Sox #2 :)

This is the second drawing of Sox I've done, and I like this picture MUCH better. The portrait too, but even just the picture. I only drew that last picture because it was my Granny's favorite, but personally this is a much better picture, turned out better, and I just like it :) This is a front shot, where you can see her face and she's not staring at some random object not drawn. She's relaxed, her mouth is open and happy, and you can see her better. So I like this portrait better :)

 The photograph I took of this drawing has some graphite shine in the body, so it looks darker than this picture does. Because Sox was black, I had trouble getting the shadows in the face dark enough and I finally had to draw some of the hair in charcoal to get it dark enough. For some reason it doesn't look like Sox though. I think it's a good drawing, it just doesn't look like Sox and I can't figure out why. But it's still a good drawing and Granny will know who it is, so I'm pretty happy with it :)

My Briarlight :(

I've known for a while that my Briar has a problem with his rear left leg. Sometimes when he walks, he'll curl it up underneath him and only use 3 legs for a couple steps, and then he'll go back to using all 4. I took him to my vet a while back and I was told he has a subluxating patella. Meaning, the tendons in his knee are stretched and can't hold his kneecap in place well any more. Whenever his kneecap pops out of place, he'll keep it bent and use 3 legs and the vet showed me how to gently straighten out his leg to pop it back into place. The vet also told me he'll need surgery at some point and he referred me to a specialist.
The specialist agreed that he would need surgery at some point, but gave me anti-inflammatories to give him for the sprain. And he got better for a while. I knew it still hurt him, but he used it, and it was always in the back of my mind.
Well, then when I went to Kanab, UT for an internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, he got sick. He was throwing up and having diarrhea. Three vet trips, a blood test, an x-ray, and $600 later, I was told he had a sensitive stomach and to change him food :P I was not happy. I mean, I was happy it was such an easy problem to fix and not something life-threatening, but all the time and money and worrying it took me to find out he has a sensitive stomach did not make me happy.
But that's over and done with. What I want to mention is the x-ray they took. He's such a small little guy that an x-ray of his stomach was pretty much a full-body x-ray, and I got a good glimpse at the bones in his bad knee. I knew he'd have arthritis, I didn't realize it had gotten so bad so quickly! The top of his femur is calloused and deformed due to arthritis :(
Then a few nights ago, he started whining and crying for no apparent reason, but he'd yelp any time we even went near his leg. I gave him the very last rimadyl, left over from his sprain, and put a hot pad on his knee and he quieted down. And I took him back to the specialist the next day.
Well, long story short, he's now scheduled for surgery next Monday :( Luckily, I have quite a few more 'likes' on Facebook, over 100 now! And I put out a plea to all of my fans, I need more commissions to raise money for my Briarlight's surgery! It's going to cost roughly $1200, and that's $1200 that I don't have :/
But I do have some things working for me. Number one, Christmas is coming up so hopefully I'll get a big Christmas rush and do a bunch of portraits. Also, this Saturday is another big craft fair at the Nevada Humane Society and of course, I signed up for a table. Briar's always with me when I do these and this time, I'm going to wrap his leg so people can see he's injured and have a 'Briar donation' jar. In between that and the portraits I'm hoping to accumulate at the fair, hopefully I'll have enough for his surgery. After that, I'll have to come up with this month's rent XP

Tinman and Bella :)

It took me a while to get to these portraits, but I finally got them both done. This is Bella on the right and Tinman on the left. They belong to the 'usual crowd' at my favorite dog park in Las Vegas. Of course, I'm in Reno now but I go to Vegas all the time to visit my family and I always take my Briar to this really nice dog park on Warm Springs. And there's a 'usual crowd' made up of a few people and their dogs. They come about the same time every morning and they all commandeer a picnic table and hang out together. And I join them when I can :) When I mentioned I draw pet portraits and showed them a few of my works, of course they wanted their own! (All of them dote on their dogs, it makes me so happy to see :) They said no hurry, so I put them on the back burner for a while. But now they're done!!

This is Tinman! I had a really hard time trying to get his muzzle right. The way his mouth looks in the picture, his lips kinda curl up into a smile, but when I tried to draw it like that, it just looked photoshopped and ridiculous. It took me a while to be satisfied with it, and I'm still not very happy. Also his eyes. His left eye bulges out just right (he is a Chihuahua after all), but his right eye looks kinda flat and the contrast makes the portrait look funny. Not my best work, but he's done :)

And this is Bella. She's a sweetheart Jack Russell Terrier who loves to cuddle and give kisses. I like her eyes, I worked really hard to make them realistic and I think I did a pretty good job. But I was not satisfied with her left ear. The shadow under her ear is so dark it pops out, it's like the focal point instead of her white fur, and I did everything I could to make it fade into the background instead.
I look at my past works and they're beautiful and then I look at my recent works and I'm not happy with them :/ I must be out of practice. I'll have to fix that!