Every Day Has Its Dog

As the title of this post should indicate, the main focus is... a dirt-bike!  Okay, not really.  There is a dirt-bike thrown in there, but mainly because my other canines are already posted here and here.

This first drawing draws direct inspiration from those oh so beloved dogs playing poker.  My variation being that the dogs are shooting pool. Since, prior to this blog, the majority of my audience was comprised of my students I removed the usual cigars and replaced the alcoholic beer with Barq's Root Beer (Get it? Barq's. Because dogs bark.) Yeah, if you aren't used to the bad puns by now, you haven't been reading my blog long enough. It isn't my favorite drawing, but a lot of people seem to like it so here it is.

Detail of the bottles

Now that the dogs playing pool are out of the way, here's another drawing of a canine that is one of my favorites.  A student suggested after seeing some of my drawings that I should try drawing a grey wolf. Thank you Nicholas M. for making that suggestion! I'm sure if I really stared at it for a long time that I'd notice things that bother me, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm especially proud of the texture detail of his nose and the detail I put in the teeth. Again, the eyes are larger than they would be in nature. Like the aforementioned puns, that's just part of who I am.

And now, without further ado, is the dirt-bike.  This is the final major component of the composite drawing I mentioned in last Sunday's post. My distaste for drawing machines was overridden by the fact that I'd asked for suggestions. I didn't go super-detailed (or even slightly detailed) on the inner workings of the engine, but I think the basic idea of Dirt-bike was accomplished reasonably well. If I must find something nice to say about it, I am mostly pleased with the way the wheels turned out (hehehe "wheels turned"). I think I even managed to pull off the foreshortening pretty convincingly.

And so concludes this chapter in the ongoing saga that is the Hey Mister H! Blog.  Tune into for the next exciting episode of Wired Wednesday...well...Wednesday.  You may have paid for your whole seat, but you'll only be using the edge! As I mentioned in Wednesdays post, remember to help support and encourage your local artists.  Artists don't always get paid well (in fact we very rarely get paid well), but a few words of encouragement can go a long way to supplement that.

Stay creative,

AH!

Canines and Primates and Birds, Oh My!

Okay, so more accurately one canine, two primates, and one bird.  Either way, you get the idea. Titles aren't my strong suit.  These don't really require a lot of explanation, so... yeah... here they are.

First up is an owl.  I didn't have a specific type of owl in mind as much as a generic concept of an owl.  Again, working without reference or any experience with feather dynamics, there are some issues (with the wings in particular) but I'm reasonably happy with the way he turned out.

Next up is a bulldog.  His eyes are kind of big, but I wouldn't change that. I like to make eyes a bit too large for extra emphasis on the emotion they can convey.  For example, this dog's eyes are saying "Where's my food?" It was also a great dog to choose for wrinkle shading practice.

Primates are a little easier for me since I have a long-held fascination with monkeys and apes.  Not a lot to say about this gorilla. I wasn't crazy about the fact that his ear was hidden in his fur in the reference pic I used.  When I added it in during the early sketching process, though, it didn't look right so I just went with the hidden ear.  He looks rather indifferent about it.

I'm usually hesitant to say too much good of my own art (a large part of my reasoning behind starting this blog), but this little guy is an exception.  I easily qualify him as one of my favorite drawings.  Like the bulldog he seems to portray his thoughts very well through his facial expression.  He seems to be thinking "Mmm... this is some tasty bamboo."  It isn't especially deep, but what do you expect from a monkey.

As a finishing note, I've found that posting just once a week is just doesn't seem like enough, so I'm working on a few possible weekly mid-week posts. Probably some rough sketches or doodles.  Eventually, I'll likely post some pics of paintings and wire sculptures I've done, too.  Again, any ideas for future drawings or art projects can be dropped as a comment below.

-AH!