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Sunday, January 29, 2006

Doggie Sketch

We've had our dog Winnie for many years. By my reckoning, she is somewhere between 17 and 18 years old. About a year and a half ago, she became ill, with some bizarre lab results from blood work; the vet, suspecting cancer, suggested that we euthanize her, but we decided against it, since she didn't seem to be in any pain. She surprised us all when she continued to keep on keeping on ... although she does it slowly and spends most of her time resting. Every morning I go out to check on her, never knowing what to expect.

I drew Winnie today for the EDM weekly challenge, and realized that I had never drawn her before. In all these years ... isn't that sad.

Note: Winnie is solid black, but I decided to leave just the line work. Had I added color, she would have been a bit of a blob -- one of the artistic challenges one encounters with black furry friends!

Technical notes: drawn in Canson Drawing book with Nexus black pen. Posted by Picasa

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda - what a beatiful drawing of your dog, Winnie. I love the loose lines that captured her fur. I agree with you, putting in black colour would have taken much more time. This will be at least one drawing you'll have to remember her by. You did a lovely job! Give Winnie a gentle cuddle from me, another dog lover.

Terri said...

Linda, this is a lovely drawing of Winnie. These challenges get us to draw things we never would have thought of trying before. I'm so glad you got the chance to draw Winnie. It sounds like she has had a long and happy life with you all and that you are very caring owners. Lucky Winnie. Lucky you having such a lovely companion for all those years!

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely drawing of Winnie and I'm so glad you did it. I think you did the right thing not to try to color her in black, the linework gives the essence of it. I have a friend who has a black cocker spaniel and I've hesitated to draw her because of her dark color. Your solution has given me the idea to try it, now.

Laurent Peters said...

Drawing a black dog is so difficult. I know it because our dog is a black Labrador, I already tried to draw him several times, but I never succeeded to draw it as good as you did with Winnie. I am sure Winnie had and will have a happy life with you.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it is a lovely drawing. And doesn't need color at all. You got the essence of her just right.

Felicity Grace said...

Beautiful loose lines. Better late than never - maybe we will see more of Winnie!

Lin said...

Linda -- there is such tenderness in your sketch -- each line bespeaks your fondness for this pet ... well done, my friend!

Unknown said...

Beautiful, Linda - I'm a dog lover, too - have 2, myself, and love to sketch them when they curl up on the sofa. I have a black dog, too - and all that black mass makes it difficult to SEE him, but you've honored dear Winnie with your beautiful line work.

Anonymous said...

Winnie is definitely beautiful. 17-18 is quite impressive--you've done a good job for her. I've always been a firm believer that they will tell you when it's time. We've lost 2 dogs unexpectedly, but 3 have told us when it was time. You and they just know.

Marilyn said...

Linda
A lot of feeling and emotion in this drawing. We have three and they are our children.

no one said...

Wonderful drawing. I love that you were able to capture winnie with such delicate loving strokes.

Teri said...

Wonderful job Linda! You have captured her sweet nature. The lines are perfect.

Lindsay said...

Waht a cute old girl. Good for you for making your own decision about end of life issues. You know your dog best. Great drawing too.

Clare said...

This is a beautiful sketch Linda. I can tell how much you love her by this picture.

Julie Oakley said...

This is lovely. It's only because of blogging and EDM that I've drawn our dog - I don't think it would have occurred to me - and such a lovely momento when they sadly leave us

Chuck Rose said...

Don't you just love to sketch you pup? I know I do.

Here's the latest of our big 0l' dawg:
http://strugglingtopaint.blogspot.com/2006/01/for-what-its-worth.html

belindadelpesco.com said...

Linda, This is such a loving little drawing. Each line of the art is hugging her. Great stuff coming from your pen. Direct from your heart. Thanks for sharing.
Belinda

AscenderRisesAbove said...

Wonderful! And your watercolor technique is really wonderful too.

Anonymous said...

Dear Linda, I can see your feeling for Winnie in every line. I'm glad you drew her--when we lost our lovely Mollie way too early a year ago, it helped me so much to have drawings done over her 8 year life to look at. You might want to try drawing Winnie with watercolor crayons, too- you could put down ultramarine blues alongside umber, and alizarin and viridian to get a really texturey and rich black coat! Makes me wish I had a black dog now ;D. Our Abby, 10 months old, is a very pale champagne color. Thank you for sharing this tender and loving sketch.

pedalpower said...

Such a sweet sketch of your sweet dog. I hope we see more of her. I have a black dog too, and I like how you handled that.

Cin said...

comes through so clearly what a dear friend she is, a wonderful tender sketch.

Anonymous said...

That is beautiful. It is amazing how we overlook all of the things in our life to draw/sketch/journal about.

"Maggie & Kevin" said...

I immediately related to this lovely drawing of your dog. Our dog Blue is also ailing with what we believe is arthritis and possibly cancer but he just keeps going if ever so slowly. Blue is Black and about 13 years old. I too think drawing and painting him black would be a challenge but what fun that would be! Thank you for all your support and warm comments.
P.S. I think your preliminary watercolor of the tomatoes is fabulous just the way it is!

Kathleen Pequignot said...

Such a sweet entry. I know you will cherish this post/drawing forever. :)

Unknown said...

nice sketch linda i luv the way u captured the fur with simple lines,,well done