About the artist: Melinda has been passionate about drawing since her early childhood. She began with a focus on wildlife and spent many years creating custom pet portraits for clients. She loves to do close ups of the face, showing details in the fur, nose and eyes. She tries to convey the personality of the animal in her artwork and her goal is to capture their spirit in art. She also enjoys drawing people, from brides in gowns to sketches of snipers in the military.

Melinda specializes in pencil, charcoal, prisma colors, pen and ink, watercolor, acrylics and airbrush. She also loves to work in Photoshop and Illustrator and is currently enrolled at The Art Institute of SLC in Graphic Design. (Click here to view her online Behance portfolio.) Combining photographs and textures has become one of her favorite projects; she enjoys it so much she is now pursuing photography so she can capture images to use in her collages. She enjoys portrait, landscape and wildlife photography.

She and her husband are big outdoor enthusiasts and they enjoy spending time in the mountains hiking in the summer and skiing/snowboarding in the winter. Animals are a big part of their life and they have dogs, turtles and fish. They are also passionate about those who serve our country and run a business called "For Love of Country", a site that is dedicated to those who protect and serve. Melinda draws military portraits and designs apparel for the site www.floc.us