Today we’d like to introduce you to David Holzemer.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My story really started with photography. I was originally a traditional photographer, and photography took me in a few different directions. I was a freelance concert photographer for NewReleaseTuesday.com, covering the Christian music scene throughout the tri-state area. I had the opportunity to photograph some great bands, including Third Day, TobyMac, Skillet, NEEDTOBREATHE, and events like Creation Festival.
I was also hired as a staff photographer at Carlow University, a small liberal arts university here in Pittsburgh.
Another part of my photography work that was especially meaningful to me was photographing adoption photos for our local city animal shelter. I loved being able to use something I was good at to help animals find homes.
I’ve gotten away from shelter photography over the years, although I still love taking photographs. Photography is still something I enjoy, but my main creative outlet now is my digital painting.
When the pandemic hit, along with some medical issues my wife was dealing with, continuing the shelter photography became too risky for us. I still wanted to find a way to help animals, though, so I started looking for something I could do from home.
That’s when I came across a website called Elevate Your Art that taught people how to paint using Photoshop. I already had a lot of experience with Photoshop from my photography, but I had never really painted before. So I spent about a year learning and practicing the techniques.
My first dog painting was my chocolate Lab, Dozer. He was still with me at the time. To be honest, it wasn’t all that great! I was a novice, but I kept practicing because I knew I wanted to paint more dogs.
Wet Nose Creative came into being in late 2022, although I never really set out to start a business. One of the first things I did was paint K9 Mattis.
I had a good friend who was a New York State Police officer, and every year I would send her a card for National Police Week. As I got better at painting, I decided I wanted to choose a random police K9 and paint a portrait as a gift. That’s how I found K9 Mattis and his handler, Mark Tappen.
At the time, I had no idea how large the police K9 community was or how well known Mark and Mattis were. I simply wanted to do something nice.
Mark reached out to me after receiving the painting, and he was incredibly kind, humble, and grateful. He also shared the painting across his social media platforms. That opened the door for me to meet many other K9 teams, and I realized there was something special about being able to use my artwork to honor these dogs and the people who work alongside them.
My Christian faith has always shaped how I look at what I do. I believe the gifts we’re given aren’t meant only for ourselves, but are meant to be shared with others. That’s really how all of this started.
Over time, Wet Nose Creative grew beyond something I was simply giving away. I do have to charge for my work now because creating these paintings has become expensive, but I still try to keep that original purpose behind it. For me, it’s never been just about selling a dog portrait. It’s about the dog, the story behind them, and being able to create something meaningful for the people who love them.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road, but I’ve also never seriously thought about giving up Wet Nose Creative. At this point, it’s really a reflection of me and something that has become a big part of who I am.
The biggest struggle for me was learning how to paint. I came from photography, so even though I already knew Photoshop very well, I had to learn an entirely different visual language. The language of painting is very different from the language of photography, and there was a lot I simply didn’t understand when I started.
I’m part of an online painting studio called Elevate Your Art, taught by Michelle Parsley, who is an accomplished photographer, oil painter and one of the founders of digital painting techniques. Her lessons can challenge you as much or as little as you want. I tend to choose the harder road because I know that pushing myself is how I’m going to become a better painter. There have definitely been times when I’ve struggled and wondered if I was ever going to get something right, but that’s also how I’ve grown.
Another challenge is explaining to people exactly what I do. If you tell someone you’re a traditional painter, they understand—you have paint, brushes and a canvas. My setup looks completely different. I have Photoshop, a Wacom tablet and an art pen with custom mixer brushes. I’ll receive a number of reference photos, and will use one and begin to paint over it. (No AI, or filters) 10-15 hours and 50-100 individual layers creating a hyper-realistic painting. My handmade frames begin in the hands of an Amish master furniture builder who builds my unfinished 11×14 frames using a hardwood like red maple, which I then finish to match the art. Nothing is store-bought and simply put together as a finished product. Nothing is store-bought and simply put together as a finished product. I enjoy being involved in every part of the process.
The financial side has also been challenging. In today’s economy, people don’t always have a lot of disposable income for something like a custom portrait. My 11×14 custom framed portraits are around $325, and I understand that it’s a significant purchase for many families.
At the same time, giving back is still a big part of why I started doing this. I donate a lot of my work to police K9 charities and organizations. Sometimes I end up paying the costs out of my own pocket because I don’t yet have enough business coming in to cover everything.
So, no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. But the challenges have also pushed me to keep learning, improve my craft, and figure out how to make Wet Nose Creative work without losing the reason I started it in the first place.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At Wet Nose Creative, I create custom, hand-painted digital dog portraits from photographs. My focus is primarily on single-dog portraits, and what I really hope to be known for is celebrating the story of every dog.
I often describe what I do as “oil painting with a computer.” I use Photoshop, a Wacom tablet and an art pen, but there is nothing automatic about the process. Every portrait is hand-painted by me. I don’t use filters or AI to create the artwork. I use customize mixer brushes and lots of layers, and each painting takes roughly 10–15 hours to complete.
One of the things I really enjoy is working closely with the person who commissions the portrait. It’s not just a matter of sending me a photograph and waiting for the finished product. I send them previews throughout the process and let them be involved in the decisions, from background colors to fur colors and all the little details in between. I want the finished painting to look like their dog, but I also want it to feel like their painting.
My goal isn’t simply to reproduce a photograph. A photograph captures what a dog looks like at a particular moment. I’m trying to capture something about the dog’s personality—the expression, character and feeling that makes that dog special to their person.
I’m also continually working to improve my skills. Each new painting is the best representation of my ability at that point because I’m always learning and training. I share my work with the other artists in my online painting studio for critiques and suggestions, and I use that feedback to push each painting a little further.
What I’m most proud of isn’t necessarily one particular painting. My latest painting is usually the one I’m most proud of because it represents where my skills are at that moment—and then I start the next one and try to make it even better.
But what really makes me proud of Wet Nose Creative is when someone sends me a picture of their finished portrait hanging in a special place in their home. About 90% of my work goes out of state, so I don’t often get to see the person’s face when they first see their painting. Getting that photo later, seeing the portrait hanging on their wall, and knowing that something I created has become part of their home means a lot to me.
That’s really what sets Wet Nose Creative apart for me. It’s not just about creating a picture of someone’s dog. It’s about taking the time to understand the dog, work with the owner, and create something that celebrates the story they share.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
It think it’s really the heart that I have for doing my work.
For me, it’s really about more than the painting itself. I’ve loved dogs for a long time, and before I ever started painting them, I was photographing dogs at our local animal shelter to help them get adopted. I liked being able to take something I was good at and use it to help animals. Painting dogs has given me another way to do that, just in a different form.
When I’m working on someone’s dog, I don’t want to simply reproduce the photograph they sent me. I’m trying to capture something about that particular dog—their personality, their expression, their character, and that little something that makes their person look at them and say, “That’s my dog.”
I think that’s ultimately why I do this. Every dog has a story. Some are goofy family dogs, some are working K9s, and some are dogs whose families are trying to hold onto their memory. I get to take a small piece of that story and turn it into something they can see every day.
That’s much more meaningful to me than simply making a picture of a dog.
Pricing:
- 11×14 handmade frame $325
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wetnosecreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidholzemer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61564875847235
