A friend of mine is a big dog (smooth terrier) lover and aficionado. She invited me to a Dog Show in Long Beach. I am always for visiting harbors and I figured I could paint the Queen Mary or the beautiful forest of cranes and harbor machinery. Once I got there I was immediately drawn to the quirky ambiance and specially to the dogs. So with the Queen Mary behind me looking massive but uninteresting I set up to sketch the dog show instead.
Here are my sketches of the "Wire Terrier" breed segment. A lady bought the sketch off my notebook for 30$. (hey, parking and a new notebook right?). I think it was the most succesful page and it garnered me the most comments and "likes" on facebook I've ever had . Who knew?
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| The Smooth terrier, Wire Terrier segment |
So I continued sketching away and making lots of new friends in the process. I sketched the irish terriers (along with their handlers and judges). I also jumped around and trying to capture gesture and shape with a maximum economy of gesture and trying to make the pages look interesting by themselves. No lack of models for sure.
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| Irish Terriers. |
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| Scotties and other breeds. |
A especial page dedicated to my friend Mary Lynn and her dogs Mimi and Cracker. I gave the page to her even though I don't like tearing them. After all, she made the invitation and I am glad I shwed up. Sometimes immersing oneself in an environment one knows nothing about (race horses, the military, factories ..I can think of a million) is a great source of inspiration.
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| Mary Lynn and her smooth terriers and friend. |
2 comments:
Nice sketches! Do you always carry a little watercolor set with you, for creative moments like these?
Hi Judy. Not always. The sketch book is great to take for moments when you are not sure if a painting session will be appropriate because of time, crowds, weather, etc...I definitely take it for times when I know I will have to be waiting or just doing nothing. The setup is super simple, the notebook, a bottle of water and a small travel watercolor palette, two small brushes and a napkin. Voila! I am even trying to get better at sketching in my Ipad because you can take that to airports, jury duty, doctor office, car wash, etc...
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