Dog Daze


As an artist, I feel it's important to keep the skills sharp by experimenting with different techniques and tools.  I've always enjoyed cartooning, plus I have a fair bit of knowledge of imaging programs like Photoshop from my days as a television editor.  So I thought I'd combine the two techniques to create a whimsical New-Yorker inspired piece about a busy dog park, a place I'm well familiar with having been owner to several pooches over the years.  

 The piece started out with the empty backdrop, which I painted on a board with acrylics in a pretty conventional manner:

I then set out to populate this empty park with as many of the most popular types of dogs I could think of, along with their owners.  I researched most common dog breeds, and, using their pictures as reference, sketched them to the best of my ability with pencil and ink (a Sharpie) on an 8 x 10 piece of paper.  


I photographed them with my camera phone to get them into the digital domain, and then imported them into Photoshop to add colour using the paint bucket tool.


Ultimately I ended up with several dozen dogs of various sizes and colours (and some of their owners) which I then pasted on top of my empty background.  In a funny way it reminded me of the sticker sets I used to play with as a child.  


  I tried my best to fill the scene with the most quintessential of dog park sights, thus you have the Newfoundland content in the pond, the Border Collie herding the Poodle, the disproportionate scrap between the Chihuahua and Great Dane, and the pooping Labrador. 


Not only was it an enjoyable project to work on, it is different in that no physical version exists of the final piece of art.  I've use the digital file to create cards and prints and have sold a fair number of them.  

And on a last humorous note: 

Ever the opportunist, I decide to share the picture on some dog-related Facebook pages.  I got a certain expected number of 'likes', but also feedback I didn't expect.  There were lots of dog-people complaining about it, saying it re-enforces bad owner habits, like un-collared dogs and unchecked aggression between breeds.

People.

It's a cartoon.  


Prints and other "Dog Park" items can be sourced here:

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/dog-park-dave-rheaume.html

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