DRAW DOGS: I'M A BOWSKER!

This past week I’ve been drawing dogs.  Last Saturday when I chose not to take my soggy pencil to the market I received a poignant text from my complicated friend ... “I was at the market.”  This suggested that she went specifically to the market to visit me; rather, she took her doggie, Luke, to the market so I could draw him.

Then she sent me his picture:

LUKE

And this is what I drew:

LUKE'S PORTRAIT

And then she sent me another picture of her little dog lost, Max, who disappeared just over a year ago:

MAX

And this is what I drew:

MAX'S PORTRAIT

And then she sent me a picture of her mom’s dog, Zoey:

 

ZOEY

 And this is what I drew:

ZOEY'S PORTRAIT

 

Hmmm … the people that I know who have dogs … really, really, really love their dogs.

I know a childless couple who refer to themselves as Mommy or Daddy when anywhere with their dogs.  Every time they go out as a couple, like on a date night for instance, they hire a dog-sitter.

Some people, including my daughter, Natika, regularly post pictures of their dog on FACEBOOK.

NATIKA AND GLEETNA

NATIKA AND GLEETNA

I know a lady who constantly brags about her dogs, and who is forever willing to tolerate considerable discomfort for the minimum pleasure of bragging rights immediately following any one of her twenty-five dog shows she and her dogs attend year after year.

I know people that are limited to staying in pet friendly motels because of their dogs being their constant companions.

Our penchant for pooches has, indeed, figured significantly into our culture, an apparent example by the dog representation in our language:

Every dog has his day.  You look as though someone just shot your dog.  You need a little more of the hair of the dog that bit you.  If you lie down with dogs, you’ll wake up with fleas.  It’s a dog-eat-dog world.  You can’t teach old dog new tricks.  Let sleeping dogs lie.  His bark is worse than his bite.  You are dog-faced liar.  The place has gone to the dogs.  He’s in the doghouse.  I’ve been working like a dog.  You need to run with the big dogs.  Hey, bird dog.  Sun dog … Moon dog … Dog day afternoon … Dog’s breakfast … Straw dogs!     

The bond between humans and bow-wows began over 10,000 years ago.  We have connected more with dogs than with any other creatures on the planet.  Dogs march with us into battles.  Dogs sniff out drugs and dogs sniff out bed bugs.  Dogs mind the sheep and dogs lead the blind.  But for a little love in return, even mutts and mongrels make for humans the very best of companions.

This week I’ve been more than a bowsker, drawing people, too, of course.  Yesterday the Farmers’ Market was ripe; it seems, for couples wanting their pencil portraits.  Strangely, all my clients posed as couples or as family, there was not one posing singular.

My CHAUCERIAN PARADE for this week:

CARTER AND SYDNEY
(note by projection of SYDNEY ... SHE RULES:)

 

CARLA AND MIKE

 

JORDAN and CAREN and PENNY and MOLLY

According to Mark Twain, the most precious gift we can give to anyone, is time, just a little personal association.  Though I know certain people who give their time grudgingly, oppositely give loads of time genuinely and generously to their tail-wagging friends.

Hmmm … the people that I know who have dogs … really, really, really love their dogs.

ROBIN IN HEAVEN

Discovering the quiddity in a dog's face is really similar to discovering the quiddity in a human's face.  For example, in the drawing of Zoey, several dog pictures above, I really didn't capture her nose (I drew it a tad small), or her eyes (I drew a pinch too big).  As for Luke and Max, I most certainly think my sketches did them justice.

Ah yes, be they human or canine, faces have become my pencil forte.

And, as long as humans have their pooches for companions down at the marketplace ... it’ll pay for me to keep my bowsker pencils sharpened!