TeePublic Sales

I have several websites that feature my custom pet portraits and some photography. Those include Amazon Merch, Pixels/Fine Art America, Zazzle, and Redbubble. Apparently Redbubble is aligned with TeePublic but has a different audience worldwide. And because I have a Redbubble site, it was relatively easy to set up the same shop on TeePublic about four months ago. It’s been a real kick to get emails from TeePublic saying I have made a sale. I received one yesterday for a tshirt with an American Eskimo on it. I can’t track where it was purchased - just the size, type of shirt and color. I’ve also had some luck with posting merchandise with the famous cherry tree Stumpy. There was a sale earlier in the month for a women’s v neck tshirt in pink. Of course when the website has sales the commission is even less than on a regular sale. But it hardly matters because I am just so thrilled that someone selects an image I created from all of the thousands of others out there. So I’m thinking I might start to do more with my photos because some of the 52Frames weekly photo challenges have been winners. You never know what someone might like. So it’s good to keep trying different things. It also keeps me busy and learning new ways to create different types of images. So thanks for looking - I really appreciate it! 

Redbubble American Eskimo Sticker Sale

I’ve been hand painting custom pet portraits for quite some time. It all started when the iPad came around several years ago. It reignited my interest in painting. Except this time rather than watercolors, pastels, and ink it was much cleaner using my stylus and iPad. Since then I opened my Etsy shop, and I’ve used my completed pet portraits to populate my other on line ventures - Pixels/Fine Art America, Zazzle, Redbubble, and Amazon Merch. For these, I get notifications from the vendor when someone purchases an item rather than a request to paint a custom order. So last week I got a notice from Redbubble that someone in the US purchased an American Eskie sticker. Obviously I don’t make a living on these occasional buys. But it feels really great to know someone likes something I painted well enough to not only notice it (out of the literally millions of options out there), but to purchase an item with the likeness of the pooch, kittie, or other sweet face. So thank you for noticing! I really appreciate it. 

LITs Pooches, Kitties and Other Sweet Faces on Merch by Amazon - First Sale!

I have wanted to sell something on Amazon handmade for a long time but they don’t do custom pet portraits. So when I heard about Merch by Amazon, that was the next best thing. So I requested an invitation and was accepted. The hard part was getting all my digital art images changed to png rather than jpeg files so the backgrounds were transparent to meet all the specifications. Since I do everything on my iPad instead of photoshop or other platforms, it was even more difficult to figure out. So after a lot of workarounds, I was happy to finally get my first ten images loaded. Then I followed the steps of the process including selecting T-shirt colors, and creating appropriate verbiage. I named the shop LITs Pooches, Kitties and Other Sweet Faces. Most websites I have products on send an email when something sells. It was by chance that I happened to check my Merch dashboard and saw that the American Eskimo pooch T-shirt was sold! It’s so exciting to know someone liked my image so much to buy a product. I’m hoping they like it enough that they leave some kind words and a nice rating! It’s certainly not the royalty I make off any of these items. I really enjoy just fiddling around on different websites and getting an occasional hit. So thanks so much to the person who noticed my shop - I really appreciate it! Now I can upload a few more pooch, kittie and other sweet face images. 

Chicagoland Eskie Rescue Auction Thank You

Yesterday I found a letter on the shelf of our mail room. It was addressed to LITDigitalPaintings. That's me, so I scooped it up and saw that the return address was from Indiana. A few months ago I agreed to donate a digital art custom portrait to the Chicagoland Eskie Rescue Auction. I participated in the auction last year with a positive result. Since I like dogs so much, I thought it was a good, and fun thing to do again. The winner contacted me last month, and I completed her portrait. She was so happy with it that the Eskie rescue group posted it on their website, and the winner sent me a picture of the completed framed artwork as well as where she displayed it in her house. The letter was a thank you from the organization for participating in the auction. I am still so touched that someone would request and display something that I created in their home. Those little Eskie critters are mighty cute. I'm just glad I was a part of it. 

Chicagoland Eskie Auction

How time flies! Last year I participated in the Chicagoland Eskie Recue auction by contributing a handmade digital pet portrait. So this year I did the same. It's for a good cause and keeps me in the loop. All the donated items are posted on line on Facebook. Then during the auction timeline, people make bids on the item they are most interested in, and are reminded when someone has outbid them, to encourage more bidding. So I have been following the transactions and see that there has been some action on the portrait. Once the winner is declared, they will send a photo to me via email, and I will send back to them a custom portrait of their pooch using my iPad as my canvas. Last year the winner liked the portrait of the first pup so much, she requested another one of his sister. I think because we lived in Milwaukee for thirty years and spent a lot of time in Chicago over that time I feel a certain affinity to it. Some things sound so familiar to me, but are now so far away. This is a great way to be reminded. 

Chicagoland Eskie Rescue Spring Fling Auction

It started yesterday and runs through May 3 at 8PM. I was asked to donate a digital pet portrait to the Chicagoland Eskie Rescue auction a few weeks back. Now the bidding started and I'm waiting for the result. There are many items up for grabs and it is worth the look. If you love dogs as much as most people it's for a great cause. We spent a lot of time in Chicago having lived in Milwaukee for thirty years and I feel a sort of kinship with the place. Last fall I participated in another on line auction for another rescue. It was fun to work with the highest bidder to paint the portrait of their pooch. In the end it's a great way to participate in a good cause and I really enjoy the experience. You don't have to go to an auction for a portrait, but it's an interesting way to showcase your pet.