Pet Portraits for PAWS

 

I’ve been alluding to an opportunity to sketch animals using a less intensive method than colored pencils, and that opportunity came last Thursday: a benefit for PAWS. Tracy Felix and her daughter Bryn, co-owners of ArtSpot in Edmonds, sponsor the benefit one evening each year during the town’s art walk. I was one of several other artists invited to draw pets on the sidewalk. Although I hadn’t heard of the event before I was invited, I was instantly excited to participate! Draw animals to support other animals? I’m in!

When I arrived at 4 p.m., a line of dogs and their humans had already begun on Main Street outside ArtSpot. My hope and intention was to sketch the dogs live, which I was able to do a couple of times, but as the line got longer and the pressure was on, I decided to snap photos to draw from (which is what the other artists were doing). Although quite a few dogs showed up in person, even more were requested only as photos on the donors phones.

I was both disappointed and relieved to work from photos. As has been my experience from all the commissioned pet portraits I’ve done, some of the reference photos that donors brought along were less than ideal – poorly lighted or not quite in focus. In addition, while drawing from a photo is easier than drawing from life, snapping a good reference photo of an excited, distracted dog in fading light isn’t easy, either!

Tracy's dog Bodie was one of my favorite expressions to capture!

On the other hand, drawing from life as I had hoped turned out to be more difficult than other experiences I’ve had. Usually when I’ve drawn dogs from life, they have been calmly lying at their human’s feet at an outdoor café table or while their human was occupied nearby. At the ArtSpot benefit, the dogs were distracted and sometimes agitated by all the other dogs nearby, so they were more fidgety than they might normally be. The experience would have been more challenging but also more fun for me if I had continued trying, but I knew the results would not have been as good.

In any case, I had a ball sketching while chatting with the donors and learning about their pets. I used exactly the method and materials I had practiced earlier – a brush pen for the main lines and a gray marker for shading. Each took about five to 10 minutes. Although I missed a few, I snapped photos of most of my clients.

Tracy said she intends to call on me again next year, and I certainly hope she does!

Thanks to Janet Wang for snapping these photos of me in action!

Very calm Magnolia was one of the pups I was able to sketch from life.