Fall Drawings, 2011

Bandit

Dachshund

10" X 8" colored ink

Boone

Viszula

5" X 7" sepia-colored ink

Chyna

Pitbull

5" X 7" colored ink

Izzy, Bianca, and Tyson

Pugs

8" X 10" black ink

Koda

Labrador retriever/Border collie mix

10" X 8" black ink

Oliver

Hound-dog mix

8" X 10" colored ink

Spencer

Border terrier

8" X 10" black ink

Christmas Commissions

Anna Luzia

5" X 7" pen & ink

2010

Buddy

8" X 10" pen & ink

2010

Happy

5" X 7" pen & ink with color

2010

Drake & Ruger

8" X 10" colored pen & ink

2010

"The Importance of Being Earnest"

Simon

7" X 5" pen and ink

2009

Both Labradors and Oscar Wilde know "The Importance of Being Earnest." Here's Simon's second portrait, a study in earnest Labradorishness. The eager ears, the furrowed brow, the watchful eyes, the inquisitive nose, the soft mouth--it's all there. No subterfuge in this fellow. Simon is as open and as honest as, well, a Labrador! Can't you just hear him wondering, "When are you going to throw that ball--again?"

Work in Progress

One thing I admire and appreciate about Annie Bissett’s beautiful blog, Woodblock Dreams, is that Annie shows her work in progress as well as her finished prints. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to figure out that I could be doing the same thing. I suppose I worry that no one is really that interested in how I draw pet portraits. The drawing process is not nearly as dramatic as carving woodblocks and pulling multi-color prints. But, since I’m drawing pet portraits these days, lots of them—hamsters, cats, and dogs, dogs, dogs—I’ll show you how I do it. Courage Leslie!

Take Lola the Lab.

Perhaps the most important step in drawing a pet portrait is to choose the best photograph to use as a reference. We had six photos to choose from of Lola (who died a year ago). Most of them were too distant and too small to show enough detail. We narrowed the choices down to these two:

DeeDee liked the first one, because Lola was “smiling,” but she realized that the eyes were not that clear. I said that the smiling pose was doable, but asked DeeDee to take another look at the second one. “It's a much better photo,” I advised her, “which is important with pale dogs, because it's so hard to see contours on blonde fur. I love the way her face and feet form a triangle—a nice composition! It's also a real heart-wrencher with those big, dark, adoring eyes.” DeeDee agreed with me. “Let's go with the second one!” she responded. “That was a classic Lola pose. I sure do miss her. She would have been 10 on Monday.”

The next step is to sketch the dog in pencil. Here I have to make a confession. I use a light board to trace the general outlines of the animal and to place the eyes, nose, ears, legs, etc. correctly. So my portraits aren’t drawn strictly “free hand” as a little boy in the Brooksville Library once politely pointed out to me. But hey! The art critiques speculate that Vermeer used a camera obscura to help set up his masterpieces, so I’m in good company. I use the light board mainly to save time, as it takes anywhere from 6 to 26 hours to ink in my drawings after I’ve sketched them in pencil. Here’s what I came up with on the light board. (I realize now that I should have slapped this onto my scanner rather than photographing it. Sorry it's so pale.)

I spend twice as much time sketching “free hand” on the drawing board, filling in the details, the riffs and rills of fur cavorting over Lola’s tawny hide . I’m impatient with this step in the process, eager to get to the pen-and-ink work, but I find that the more thoroughly I sketch the dog in pencil, the better the finished portrait turns out.

Finally, I start to ink in the drawing. I always start with the eyes—the windows to the soul. I figure that if I don’t get the eyes right, I might as well trash that effort and start over.

Next, the nose.

Then the whole head--ears, muzzle, cheeks, jowls.

I’m always happy when I’m drawing. I relate to this passage from Ian McEwan’s novel Saturday, because it describes so aptly how I feel when I’m drawing. McEwan is describing a surgeon in the operating theater:

“For the past two hours he’s been in a dream of absorption that has dissolved all sense of time, and all awareness of the other parts of his life. Even his awareness of his own existence has vanished. He’s been delivered into a pure present, free of the weight of the past or of any anxieties about the future. In retrospect, though never at the time, it feels like profound happiness. . . . This state of mind brings a contentment he never finds with any passive form of entertainment. Books, cinema, even music can’t bring him to this . . . This benevolent dissociation seems to require difficultly, prolonged demands on concentration and skills, pressure, problems to be solved, even danger. He feels calm, and spacious, fully qualified to exist. It’s a feeling of clarified emptiness, of deep muted joy.”

Tom, my husband, is more practical. He worries that the house could burn down around me while I’m drawing; I’m that oblivious to my surroundings. I only know that I love the deep concentration that I fall into when I’m drawing a bead of light that rims a dark iris, a nose that glistens with moisture, fur that lightens and darkens as it waves and swirls and corkscrews, ears that flop or prick or curl. I know that I’m perfectly contented when I am pondering how best to translate a steadfast gaze, a creased brow, a tilted head into an expression of love or longing or loyalty.

Lola's body is pretty well done. Now for the background:

I like the way a dark background sets off a pale dog.

