deep and one inch wide all the way down the back. This wall is where I will be slicing the sculpt in order to get the Bust out of it. But before I pull out the Bust, I need to build a hard shell cover for the support around the rubber so that it maintains its shape without distortion.   This will take place after I have the 4 layers of rubber. tonight I was only able to put 2 layers of Rubber, by the weekend I will be doing the other two layers and then making the hard shell. Ill keep you all posted. But for now you can see the images of the work.

Erick C

Acrylic Paintings

Below here are some of my Acrylic paintings I have done on Canvas. 

These were also commissioned pcs and it was fun to do them. 

I love using rich colors and the anticipation of the finished pc is always at the tip of my mind. But patience is the best part of this work. I tend to do a little at a time so as to get the best result. I will often start a pc and then walk away from it for a day or two. Then I will put in approximately 4 hours and walk away again.  I will keep it in eye view so every day that I walk by it I can see new things in it to fix or to add or to erase. Now doing the pencil work is awsome, I love doing fine lines and using specialty tools to get the effect that I am looking for. When I paint I tend to squint my eyes to see more then I am looking at. Not sure if that makes sense but that is what I do. It helps me to see all over areas and to get shades and similarities from the subject photos. it is a great way to express my artistic insight I guess. 

Enjoy.

Erick C

My Pencil Portraits

Below are some of my past Graphite Pencil Portraits. I did these as commissioned pcs and I am proud of them.  This is why I like to show them.  

Erick C

My Pencil Portraits

I would like to thank you all.

I would like to thank each and everyone who has visited my blog and have left me comments and sent me private emails regarding the work I am doing. 

Your words of encouragement and positive feedback have been a great help to me.  I was not expecting this sculpt to come out as good as it did and I am so happy with the end result. I am still not completely finished with it yet but will be done soon. 

I am going to make copies of this one for those of you who have asked me to add them to the list of people who have pre ordered one of these lovely sculpts.

I will also be taking orders from  those of you who have asked  me do some commissioned pcs of your very own Frenchies. 

Please contact me privately to get your Starfish Paws on one of these beautiful Frenchie Bust sculptures.  

Thanking you in advance. 

Erick  C 

Love it.

Yes so today I was showing all my peers the photos I took of my work.  Everyone was loving the detail and the size of the sculpt.  I am jonesing to do another one now. Maybe another breed. But this is awsome. I still have to do a rubber mold and then cast them when ready. I hope to have a sample soon. It does take time as I work full time and then when ever I have a couple of hours I do what I love doing. Art.  

I still need to figure out how I am going to attach the sculpt to a base. I am thinking of using marble blocks for the base or wood.... Still thinking about it. But i am so happy with the results.

I hope everyone likes the work. It took me in total approximately 24 hours to do. 

There is still minor things to do to it but will be done soon.

Erick C

Just about there.

Wow, it was worth every minute. I am just about done. Today I put in another 3 hours on detail alone and it was great seeing the transformation. Love it man. I am so happy with the turn out. 

I got some good detail shots and some not so good detail shots but you be the judge. Now I have to look for anything that needs to be touched up or tweaked, Then I have to think about how I am going to do the Rubber mold. Damn need to get some sleep. Ill continue this tomorrow. 

Have a great night all.