Frantic Sketches

Jasper is now 10 months old and officially a teenager, I’ve noticed other dog owners grinning in a knowing way when the word teenager is mentioned and so far these are my observations. It’s like looking at light and shade with nothing much in between, towards the light Jasper does what is ask for and towards the shade he reverts to puppy mode, attacking innocent objects such as door mats and back to pinching my shoes, especially when he thinks it’s time to go outside and work at retrieving the tennis ball.

Jasper’s more boisterous, needs more exercise and can be annoying but at the same time makes me laugh when his enthusiasm gets him into the most ludicrous situations such as when the kitchen door wasn’t shut properly and he came charging in, dived spread eagle onto the kitchen table with his nose accidentally on purpose in the butter, which of course he saw as a reward!

So how’s the sketching going? I think I would describe it as frantic as I try to catch things before my memory runs out. Here are a few that are beginning to work…

Apart from using a bic pen, I’ve used markers and the last sketch is with a sepia fine liner on toned paper. I’ve also been studying a bit of dog anatomy, more than anything this helps me to focus on certain bony structures in the body which in turn helps to memorise and understand shapes that I can see in Jasper.

Where am I going with this project? I have painted Jasper which I’ll present in another blog. What really fascinates me is trying to capture movement and energy or the gesture which I believe is very much linked to the energy and movement that is put in the pen or brush strokes.