Maybe because we usually don't see the little claws in drawings of dogs? I don't know, but I've had similar remarks on some of my greyhound drawings where I've managed to get the claws in. I guess those little delicate touches add something important.
Ohhhh I like this much better than the other one! The other one was good but felt stiff and static somehow to me. (Is that a bad thing to say? I don't want to be mean about anything I don't have great skills at, or mean at all really!)
Nope, not a bad thing to say at all. You have a good eye, and I'd have to agree that I didn't really get a good sense of motion in the first sketch. For one thing, I'd been working in ballpoint, so when I realized that the back legs were a bit too long/not high enough up off the ground, I couldn't correct it. That error "slowed down" the drawing. For another, it was a much flatter kind of source photo -- a straight-on profile, at a distance, and almost a silhouette.
What I loved loved loved about the photo I used for this one was all the movement. It was taken at much closer range, the dog is sort of going in multiple directions at once, twisting around like that and then the tail flipped up, and he's so full of great curves and angles.
And I just learned that his owner wants to buy the drawing and commission another thing, an oil portrait, I think. So: BONUS!
Thanks! It's a white charcoal pencil (white pastel pencils are great, too) and for the shadowed white areas I layered it with a tiny bit of black carbon pencil.
Sketching on toned paper is so much fun. It lets me do this drawing-with-white thing that I can't do if the paper is white already.
I encourage it! Google Cachet Earthbound Sketchbook and you'll find what I used here. Pitt Pastel Pencils are favorites of mine and they come in various colors including white. I also really like conte pencils, but I think Pitt Pastel are smoother.
Pure luck, to get that moment when the tongue was out. One of my friends who is much more knowledgeable about dogs has told me that the nose-licking is a sign of nerves. Not that the dog is unhappy -- he's clearly excited and pretty content -- but that he probably knew I was intently watching him and was a bit uncertain about that.
Yup, it often can mean discomfort. But a nose-lick can also be a way of clearing his nose. I see this more often in cats, who seem to have a wider range of smells they dislike (largely other cats), and after sniffing something of which they disapprove will lick their noses as if to say "get this stink out of my nostrils!"
Alternatively, maybe the clever scent-hound is just keeping the tool of his trade nice and moist. ;)
This was a few minutes after he had run off and jumped into a muddy pond! His owner was a bit less than thrilled about that, since the dog had to get back into her car to go home. :-)
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What I loved loved loved about the photo I used for this one was all the movement. It was taken at much closer range, the dog is sort of going in multiple directions at once, twisting around like that and then the tail flipped up, and he's so full of great curves and angles.
And I just learned that his owner wants to buy the drawing and commission another thing, an oil portrait, I think. So: BONUS!
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Sketching on toned paper is so much fun. It lets me do this drawing-with-white thing that I can't do if the paper is white already.
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Alternatively, maybe the clever scent-hound is just keeping the tool of his trade nice and moist. ;)
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