The Incredibly Minor Price of Barely Perceptible Frame

I think my other job is starting to affect my work.

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Thanks for all the amazing dog pictures I’ve received this week in response to the Daily News article! (For those who haven’t read the piece, you can catch it here. The link now features an accompanying photo of me, so apologies in advance.) I have been overwhelmed by the submissions, but in a good way. Remember, the decision-making process by which dogs get in the book is totally arbitrary, so it’s never too late to send more. Keep ‘em coming!

By the way, the dog I am holding up in the aforementioned photo is Cuba, who has just entered "America’s Next Top Dog Contest." If he wins, his prize will be donated in its entirety to Animal Haven, a New York City-based animal shelter. If you could, please take a second to vote here. (Whether Cuba is, in fact, America's Next Top Dog is not my department -- the last thing I want to do is to rouse the ire of the other doubtless justly proud dog owners reading this -- but it is a very good cause.)

This week’s dog is Chester, sent in by John Acquafredda. He’s a Dogue De Bordeau. Chester, that is. John is unquestionably human, and doubtlessly roguishly handsome, at least that’s what I’ll say if I ever meet him, because from what I can tell from this picture Chester is unquestionably large.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Whither Holbein?

That day at the park the kid and I were tearing it up. He’s finally got the hang of throwing the stick, and I’ve gotten to like the taste of bark. He clapped his hands when I brought it back to him the first time and said, “Good dog!”

I AM a good dog!

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Last week's entry - an innocent picture of a knees-bent confrontation - apparently raised eyebrows, temperature, hackles. The picture a few week's back of our hero inserting his proboscis directly into a canine's hindquarters was downloaded by more than a few as a screensaver. I offer this comparison as a simple fact, without comment. Or judgment. No judgment at all.

This week's entry should raise no objections, except from me. My beloved Holbein square-bound sketchbooks have disappeared from the shelves, and this drawing was done on different paper. Artists, like baseball players, become extremely superstitious about their equipment. If you're on a streak, you don't change nothing,

your paper, your pencil, your socks. But I think this picture looks about the same as last week's, so maybe I've been fooling myself all along. Or maybe it's the continuity in my socks that has salvaged this painful transition.

This week's dog is Jimmy, as sent by the lovely and talented Nissa Blocher. Thanks, Nissa!

One last note: more major-league publicity for Part-Time Dog is coming, although I will be obli

que and mysterious and not mention what it is. BUT I will beg and plead you all to please take a little time and send some emails, post some comments and forward on the NSDD to your loved ones because that would be oh so very helpful. Also, I think this project has now generated enough momentum to be attractive to a publisher, so if any of you know anyone I should talk to or you happen to be the shadowy but benevolent head of a large publishing conglomerate yourself, this would be the time to mention it.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Part-Time Dog Featured on TheIspot.com

"The kid’s dad keeps rolling up newspapers whenever I walk into the room. But he must know that if he swats me, I’ll just have to bite him on the ankle. I want to tell him, “Look, you’re a grown man. I’m a grown man. Neither of us wants this to escalate. Let’s work it out.” But I’m on the clock, so I just walked up to him, said “Arf,” and tried to look both mature and resolute. This is pretty tough to do when you are eye level with someone’s crotch. I don’t think I pulled it off."

It's pretty unusual for me to post this frequently, but I just got a note that made my week. Jami Giovanopoulos, VP of TheIspot.com wrote, “I think this is just about the funniest, smartest work around! I can't wait to see what happens next ... in the meantime, I gave you a shout in our newsfeed: You are live in Art News and Theispot Blog.”

For those of you not familiar with the illustration world, TheIspot.com is the premiere illustration portfolio site on the net. Getting a shout-out like that from the site that features the best illustrators in the business is an enormous head-sweller. At least that's what my wife said. Twice.

For those who want to mosey on over, the blog can be found here. (You can also check out my portfolio on TheIspot here.) Thanks, Jami!

But don't let Jami stand alone. Blurb my book! Sing my praises! Remember I'm six foot one, 210 pounds of curly-haired need.

I couldn't wait to send out the news, but I needed some progress on the book to justify a new email. Fortunately I had a drawing at the ready, one I'd been looking forward to doing for a long time. Easily the most disturbing picture I've ever done when viewed out of context, nu? Forward it to all your friends! Then enjoy some fascinating and drawn-out conversations with human resources!!

This week's dog is the inimitable Rosie from the inimitable Allan Cunningham. Thanks, Allan!

