A Springtime Walk

I hadn't intended to take a walk today. I'd wanted to, what with the sun shining and the temperature nudging up toward 60 degrees, but I had migraines all day yesterday and was well aware that I had only a limited fund of energy to draw on today. I have hundreds of photos that need sorting and then backing up and I wanted to make that my priority for the day. However, I did need to drop an order in the mail and I took my camera with me to the mailbox because if you don't take your camera with you, you don't get to take pictures.

Well, once I was outside and taking photographs of flowers in the neighboring yards, it made sense, while I was out, to walk around the corner to photograph some blue hyacinths that I knew were in bloom because the temperature is supposed to get close to 70 this weekend and that will likely fry all of the currently blooming spring flowers, and once I'd photographed the hyacinths, I was already halfway around the block, so I might as well go all the way around and capture those early-blooming tulips... The following photos are the result of my impromptu spring walk around my neighborhood!

Flowering plum blossoms.

Grape hyacinths.

Daffodil.

Tulip.

Vinca minor (periwinkle).

Daffodils.

Hyacinth.

Hyacinth.

Hellebores.

Poor disappointed Abbey, who did not get to go on this unplanned walk, eagerly greeted me on my return home.

"Why didn't you take me?"

Visit my Etsy store!

Follow c.creativity on Facebook!

Dog-Sitting...Like a Boss

Ten years ago, if you had told me that I would one day be the owner of two small businesses, I wouldn't have believed you.

But it's true. I am the owner of two small businesses. They are VERY small businesses--I am the only employee of both these businesses and I've never earned enough from them in a month to jeopardize my Social Security benefits--but they are still businesses, licensed at the state and city levels, official as can be.

c.creativity licences.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Owning a business requires the confidence to say, "I have something to offer that is worth paying for." It feels great to have that confidence.

Once upon a time, my anxiety made it difficult for me to show my art to people, but for three years now, I've had some of my photography for sale on the internet. Yeah, my mother may be my biggest customer, but I still collect and pay taxes, have business cards and a wholesaler's permit, and I intend to eventually expand into selling my photography for stock. I operate under registered trade name of c.creativity, which, not so incidentally, is the name of this blog and my Etsy store. I'm branding, people!

The online photo store.

When I first started looking after the Ancient Kitty eight years ago, I never imagined that act would grow into a pet-sitting business. But when I was looking over my earnings from last year and facing the prospect of more clients this year, I realized that my little enterprise had grown beyond its informal roots and ought to be treated with respect. So I applied not only for licenses at the state level and in all the cities where I was currently and might in the future do business, but also purchased pet-sitter's insurance and bonding. Let me tell you, it makes me feel really good to get to say "Licensed, Bonded & Insured" on my business cards! I've made a website for the dog-sitting business, which I've named "Jolly Mutt Dog-Sitting," so prospective and current clients can check out my rates and my testimonials and availability. (I especially love the availability calendar!)

I'm licensed to operate my dog-sitting business in four different cities in the state of Washington.

It's official!

Do you know what else I love? Answering business-related emails. In my day-to-day life, I engage in very few "adult" activities or responsibilities: I don't shop or cook or clean, for example. Pretty much everyone I know would love to have FEWER work-related emails to respond to, but it makes me feel like, well, a boss to be communicating with clients and scheduling services.

The services aspect of dog-sitting hasn't changed, though. The dogs don't care if I'm officially licensed to be providing services in their city of residence, they just want to know if I'm going to play with them!

I did my first overnight with Cutie the Pyrenees a few weeks ago. As a two-year old, she has a lot more rambunctious energy than my elderly clients, but she snoozed more than she played and is a beautiful and friendly animal. I came home with drool all over my clothes and a resolution to teach her a thing or two about leash manners in the future!

Cutie at play...

...and at rest.

She's very affectionate and friendly!

I just finished up back-to-back gigs with Mr. Gorgeous and Sweetheart, which have kept me away from home and my own dear dog for nine days.

The first few days with Mr. Gorgeous were pretty rough because I was having a medication interaction that left me feeling really wiped out. Mr. Gorgeous, however, was in exceptionally fine form, having just been groomed. None of these photos comvey how soft and clean all that fluff was! He was also feeling very lazy, so the fact that I was feeling under the weather didn't disrupt his agenda of sleeping all day in his cozy bed. He was still interested in a game of slo-mo keepaway after dinner, but instead of leading me in a sedate and dignified jog around the house, he settled for "eluding" me at a walking pace. And thus was a good time had by all.

The well-groomed Mr. Gorgeous.

A friend's comment: "It looks like it could be a centerfold in a dog magazine."

Did someone say, "Handsome"?

Sweetheart, by contrast, does not have "sedate" or "dignified" settings, so she seemed to be almost cartoonishly expressive and demonstrative after six days with the extremely mellow Mr. Gorgeous. She watched my every move with interest and enthusastically licked any body part within reach! Forget "kisses": this dog, when happy, will lick hands, arms, your pants, even the top of your head! Oh, and she's pretty much ALWAYS happy. She's such a charming dog and always a pleasure to spend time with.

