Jeff Kovalcik moved from his hometown of New Braunfels to Austin in 2002 where he finished his BA in studio art at the University of Texas in 2006. His career would meander a bit before he took a detour into the funeral profession where learned the importance of permanent memorialization. During this time, he was still making art but only as a hobby.“I had been experimenting with scratchboard and had seen the realism achieved by other artists and I was enthralled by their work.”
His first scratchboard pet portrait began as a Christmas present in 2013 to memorialize a family pet. Little did he know, that after sharing that first portrait online, he would soon be dedicating his work to a new medium that captures detailed lighting and hyper-realistic textures unlike any he had tried before. After a few years of practicing his craft, he knew that he wanted to provide this service for pet lovers everywhere.
Thus was born, Kustompawtraits.com, Kovalcik’s endeavor to create custom and lifelike portraits of our little furry ones. He hopes to contribute to the pet loving community, by creating lasting art for their homes. The results are photorealistic and the black and white aspect allows a unique high contrast, perfect for portraiture.
“My goal as an portrait artist, is to create meaningful art that will capture the personality, the twinkle in the eyes, that little mole on their cheek, the spots on their fur and all the other little intricacies that bring your pet to life. I look forward to providing this service full time for
years to come and hope I can create some truly unique “pawtraits” and relationships along the way.”
years to come and hope I can create some truly unique “pawtraits” and relationships along the way.”“I believe my first encounter with Miller Printing was when I was with the funeral home and drove a company vehicle down to their previous shop to get a window decal affixed to the side. Years later I had a show up at Kerbey Lane Cafe and wanted to get my work professionally scanned for better documentation. I remembered Miller, so I brought in a bunch of work and Dana Burton did such an amazing job. Sooo much better than my old iPhone 4s taking pics! Crisp blacks, and the crazy detail of the scans were sooo cool. So now, every time I finish one of the pet “pawtraits” or any of my other scratchboards I bring them down to Miller so Dana will take care of them.”
Contact Jeff:Facebook: Kustom Pawtraits
Instagram: @kustompawtraits
TikTok: Kustompawtraits
Website: kustompawtraits.com
Contact our fine art specialist, Dana Burton, for more information on fine art scans and reproduction.