It may look like the drawing is done at this stage, but now I do what I call "tweaking." I look at the drawing from near and far, from top to bottom, from side to side, and add a line here, a squiggle there, a dimple, a shadow, a suggestion, until I’m sure it’s just right. Truth be told, I’m never actually “sure.” I have great difficultly knowing when to stop. Eventually I do. Here is the finished drawing:

The last step in the process is to make the greeting cards and the bookmarks, to mat the original drawing, and to enclose it in plastic. Here is the full PenPets package:

From start to finish, I estimate that this portrait took about eight hours to complete.

Reuben the Magnificent!

Reuben

10" X 8" pen and ink

2009

Reuben is a shepherd/labrador mix, a down-to-earth, happy fellow. I think he embodies a certain magnificence as well with those penetrating eyes, that patrician nose, and his graceful, over-the-shoulder glance. He divides his time between New York City and Downeast Maine.

Ruby II

Ruby II

5" X 7" pen and ink

2009

Ruby II, a Springer Spaniel/Border Collie/Labrador Retriever mix, was Moose's predecessor. She also was a rescue dog, from a shelter on Mount Desert Island in Maine, home of Acadia National Park. And, of course, Ruby II's predecessor was Ruby I, a pure-bred Springer Spaniel, and one of my very first pet portraits. I drew Ruby I for my friend Maggie 11 long years ago and that experience helped launch my PenPets business. I'm trying to decide if my style has changed over the years.

Ruby I

6" X 6" pen and ink

1998

Maggie writes, "I'm already trying to pick out a spot to hang all three dog portraits together."

Animals Aren't Ambivalent

Herschel

5" X 7" pen and ink

2009

“The main difference between animal emotions and human emotions is that animals don’t have mixed emotions the way normal people do. Animals aren’t ambivalent; they don’t have love-hate relationships with each other or with people. That’s one of the reasons humans love animals so much; animals are loyal. If an animal loves you he loves you no matter what. He doesn’t care what you look like or how much money you make.”

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson

Malcom

Malcom

8" X 10" Pen-and-Ink

2008

Here's another Japanese Tanka for my latest commission:

Malcom

Youngster and oldster
The so, so serious pup
The sincere grown up
The brows of both deep-furrowed
Asking how best to love you.

What a Week!

On Sunday my brother Brian came for a five-day visit from California. In the 26 years since I moved from California to New England, Brian has never visited me at my house, so it was a momentous occasion!



Here we are in our blaze orange (the month of November is deer-hunting season in Maine), standing in front of Tom's "Dow Jones Industrial Wood Pile." By the way, Tom had one personal essay published this week and another accepted for publication!




On Monday I took down my month-long show at the Blue Hill Co-op: Community Market and Cafe. I called it "Faces from the Farm." It included 12 original pen-and-ink drawings and seven woodblock prints -- all farm animals (well, except for the black bear). I got tons of good feedback on the exhibit and sold eight pieces -- a personal best for me!

Later that day I delivered two new portraits. I love Scout's sweet sense of yearning (I understand that he's quite the moocher of treats!) and King's goofy dignity.

Scout

10" X 8" pen and ink

2008

King

7" X 5" pen and ink

2008

On Tuesday WE ELECTED A NEW PRESIDENT!

This is a woodblock print by my favorite Moku Hanga artisit, Annie Bissett. I'll be taking a course with Annie at the end of this month to learn how to create woodblock prints in COLOR!

On Thursday I attended the opening of "Noah's Ark Revisited: Part II," a multi-artist, multi-media exhibit of living creatures at the Deer Isle Artists' Association. I have three woodblock prints in the show.

If I look worn out in this picture, I am! Brian left Friday morning and I'll get back to my drawing board this week.

Two HOT Dogs on a Stick

Maddie & Poppy

8" X 10" pen and ink

2008

I saw a lot of tandem sporting events at the Beijing Olympics -- synchronized swimming and diving, beach volleyball, tennis doubles, and my favorite tandem event of all -- the equestrian events. But no tandem stick fetching! Too bad! I know that Maddie and Poppy would have annialated the competition with their brilliant teamwork, spot-on timing, flawless form, and steely grips. They'd have brought home the GOLD for Hilary! What a couple of hotties!

Thanks Anne for the fabulous photo!

Head Shots

I've been drawing a lot of head shots this year, six dogs and five farm animals so far. Here are two new dogs for 2008--both rightside up and upside down!

"Logan"

Logan is the much adored fur-child of my brother Evan and his wife Sue, an only dog/child. Do you think he's spoiled? He's a Bernese Mountain Dog--big, boisterous, and beautiful. When I visit Logan in Coarsegold, California, he loves to play tug-o-war with me 24/7. Guess who always wins!

"Gilmore"

Gilmore, this silly boy, lives with my nephew and webmaster Demetri and his wife Joslyne in Nashville, Tennessee. He is a yellow Labrador and he, too, is an only dog. What a goof ball! Gilmore has a kitty sibling--Boomer. I drew a portrait of Boomer two years ago as a wedding present for De and Jos. I haven't met Gilmore or Boomer yet, but I hear that they are a couple of characters.

"Boomer"