Sweetheart: "Why be dignified when you can be happy?"

The happy German Shepherd lazing in the sun...

...and chewing on a ball. Life is good!

I think this photograph perfectly captures her sweet personality: she's checking in with me, her eyes full of love and joy, to see what we'll be doing together next.

So that's the latest! I just can't resist announcing that my business is going to the dogs and I couldn't be more pleased. (Dog businesses and organizations rely heavily on puns, so it's only appropriate that I occasionally indulge.) The work may be no different from what I've been doing, but I'm proud to be doing it under the banner of Jolly Mutt Dog-Sitting, Licensed, Bonded & Insured, and not just as little ol' migrainey me.

Follow c.creativity on Facebook!

Canine Capers

Things have been quiet on the blog front lately because I have been persistently under the weather, spending most of my days in bed. When I have had the energy, much it has gone toward various dog activities, as per usual.

A beautiful Pyrenees Mountain Dog

The first order of business is to introduce you to my newest dog-sitting client, a magnificent Pyrenees Mountain Dog that I'll call Cutie. Like my other clients, she is large. Unlike my other clients, she is under the age of ten! Cutie is just two years old and is as big and beautiful as can be. She likes toys, belly rubs, playing keep-away, and snoozing. Fun fact: Pyrenees Mountain Dogs have double dewclaws on their back legs! Cutie also has pretty white eyelashes, surprisingly soft fur (for a dog that was bred to guard flocks of sheep on mountain slopes), and a tail that is carried low when she's feeling mellow and high over her back when she's excited. I'm looking forward to getting to know her better this year!

And another big, fluffy dog...

I also did a quick overnight with Mr. Gorgeous, whose coat is in its full winter state of resplendency. (While both Cutie and Mr. Gorgeous were bred to look after sheep in bad weather and have fur coats to match, Cutie's skull is about three times the width of Mr. Gorgeous'!) He was his usual lazy self, wanting only the occasional game of slow-mo, indoor keep-away, the timely delivery of his dinner, and the occasional deep scratching.

I was reminded of the myth of Narcissus when I captured this image of Mr. Gorgeous and his reflection.

And on the home front, Abbey and I have been busy playing with the vacuum cleaner.

Abbey and the vacuum on their first play date.

Abbey has had a poor relationship with the vacuum since Day One. I have to keep her shut up in a room with me while my father vacuums because otherwise she launches stealth attacks on it, going right for the soft underbelly, hoping to disembowel the dangerous beast. I'd been wanting an excuse to write Ask Doodlebug, my favorite doggie advice columnist, and was tickled when he replied when "Abbey" wrote in to discuss this issue with him. I'd already known how I ought to proceed in helping Abbey be less scared of the vacuum, but following up on Doodlebug's advice was a good incentive to actually do it. So we've been playing lots of "treats with the vacuum" at my house. Abbey started out rather nervous, but now "treats with the vacuum" is her FAVORITE game and she wants to play it all the time! I'll be on the computer upstairs and she'll come over and budge me and then wiggle, trying to entice me to come down and hide pieces of kibble or peanuts on the vacuum cleaner. Anytime I come downstairs, she twirls and dances and wags like mad as she stands by the vacuum cleaner (which I've parked in our family room), while gesturing with her head, trying to convince me to bust out the treats! So in less than a week's time we have gone from total mistrust to Abbey being able to walk beside me, taking treats, while I push the vacuum cleaner around. It's turned off, mind you, but I'm thinking by tomorrow she'll be ready to have it switched on for the first time. We've never given Abbey many treats because she has a sensitive tummy and she's always been suitably intelligent and compliant to follow basic commands with minimal reinforcement, but it turns out that she's incredibly treat-motivated, which is incredibly handy for training purposes. It's been funny to watch her growing rapport with the vacuum and I've definitely needed something to laugh about during these drab days when migraines and fatigue take up most of my time.

My dear companion, in both sickness and in health.

Follow c.creativity on Facebook!

Disability: The Game

I've been pretty sick this past week, spending every afternoon in bed, lots of migraines, lots of fatigue, and no mental energy. It reminded me that I've been meaning to post "Lyme Disease: The Game!" that a friend of mine wrote. It can easily be adapted to work for any chronic illness or disability and has the advantage of being even more nuanced than the much-loved "Spoon Theory." Welcome to living with a chronic health problem!

*  *  *

Lyme Disease: The Game!
no fun at all for ages 8 to 108

You need:
a die from a board game in the closet
a fleshy, corruptible body
a spirit to be crushed

SINGLE-PLAYER RULES

You contracted Lyme disease. Roll the die to see if you notice.

>3: Congratulations, you got a classic red ring tick bite. Go to the doctor and get antibiotics, spend 2 weeks feeling awful, then get on with your life. FOR NOW.