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

P.S. Don't forget the fundraiser for The Dysfunctional Theatre Company, Rob Brown's (the model for the Part-Time Dog) troupe, at Deacon Brodie's Bar at 370 West 46th Street from 6-10 PM TONIGHT, October 1. For more info, click here. I'm going to try to drop by myself to hoist a few for a good cause.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Squaresville

"Slow day at the bookstore. I read about dogs. Turns out that they’re color blind, and now I keep staring at my shirt, trying to decide whether it’s yellow or green. Also, I think my ears are perking up whenever I hear a high-pitched noise."

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Would it be too precious to say that I chose the square format for this book because I was deeply influenced by Gustav Klimt's Secessionist Movement? Yes? Would you believe me anyway? No? Howzabout if I said that the square format fancy-pants Holbein drawing pads I like so much are considerably cheaper than the rectangular pads? You'd buy that? So let's see: somehow you've intuited I'm pretentious, insincere and cheap. Wonderful. This has been a fine Yom Kippur all around.

Why this matters is because this panel is nominally a crowd scene, but in a square format it's hard to fit in much of a crowd. Two and a half people is what you get, and that's not much to get the feeling of Boerum Hil across. If the ratio of hipsters to normal people (1.5:1) in this image seems a little high, remember, I have to live here.

This week's dog is Jake, sent by Belinda Hoosech of Lake St. Louis, MO. I'm from University City, MO, myself, which is about 45 minutes or so east of Lake St. Louis. And while I've lived in New York for more than 20 years, because I am not some type of pinko commie, I am still loyal to the St. Louis Cardinals, who just clinched their division. I am assuming that Belinda, and also Jake, neither of whom give off a pinko commie vibe, will join in when I say: Go Cards!

One other St. Louis-area native of note, Rob Brown, the model for the protagonist of this book, is hosting a fundraiser for The Dysfunctional Theatre Company at Deacon Brodie's Bar at 370 West 46th Street from 6-10 PM this Thursday, October 1. For more info, click here. I'm going to try to drop by myself to hoist a few for a good cause.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Excuses, excuses

Been busy. Deadline crunches. Last-minute jobs. No time for drawing. No time for painting. No time for verbs.

But now I'm back into the groove. As usual, time away from this project encouraged me to improve it. Hence the new, streamlined look and a couple of new features. Now when you click “Forward to a Friend” up top, a new email self-generates that both directs your friend to the Blog and automatically cc's me, thus guaranteeing your extra contest entry. If you hit “Subscribe,” an email will automatically be created with my address and a request to sign up. And if you hit “Unsubscribe,” I burst into tears without any annoying lagtime.

My one regret about this format is that I'm no longer including the entire project as a readable page in the email. It's not gone -- it can still be found on the blog, or when you click on “Read the Story So Far” at the top of the page. But because it was Flash-based, enough people couldn't get it to work in their email reader that I figured I might as well drop it. (If you want it back in, or if you find any features aren't working, or if you have anything else to say, please send me a note.)

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com. By the way, to see the Studio's portfolio in the same great format as Part-Time Dog, just click here.

Open publication - Free publishing - More satire

Something Old, Something Else Old

The drawing this week is actually pretty old. It's the first direct pen-to-paper piece I did when I was starting Part-Time Dog, and I realized that, flaws and all, I liked its energy more than I did the more worked-over pieces I was doing at the time. Hope you agree.

In terms of new art, I encourage everyone to flip through the book in its entirety. I've tweaked pretty much every drawing so far, and completely redrew last week's page, which I wasn't entirely satisfied with. Actually, that page is once again the first version of the drawing I did, which in retrospect I liked it better than the more carefully rendered one I posted last time. Yes, a theme seems to be developing here.

This week's dog (find it in the book) courtesy Chris Mueller!

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

Open publication

FAQs

The mailing list has expanded greatly lately (thanks!!!), so I thought I'd get everyone up to speed who missed the early days.

1) Somebody just forwarded this email to me. How do I subscribe? Send me a note here and I'll add you to the list. You are then eligible to win a piece of original art when the book is finished.

2) Can I send you pictures of my dog for inclusion in the book? You have phrased the question incorrectly. The correct phrasing is, “Should I send you pictures of my dog?” The answer is “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.”

3) If you draw my dog, do I keep the drawing? Sorry, no, because it's part of the book and may therefore become a prize for someone. But I will email you a high-resolution JPG, suitable for printing and framing. And I will credit you in the emails, blog and in the book proper when published.

