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How To Draw A Dog
And maybe become a better person
I love drawing dogs. When drawing any character, it’s inevitable that one momentarily embodies the creature you are drawing.
There have been dogs in my life as long as I can remember, and for as long as I’ve been drawing. First there was Sassy. A springer spaniel, she was a bright light, consistently greeting me with intense wiggling when I came home from school. Sassy went with us when we skated on the canal in winter, walked the streets on Halloween, joined us as kids when we played “Beatles” in the grassy field (otherwise known as “dog doo alley”). Sassy loved food and became a rather rotund springer. One day we found she had gotten into a neighbor’s trash, and was deep into a can of Crisco, which she was reluctant to relinquish. Sassy was my confidant and my rock in difficult times; she maintained her enthusiasm for all of us during family drama and heartache.
As a shy kid, I related to animals, real or fictional. I didn’t talk much, but talked to my animals — Sassy, Kiki my cat, and my stuffed animals. I was influenced as a budding cartoonist by Charles Schulz’s strip Peanuts. The character I bonded with was Snoopy. Snoopy did not speak, nor did I. Snoopy was a realist and an optimist; this was my young approach to the world (and still is). Later in my professional work, I was influenced by the work of…
