Monday, August 30, 2010

More curls!


After taking a short break camping on the Island (Manitoulin) last week, I head back to the drawing table. In this sitting I continue to work on the short curly and wavy hair of the Kerry Blue Terrier. As I am drawing, I find it easy to get lost in the "mess" of clipped curls so I block off a small section of the reference picture with some paper and draw the corresponding area on the portrait. This allows me to keep the uniformity of the coat more easily.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Meet Marshall, the Kerry Blue Terrier


Oh, there were some very close guesses...Vic actually guessed the Kerry Blue correctly on my last post. Congrats!

I must admit, before the client sent me photos of Marshall, I had never seen such a strange looking dog before; in full show cut, that is. They do look quite different with the hair not groomed and could pass for an entirely different breed of dog altogether! This is true of so many terriers, especially if one is not familiar with the more uncommon breeds.

At today's sitting, I concentrated on the short clipped fur on the neckline "v", making sure the outline of the cut matches the standard for the breed. I am finding all this quite interesting and am learning much about the grooming for this terrier just by drawing his coat. The long flowing wavy fur above the eye is called the fall and apparently protects the eyes of the dog as it hunts for vermin. The fur around the mouth is left long, probably for the same reasoning. I am only guessing that the clipped fur around the neck is kept short to prevent debris and plant material from tangling in the fur when the dog is hunting rats, weasels and rabbits down their holes. The rest of the body fur is clipped short but not shaved....probably just long enough to protect the skin and just short enough so that any debris can be more easily removed from the coat.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dog breed guesses so far:


Some of the guesses so far include Schnauzer, Wheaten Terrier and Airedale Terrier. All of which are good guesses but not the dog I am drawing. He is a type of terrier however, in a standard show cut.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Dog drawing continued

Perhpaps at this stage some of you will guess what breed is this dog that I am drawing?

Dog drawing commission...


This portrait has been on the back burner for too long and now that the pose has been approved by the client, I have to place Shayli's portrait aside. This eye close up is of a very interesting breed of dog. I will not reveal just yet...perhaps some of you will guess as the portrait progresses?