Illustration Friday - Grounded, with youtube video!

The inspiration for the doggie is of course, my darling Gracie, my gorgeous red Toller.

Isn't she gorgeous?!

To watch me paint this in time-lapse, click here!

Tiffanny

Watercolor - Gesture

This serves both as my "Illustration Friday" and "Watercolor Wednesdays" piece. The Illustration Friday word is "gesture", hence.......

"Watercolor Wednesday's" topic is "Baby's First....." Well, if you've followed my blog you know that I'll find any excuse to put some sort of animal in the piece, so I decided that the dog can be baby's first guardian angel. I purposely positioned the baby's swirl hair over the puppy serve as puppy's halo. If you look super close, you'll see her dog tag has little wings drawn on it, designating her very important job. Here's a closeup:

Anyway, I really dont know if the puppy succeeds at keeping the stupid baby from getting attacked by the blender. I will leave that up to your imagination :) hehehe You tell me what you think happens!!!!!!

Tiff
PS, dog was modeled after my dog Gracie, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, who is actually a pretty cruelly indifferent dog. I once took her to Barton Springs to play water fetch with her. I decided to test and see what she would do if I pretended to drown. As I "drowned" she picked up her ball and took it to my husband instead. She didn't even think twice!!

Watercolor Sketchbook - Dog Park!

I wanted to spoil my dogs today so we went to the dog park!!! Unfortunately the dogs kept splashing on my sketchbook so I stopped painting and finished at home. So this isn't completely an on-the-spot painting. :)

The dog to the left is Gracie, the brown dog is my other dog Honker, and the man in white is my hubby :)

Hope you like my painting
Until next time!
Tiffanny

Quick Sketches

A few quick sketches.
Gracie was holding her tail funny over the weekend. We thought her tail was broken but it turns out she has a condition known as "broken wag" from swimming too much. She gave us quite a scare!

I used one of them there water brushes for these sketches. I really don't like them as much as regular brushes but they're fun for just doing quick washes when you're short on time. It's also nice to cut loose and not be so picky.

Anyway, I hope I can give you guys more sketches. I'm too busy to do anything more finished lately!

Tiffanny

Watercolor Sketchbook - Gracie and Honker at Walnut Creek

LOVE MY DOGS. First nice weekend weather in a long time, HAD to go play at the best dog park in Austin!

5 Ways to Prepare for Zoo Drawing

OK, I plan on going to the zoo this weekend, weather permitting. So I've started preparing by drawing my dogs. I prepare many other ways, and I've created a list I hope you may find helpful.

1) I prepare by browsing through animal drawing books. My favorite authors for this are Joe Weatherly, Ken Hultgren and David Coleman.
2) I watch my BBCs Earth or Life DVD, and sketch some animals while they are moving. This prepares me for the zoo trip where animals wont hold still.
3) I look at my animal action figures from Schleich, I draw them in a pose that is different from how they are sculpted to prepare me for different poses a real animal will have.
4) I go to a natural history museum and draw taxidermy.
5) I draw my dog and cats. I try to draw them moving as well as relaxed.

Now that you have mentally prepared yourself with these tips, you will have a more productive trip! :)

I hate spending hours at the zoo and then ending up with crappy drawings. Best to prepare to make the most out of your admission fee! So, I hope to update with some zoo drawings by next week. I hope you will visit me again.

This is Honker, my short-haired dog. Because of this, you can really see her definition. She's perfect for anatomy study.

 This is Gracie. True to her name, she's very graceful, in movement and features. She's foxy-red and has a deer-like frame, with long thin legs.

 This is Frannie, a friend's dog. She's hard to draw! I'm so unfamiliar with her.

Gesture Drawings of Gracie and Honker

Well, the figure drawing session was canceled yesterday for some reason, so I decided to draw my dogs.
This is my dog Honker sleeping. She's compact and muscular which makes her great for anatomy studies. About Honker; Honker doesn't understand ownership and playing with toys. She much prefers fishing and hunting outside. She has caught squirrels, rabbits, and fish. We didn't teach her that, but I think since her previous owners neglected her she just learned to hunt to stay alive. She is an expert at catching grasshoppers out of the air. As a result, when we toss popcorn in the air for her she catches them with ease. Anyway, the problem with dogs is that they get uneasy being stared at, so she crawled into her crate after these few drawings...

These next ones are of Gracie. She doesn't like being stared at either, so she's always rotating, always facing away from me. Luckily I got a few good ones. While Honker is squat and muscular, Gracie is built more like a ballet dancer. She's long and lean but also strong. She's undefeated at Tug-of-war vs other dogs despite her tiny frame. She isn't a hunter like Honker but plays non-stop. The only thing she has "hunted" was a turtle, whom she brought back to us alive and well. We put him back in the lake. Unlike Honker, Gracie can't catch for shit. We throw popcorn at her and she kind of braces herself for impact, then eats it off the floor.

I love my two dogs!
Tiffanny