4) Will you draw my dog on commission? Yup. See this blog entry for details.

5) Do you have a dog? Nope, but I'd like one. I mentioned to my wife that if I sold 10 commissions, we could get a dog. She said that if I sold 10 commissions, we could get a maid. If I sold 20 commissions, we could get a dog.

6) Your wife sounds pretty together. She is that.

7) This Dog is not even remotely Daily. Does it really take you a week to draw these pictures or are you just lazy? First, you could have thought of a more diplomatic way to ask that. But no, not even close. I'm a pretty fast hand when it comes to drawing. But getting this email out is fairly time-consuming. Here's how it goes: I draw the new story page and dog picture, scan 'em, clean 'em up, and color 'em in Photoshop. Then I import them into InDesign, make a PDF of the book so far, and post it. Then I take the Photoshop file of the story page, and reduce it in size and resolution for the web. Then I write the blog post, which includes the new image and a link to the story so far. Then I create the email with the new image in Dreamweaver, updating all links. Then I update the Welcome page on my website. Then I ready the email for all members, making sure to remove anyone who wanted off the rolls. Then I prep a Welcome email to all new members. Then I email everyone all 1,200 current subscribers. In between, I have to do some work. And also, commenters tell me that getting the email once a week is a pleasure, once a day is an annoyance.

8) You go through all that for bupkes? Are you insane? Possibly. I started this as a way to get my friends to communally bug me to finish this project, but the list (and the work involved) has expanded greatly. I do it now because I love, love, love to get the comments and emails every week. So please send more.

9) You do realize that this picture this week is gross, right? Yes, I do. And yet I drew it anyway. I could blame the story, but I wrote the story.

10) But it is a pretty awesome illustration. Is there any possible way I can make it my screensaver? Yes, there is and thank you! Click here to download.

11) Also, the web version of the book is pretty cool. Do you have any other books online? Yup. Here's a link to my latest portfolio. Feel free to hit the subscribe button on that page, and you'll be notified of any other work I publish.

12) Is this the longest email you've ever sent? Yes, but it ends abruptly.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

Open publication

Judge This Book by its Cover

I was just about to send off the latest installment, when I realized that I'd grown sick of looking at the old cover. It was the only ink & watercolor piece left, and it looked more and more out of place with every new drawing I finished. So I whipped up a new cover, seen below on the snazzy story-so-far document at the bottom of this post.

This cover features dogs based on photos from the Mendlow family (Phil, Fran & Susana, and I'm guessing Susana's roommate Rebecca) and Kevin Marbury. The interior dog is, well, Rob Brown, but that's neither here nor there. I was originally going to feature Joann McVicker's dog – the drawing came out really well – but it didn't fit with the spread and will have to wait until next week.

By the way, I'm going to email everyone whose dog gets drawn a print-resolution JPG of their drawing. I should get everyone whose dog I've already drawn his or her drawing by next week (it's been a busy week). In the meantime, SEND ME YOUR DOGS. If you have friends who have dogs, tell them about this email, and have them SEND ME THEIR DOGS. Please.

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

Open publication

Tom Seltzer Will Draw Your Dog

As I've said before, thanks to everyone who sends me a picture of their dog to use in the book. Of course, I will draw your dog absolutely gratis, and send you a print-resolution of the drawing JPG as a thank-you. I could not be more grateful to everyone who participates.

But I have gotten inquiries as to whether I would be willing to draw or paint dogs on commission, not for use in the book. And I said I'd post on that.

Here’s what I’m thinking: A pen, brush & ink – with or without a color wash added – on acid-free archival paper, up to 11” x 14”, will go for $150, plus shipping. (That’s the same technique as I’m using for the dog pictures in the book.) A full-on watercolor painting on acid-free archival quality paper, up to 11” x 14”, will go for $350, plus shipping.

I do believe that I’ll have to charge sales tax on these, too. I haven’t checked officially, but my understanding is that when an actual object changes hands, as opposed to merely the rights to reproduce the objects, the boys in Albany want their cut.

Drawing Dogs for Money

With this latest page, I have, I believe, finally caught up to where I was before I decided to switch illustration techniques. All new material up ahead! The story progresses! The drama develops!

But that's not what you care about, is it? You care about dogs. When am I going to draw more dogs? Am I drawing more dogs today? When am I going to draw your dog? How about cats? Cats are kind of like dogs, right?

The answers are, respectively: 1) Just finished one now, 2) Probably, 3) Today!*, 4) What about cats exactly?, and 5) No, they're not. Honestly, people, cats are not dogs. We are all adults here. That should not be news.

