All done for negative space, form, or weight distribution.

Sleepy boxer

Two buddies – the boxer is about version twelve. Weight distribution was all wrong. Also, she looked for a while like she was on steroids.

Fight fight fight

Muscles on a pitbull – incredible. Beautiful dogs.

Angry chihuhua

Fluffy gold coloured dog, bossing a pit bull. Obviously good buddies.

Yet another of the mad dogs. The pit bull was standing off, gauging the distance. His fluffy buddy was poking out his tongue.

The fluffy golden job – looks like a golden retriever cross – this time bullying another of his buddies (all of the dogs seemed to be having a fine time). As George would say, “I’ll mess you up.”

Note the front right paw of the attacking dog. It looks just like a horse’s hoof. I don’t think it’s a screwup by me. The more I looked at the structure of the paw and lower leg, the more it looked like a horse’s hoof (and hock).

All were done for form, balance, negative space. The right-hand dogs in the last two sketches were most difficult – started life as distorted blobs. The lines went in to mark muscle mass and tension. Ended up looking like a dog.

Arse bite. This was the warmup sketch.

Progresso 9B, some marker pen (screwed up – should have just used for major form definitions), and some Prismacolours (the soft ones, not the Verithins).

Looking to convey action, which is why the geese are fighting, the crow is cawing, and the wolves are playfighting (yes, they are wolves, not bears).

Detail of geese (very blunt/flat 9B):

What I most enjoy doing – loose sketches of animals using a Progresso 9B. The terrier was wet. The crow was done solely to try and catch the feel of the beak on the chestnut. The honeyeater was very quickly done to catch the spread of wings and tail feathers.

Quick sketch that kept going. According to his owner, he is responding to the sound of his name being called through a cardboard tube.

2B, 4B, 9B