Pet Portraits by WW with Whitney Wilkerson - YOUTUBE

Speaker: Whitney Wilkerson , Artist/Business Owner, Pet Portraits by WW.

Whitney Wilkerson : Hi there, my name is Whitney Wilkerson, and I am the owner and artist for my business. Pet portraits by WW. I'm a web based business right now, but this is my home studio where I create the hand painted portraits of your fur babies.

Whitney Wilkerson : So my business started about a year ago whenever I moved to the DMV from Kentucky. I recently finished up my fine arts degree and was really focused in painting throughout my college career, but also throughout my entire life, I've always been a painter. I've always loved portrait work and floral designs. So when I moved here, I didn't really anticipate doing this at all to be totally honest, I figured I would find something in the creative field, but this dream of mine to work solely commission based was kind of, you know, something that I was hoping to do in the future. Whenever I got here and started exploring the area, I realized how pet friendly and pet obsessed everybody is around here. It's beautiful because I'm also one of those people, I've got a blue Russian run around here and he is the love of my life. But you know, I see all these businesses where you can bring in your dog or like just dog and cat friendly businesses generally. And it kind of just clicked well why don't I try to bring my unique service by unique talent and you know, like create something for these people, these dog people so that they can commemorate their favorite little pet. I've done many memorial pieces, you know, for pets that have passed away, but they're all celebratory, you know. My style is poppy and bright and a little kitschy and I use a lot of floral, but I do my best to bring the personality of the pet into the work and I really am so thankful that this is something that I got to experience this early in my career. It's been really great.

Whitney Wilkerson : Right now I am offering many sizes of the hand painted work that I do. In the future I will likely add some digital options as well. Currently I am working totally on canvas with the highest quality acrylics. I am very passionate about making work that is truly personalized and as custom as possible. I set up a consultation with each client and that can be via zoom or email, however is most convenient for them. We get to exchange ideas and you know, I get to see all the pictures of your sweet little fur babies, but also get your ideas on on what colors do you think do represent their personality. And then I can tell you what I'm imagining. We exchange ideas in that consultation and then I will create a mood board and a digital mock up of the portrait itself. So I'll take all all the notes that I that I gathered from our meeting and I will use them to create a mock-up essentially of what the painting will look like when it's finished. This way, we can tweak here and there. You know, we can see if the floor patterns were imagined were working correctly. And you can get a good idea of what of what the final result is going to be. And there won't be any big surprise other than it brightening up your home

Whitney Wilkerson : So I believe that my personal philosophy and my business philosophy really do get to come together um my business and what I get to do for the community That is I find it so important to be able to recognize the little things in life that bring fulfillment too our day-to-day lives. But those little moments of connection with, whether it's friendships or relationships or the bond that one has with their pet, you know that can make all the difference even when you feel like the world is burning and I I feel that I get to highlight that and bring that joy to life in its own way with the work that I get to do. I love to celebrate that aspect of the human existence. I really, I really love what I do and I think that that shows in the work that I create. I just want to bring that personality, I want to show that love of pet to pet owner in all of my pieces.

Whitney Wilkerson : First off if anyone is interested in more information or wants to start the process of getting a portrait for themselves or someone they love. My instagram is @petportraitsbyww @petportraitsbyww @petportraitsbyww www.portraintsbypetww.com www.portraintsbypetww.com www.portraintsbypetww.com I respond within 24 hours so feel free to contact me on either of those. Otherwise I strongly encourage anyone listening to get down to their community and explore what small businesses that your community has to offer and to show your support in any way that you can for those small businesses. The people running them are doing something that usually is a dream of theirs, They're pursuing a dream and it can often be really challenging to run a business especially in a new community but showing your support is so so important and that doesn't even really mean spending all your cash. Please do spend your money at small businesses. However you know something as simple as falling following them on social media or sharing their post or commenting on a video. It's little things like that that really helped to boost, to boost the name up and to get that outreach really wide. Because I think that small businesses are what makes our communities unique and it represents the community itself because it's being run by people within that community, do what you can to to support those businesses and I encourage you also to do that. Thank you so much for featuring me on LocalMagnifier. It's been a pleasure