The other question I keep getting is, will you draw dog portraits on commission? Well, I've never thought about it before, but the answer is sure, happily. Turns out I really like drawing dogs. I'll post information about pricing here on the blog, or you can contact me via email. Spread the word!

More soon, promise. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog, read the story so far or check out seltzerstudio.com.

* assuming that you are Cara Spenser, whose dog graces the last page of this week's PDF; and if you're not Cara, sorry for getting your hopes up.

The Core of the Dilemma

So last week I got ahead of myself, and, having drawn a mess of doggies and a new page of the book, I sent off an email with a picture of the doggies that also had a link to a PDF of the book so far. That PDF included the image above. So those readers who checked out the link – passionate, dedicated readers, (therefore) thin, good-looking readers – have already read this page. But other readers – less passionate, less dedicated, (and also quite possibly, but not necessarily) thin, good-looking readers – have not. How to resolve this dilemma, to bring in new material for some without leaving out the rest?

Stepping in to save the day is Rob Brown, model for the Part-Time Dog and also actor for New York's own Dysfunctional Theatre, which just staged an extrememly well-received revival of Arsenic and Old Lace. Rob played Mortimer, the role played by Cary Grant in the movie version. Those of you who haven't seen the movie really should – it's great, and you won't be able to see Rob in the production, because it ended its run last week. However, you can amuse yourself by reading the glowing reviews and see actual photos of the Part-Time Dog his own self in these articles from New York Press, Off-Off-Online, New York Theatre.com, and Backstage. Then check out the Dysfunctional Theatre's website to keep an eye out for the next production. (I would have sent these links around earlier, but Rob didn't send them to me until last week, confirming that Rob's destiny is definitely on the stage and not in, say, PR.)

Next up, a new page, with more dog pictures. In the meantime, keep sending in dog photos (thanks to all of those I got this week!), write me emails, make some comments on the blog or read the story so far.

As Requested...

As promised, I'm interrupting the story to send you more dogs. Models graciously sent in by Hal Garstein (who suggested the whole idea of soliciting dog photos - Thanks, Hal!), Nomi Seltzer and Gabriel Mendlow. My apologies if the resemblances aren't spot-on. I'm drawing them direct in ink and doing my darndest. I hope they offend neither you nor your fine upstanding pets. More dogs coming soon.

To see how they're being used in the story, click right here to download a PDF of the story so far. This preview includes the image I'll be sending out with the next Not-So-Daily Dog, as a special bonus.

Next up, more pages. Then, yes, more dog pictures! In the meantime, please send me emails or make some comments on the blog. And yes, please keep sending in dog pictures!

Yes, Yes, Send Me Your Dog!

I got more response to my last mailing than any other NSDD email thus far. Everybody said roughly the same thing: Loved the dog pictures. Will you draw my dog?

To which I reply: Thanks, and yes! Send me your dogs. I will immortalize them. I'm studying taxidermy. 

No, no, no, dog owners -- Relax, that was only a joke! Send me pictures of your dogs and I will draw them and put them in the book. I need tons and tons of dog pictures, and your dog would be perfect, thank you. No dogs will be harmed in the making of these pictures. I promise.

In the meantime, I got such a good response to my pen & ink & computer color drawings that I have decided to proceed in the book using that technique. Here's the revised page 1, which I had to redraw anyway because of the shift in format. I haven't decided whether the rework what I've done so far or press on, but I'm leaning toward pressing on. 

More soon, I promise. In the meantime, please, please send me emails or make some comments on the blog.

Dogs! Dogs! Dogs!

As I work through more and more of this book, it occurs to me that it needs more of one thing: dogs. It's got anxiety, humiliation, degradation, ingratitude, self-loathing – all the basics. But dogs? In this category, it is sorely lacking. To help fix this shortcoming, please accept this drawing, which will be the inside front cover. Drawn in ink directly on paper with no pencil preparation, it's as loose and friendly as a labrador retriever. I may go ahead and add more dogs as I keep drawing if the urge strikes.

Incidentally, I've been AWOL for a week or so because I've been finishing a couple of projects, including getting ready for a portfolio show at the Art Directors' Club in Manhattan. All went well (he says, crossing his fingers). Part of the preparation including updating the illustration section of my site and also my page on TheIspot.com. Please pop on over to see some new work, including at least one piece that even attendees at the show didn't see.

More soon, I promise. In the meantime, please, please send me emails or make some comments on the blog.