My Art and Dogs

Animals have always been a subject I love to draw, especially dogs. My interest in drawing dogs began in 2005 when I found an artist who I regarded one of the best ones ever.  I fell in love with her fun and dynamic art. I admit to being a little bit obsessed. I joined the same text-based roleplaying game as her, just because she was there. But it was through the roleplaying game that I found very dear friends with whom I am still in contact with to this very day. I met this artist as well and she was kind enough to tolerate my young antics, considering she is much older than I am. Now it doesn’t matter as age gets less important as we grow older, but back then she seemed much more imposing and scary to me for being an adult and I was just a teenager.  Now she’s a friend of mine and I still consider her to be extremely talented and I thank her, for getting me into art more seriously than ever before.

Unfortunately I didn’t start drawing dogs because the anatomy was interesting or that I wanted to draw interesting breeds.  No, I drew those terrible pointy eared wolf-dog sparkle dogs that are just an embarrassment now that I look back at them.

WHY?!

But back then it was so much cooler to have all these unnecessary accessories on a character, be it dog or human, that my tiny mind didn’t understand how amazing dogs are just as they are. At some point, I started to resent drawing dogs in general as I was trying to be ‘different’ and ‘cool’ by lifting my nose up at people who loved to draw these silly sparkle animals. I thought I was better than them, concentrating more on the anatomy and nature of real dogs instead. I do regret my attitude towards these other people but I never regret delving deeper into the world of the dogs and how much more they are then whatever I tried to portrait with those awful gimmicks.

As an artist I didn’t actually get interested in the different breeds other than how they look. That came a bit later. As a visual person I found the vast difference between a Chihuahua and a Irish Wolfhound so fascinating, that I love to portray it in my drawings and sketches.

Ginga Nagareboshi Gin Fan Art

And I do admit to sadness when I see perfectly capable dog artists who do not practice and show off the amazing range they could with their subjects. But everyone is entitled to their own artistic endeavours and it would be wrong of me demand anything more from others, especially as I am not a paying customer.

Anatomy in general has been a point of interest in my art as I find interesting and well drawn anatomy is exceptionally beautiful, be it animal or human. So I created art that integrated anatomy into my art in different ways:

!!!These pictures can make you queasy if you do not enjoy seeing exposed flesh and skulls!!!

Hello & Ow ow ow!

I am very happy I got back into drawing dogs, it is relaxing and fun.  To me, they are an easy subject to tackle and I revel in the feel of just drawing, not having to think about it too much. This does not mean I know everything there is about dogs, art and dog anatomy in art, especially as I believe no artist is ever perfect. There is always something new to learn and portray in art. Dogs will be a subject of our art for many years to come as dogs have been by our sides for thousands of years.

Personally, I love drawing dogs. It’s fun to portray the simple happiness you can find in dogs. I think we have a lot to learn from their (usually) sunny disposition.

Puppy!

Artwork by Stumppa, more at deviantART