Daily Sketch Day 23 - Figaro

It's always fun to know the names of other people's pets.  Today, it's Figaro, a 15-year old Beagle, who is like a child riding his first rocking horse. People just love treating their dogs like children, especially when they had them since puppyhood. 

Every Daily Sketch that I've drawn so far had their own unique drawing challenges. Today's sketch is not an exception, because this sketch almost didn't happen.  I was having laptop issues, and lost a lot of time resolving it. And so I just sketched this in a more loose and painterly-style due to lack of time.

Daily Sketch Day 22 - Miaka

This is Miaka, my friend's beloved pet mongrel of 13 years. Her shaggy fur fits her rambunctious personality.   I imagined her in dog's paradise poised for a chase any moment. 

When I first looked at her photo, I thought I'll be having a hard time drawing Miaka's long furs  because it's hard to see what's underneath all those furry mess.  But then I realized as I was drawing, that her long hair served as great visual cues for drawing solid construction of her.  It wasn't as scary as I originally thought.   I feel good about the result.

Daily Sketch Day 21 - Jammin

My friend's first dog, Jammin was a cute Mini Dachshund that had passed away 4 years  ago.  Her phone which contained most of the dog's photos was lost, and only a couple of shots remained in her other phone. Jammin had this soulful look in his eyes, so I tried to capture that here. As my friend said, Jammin's  now in dog heaven. And so I sketched it that way here.  This Daily Sketch project of mine suddenly had a meaningful purpose. I'm pleased to have given some consolation even only through my drawing.  As an artist, that's the most I can hope for.

Daily Sketch Day 20 - Pringles

 

 

 

 

Today, I have again asked some friends to lend me their pet dog's photos, so I can draw them. So for today, it's Pringles - a smiling Pug-Pitbull mix. Her big wide smile is so cute I just have to draw her. She can be a good inspiration and reference for a character design  of a dog character in an animated film.

As for the background, I added a Stucco Deco design using the art clippings brush preset in Artrage 4, for the floor, and added some spot lighting effect to the whole image. Coz she's a star!

Daily Sketch Day 19 - Mellon

It's my friend's pet dog, a Jack Russell mix. I kept it simple with just black and white pencil and added some noise filter for the overall look.  Just trying out a different style... and finish it on time. Yay!

Daily Sketch Day 18 - Golden Retriever Puppy

After drawing horses for a week, it's drawing canine week starting today.  I'm starting off with a cute Golden Retriever puppy. This sketch is very loose and painterly-looking.  The fur still needs a lot of work but I ran out of time.  Just have to let it go and start anew tomorrow. Sleepy now.

Daily Sketch Day 17 - Three Donkeys

As part of the equine family, I just have to draw donkeys as well. They're just basically the smaller version with longer ears.  I think they're a really cute.

Daily Sketch Day 16 - Horseplaying Zebras

 

Still on my drawing horse week, I decided to vary things up a bit by drawing zebras, which are also of the equine species.  I don't remember having drawn much zebras before or it must have been when I was still very young and can't draw animals properly,  But now that I can, I just realized how helpful those zebra stripes are in indicating their three dimensional form.  One benefit of drawing is you're force to take a closer look at your subject as if for the first time and notice things you wouldn't normally have.  And I'm amazed at how those stripes really conforms to the zebras' body like construction lines.  Great visual cues for drawing.

Daily Sketch Day 15 - Horse Call

 Instead of my usual three horses I added one more, because the composition calls for it. As a result, this sketch took me longer to finish.  This time it's a sketch study of horses in recline plus a horse neighing.  So I drew them lying around while one horse calling them out for their laziness.  Such fun!

Daily Sketch Day 14 - Grazing Horses

 

 

Learning to draw any animal must involve learning to draw them in different poses. Thus the three horses,   I'm also experimenting with the rendering style, by keeping it loose and keeping the pencil lines visible.

Daily Sketch Day 13 - Gossiping Horses

Continuing with the horse theme for this week, I drew three of them focusing on the head in different views.  And because of the way they are grouped together, I titled this drawing as Gossiping Horses.

Haha...

Daily Sketch Day 12 - Running Horses

For today's sketch, it's running horses. I kept the pencil outline visible on top of the colors, and placed the horses on a grassy background which gave this sketch a more illustration-style look.  My style is still evolving at this point, so it's fun playing around with this look,