So lately the custom dog art has been a booming business. Big companies are selling custom portraits of people's pets. It is a large market and it is real fun that in these days you can have a customized artwork of your pet ordering from the internet.

What bothers me (and of course there is something bothering me, otherwise I wouldn't make a blog out of it) is the unfair advertisement that comes with these art works. 

Let me give you an example of what you can find on the internet: ' It's never been easier to have a commissioned piece of pet art in your home! (Company name) petportraits are hand-illustrated by our digital artists based on the  ...'  

When looking at the art works I immediately see that these are not hand-illustrated, these are made with a simple filter called ' cut out'. So what they do is take your photo and throw over a filter. That is a job done in five minutes, if you are a little driven in Photoshop three. To show you the difference between a hand illustrated work of art and a filtered see my website: www.digitalpetart.com/classicart

Then there are the renaissance paintings that the heads are glued on, thrown over a filter that in most cases doesn't resemble the costume's colors and structure that they glued the head on...I find these artworks a little distressing personally. It's like a floating head. I like Stephen King books and aren't afraid of a little horror but even these creep me out..

It's ok they use these filters, of course. The art work looks ok from a distance, nothing wrong with it if you want a good laugh.. but.. do not advertise saying it's hand illustrated! The hand illustrated pieces that I make take me about 4-6 hours, excluded the time it takes to make the custom design and the constant communication with my clients. Every pixel in my artworks is painted, added details for my clients to enjoy. 

For them to claim their art works are hand made confuses people and is misleading. If they mean with ' hand made'  they selected a filter with their hand, but that is not what they are implying. If I would buy a dress from a fashion designer and she says it's hand stitched I know I pay for the quality and time there is put in this dress, that makes it more custom and more of a reason for me to love it. That dress would be special. If it turns out to be fabricated in a factory together with a 1000 more...how would I feel? Same goes for these art works. 

There is a market for these filtered arts and that is ok. Makers go for the quick fabrication to make money, but they shouldn't claim things to make people pay more. If people have a small budget I offer to make a filtered art for them, but I am real about it. 

Be clear about what you design and the time you put in and base a fair price on that. Be real. I know my clients appreciate realness, I am sure their clients would, too.