My Wire Hair Fox Terrier

"Whitman"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Today a Wacom sketch from the archives of my own boy Whitman. It is s sunny day today and I think I will get out and take him on a long walk before the expected cold front blows through. 

Wire Hair Fox Terrier Sketch

"Whitman Galveston"
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Every time I go on a road trip vacation I pack art supplies. I usually do not make time to use them, but it is nice to have them on hand. Last month when we went to Galveston I managed to do one sketch and Whitman was good enough to sit still for me on the deck of our beach house so I could draw him. I used watercolor pencils on this quick sketch.

The Art Of War

11 x 14 Loose Wacom Sketch ( above)

"The Art Of War"
16 x 20 Canvas Print ( Above)

Yesterday I posted some quick pencil sketches and it just made me want to try some wacom sketches. So today I am posting Celtie & Pixel in a piece I titled "The Art Of War". Celtie is an adorable little Scottie that we baby sat for a few weeks back along with her brother Rufus. They both own a great human by the name of Cheryl. Cheryl is an artist and Scottie rescue gal.

My Pixel & Celtie love to play tug of war, and boy do they get after it. I created a quick & loose sketch from a photo and then elaborated on it to create the larger work. I really like the toy guts spreading into the border area that contains some quotes from a Chinese military treatise that was written during the 6th century BC by Sun Tzu. I plan to let Celtie's Mom choose between the small loose sketch and the larger piece as a late holiday gift.

Scottie Sketches

This morning I spent about 45 minutes playing around with one of my own photos of my boy Ajax. I did some loose line work and tried several different things for a variety of effects. I sort of like the black & white cross hatch. I am posting my wacom sketches here.
They are in the order of the last one first ... click images to see larger versions.

Below: I took my sketch and created a black & white image, used cross hatch filter, then added more line-work. This is my fave.

Below: You can't really see until you click for detail, but this image has a half-tone dot pattern applied.

Below: Loose line work and one photo layer had the filter "cut-out" applied at a low opacity.

Below: Original photo of Ajax .... my pookie

"Waiting for their Da"

This is a series of Wacom sketches I just did from a favorite photo of my Scotties waiting for Dan to come home from work. They are just too cute sometimes. I started with a plain black line sketch, then added some grey wash to the pups then I painted in some color. The final full color sketch was created by making use of a photo layer with a "cut-out" filter applied and then layer effects were played with and opacity to get things just right. Then one final additional sketch layer on top

Miss Ruby

This pup sketch is another quick and loose Wacom drawing created on my laptop during a labor day weekend road trip to the hill country. This girl is Ruby and she belongs to my best friend.

Bulldog Sketch

This Bulldog sketch was created in the car on a road trip to the Hill country in Texas. I think he turned out pretty good.

Ajax Sketch

Ok one more of the middle child. This is Ajax and this sketch is from a photo taken at Fala Day. Fala Day is a fun event that celebrates Scotties and their people. This is another fast Wacom sketch.

More Wacom Sketches

This morning I did another quick sketch of one of my Scotts. This is Pixel. This artwork was created using a wacom drawing tablet and the paint brush tool only. There are no filters applied to this hand drawn piece. The top image is where I started with a simple black & white sketch. I then went in and painted in some color. Setting my paintbrush tool at a low opacity I was able to achieve sort of a watercolor or liquid marker effect with the applied color. While I did work by looking at a photograph there is no photo image layer on this piece and it is composed of just hand drawn lines. This loose sketch work is currently not the sort of design work I offer on my commercial site, however it does keep my portrait work fresh and it keeps my hand skills strong, which helps with my painterly style portrait work. I have a real love for line and I think that is what many people are responding to when they choose my painterly style artwork for their pets.




Tutorial Tips:
Well I tried to find a groovy wacom specific tip to share and I sort of struck out. The Wacom.com site does have a tips section, however I was disappointed that the tutorials were not quick-time movies ...ah well those that want to learn will read. Click here for Wacom's Tips Section.

I"m still here

Yes I am still here guys. I know I fell off of the blog for a week. What can I say, I have been really busy with orders. We printed 6 portraits this week, and I proofed Bella, Roxy, Charley, Trixie, Brooks and 4 hounds. We are working on updates for Tabasco, Charley and Trixie. Yesterday I took a break after I had been running errands and worked on a quick sketch to amuse myself. I have to do that every once in awhile. I am posting that doggy here. This is my own Big Tommy. I have been feeling bad that I have not been keeping my sketch journal lately. I decided to do a fast sketch with the wacom and it was quite fun. After I did the initial black & white line drawing I went in and played with color.