3 or lower: You have no external marker. Disease remains unnoticed and untreated. Please progress to Chronic Lyme.

CHRONIC LYME

Spirochetes have colonized your body in ways largely impenetrable to your immune system. Now the fun begins! You begin experiencing diverse symptoms: severe muscle/joint aches, incapacitating fatigue, mental fog, digestion problems, temperature and drug sensitivity, dizziness/fainting, AND OTHER FUN THINGS. You cannot function properly; something is clearly wrong. Go to the doctor and roll the die to see what they diagnose.

1: "[Patient name] is a young girl clearly in need of reassurance." You got a sexist jerk doctor. No treatment. Continue to suffer until you can afford to see another doctor.

2. Battery of tests show nothing. Doctor shurgs. Given vitamins and/or stress management pamphlet and/or psychiatric recommendation and sent on your way. Continue to suffer until you can afford to see another doctor.

3-4. Battery of tests show nothing. Doctor diagnoses arthritis, IBS, or some other minor, unrelated condition. Receive ineffective treatment for wrong disease. Continue to suffer until you can afford to see another doctor.

5. Battery of tests show nothing. Doctor diagnoses Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Receive largely ineffective treatment for symptoms but not cause of illness. Continue to suffer until you can afford to see another doctor.

6. Doctor actually believes in the existence of Chromic Lyme AND recognizes symptoms AND knows proper test to administer. Chronic Lyme diagnosed. Some kind of punishing antibiotic regimen plus other treatments administered, effect unclear. Proceed to "Daily Lyme Funtimes."

DAILY LYME FUNTIMES

Wake up. Roll the die, then multiply by 3 to get the number of pills you must take today. Roll the die again to see what kind of day it is.

1: Very bad. Stay in bed all day, hardly moving due to pain and fatigue.

2-3: Bad-ish. Stay in bed all day, but at least you can read or watch TV.

4: Meh. Stay in bed most of the day, but can get up to shower or fetch some minor item up a flight of stairs. Probably need a nap afterward.

5: Okay-ish. Stay in bed most of day, but can do some minor tasks such as wash dishes or play a video game as long as you take it easy and don't stand or concentrate for too long.

6. As good as it gets. Go crazy and do something wild, like walk to the mailbox up the street and get the mail, or be driven to the pharmacy to pick up drugs. If you are in advanced stages of recovery, you may even be able to eat in a restaurant or go to a movie theater PROVIDED someone can drive you and you don't have to walk too far from the parking lot. See next section for details.

ACTION POINTS!

Every day that you roll a 4, 5, or 6, you may spend Action Points! Multiply by 3 to get your number of points. The following is an incomplete list of actions you may choose to take with your points.

Shower: 6 points

Prepare a meal more complicated (but not much!) than cereal of microwave meal: 6 points

Concentrate of something (typing/writing, book more complicated than "beach read," balancing a checkbook, conversation with someone more complicated than "beach read") for 30-60 minutes: 6 points

Go up a flight of stairs: 6 points

Stand in a short line, such as at bank or pharmacy: 10 points

Drive yourself somewhere extremely close, such as bank or pharmacy, and back home: 12 points (may be impossible depending on exact symptoms and driver's license status)

Sit up for extended period, such as at dinner or movie in public: 12 points

Take public transportation (bus) somewhere extremely close and back again: 18 points (probably impossible due to large amounts of standing and walking required)

Actions involving more than one set of points will cost you both! For example, going up a flight of stairs to shower costs 12 points. Having to take the bus to the bank and then stand in line there costs 28 points.

"But I don't have enough points to do everything I need to do today!"

Tough. Your choice is as follows: either do without whatever it was or "borrow" points from tomorrow. If you have the good fortune to roll a high number tomorrow, your "borrowed" action points are deducted from your point total. If you don't have enough action points to borrow, you go instantly to Very Bad and must spend all day in bed suffering. This continues every day until you can "make up" the points you borrowed, for up to one week.

Example 1: You roll a 4 and have 12 action points on Monday. You spend 12 points going up a flight of stairs to shower because you really stink. What a relief! But then your friend who lives cross-country calls and you really want to talk to her. You spend another 6 points talking on the phone for an hour. Tomorrow, you roll a 4 for 12 more action points. Due to your good luck, you simply deduct the 6 points for the phone call. You now have only 6 points to spend for Tuesday. Going up the stairs is possible, but another shower would be a bad idea.

Example 2: You have some business to conduct in person at the bank. You wait until you finally roll a 6 for 18 action points on Friday. Fortunately, the bank is very close and you have a car and a driver's license and a handicapped parking permit AND you feel as though you would not endanger yourself or others by driving today. You spend 12 points driving to the bank. But unfortunately, the bank is busy on Fridays and you have to stand in line for another 10 points. You overspent by 4 today. On Saturday, you roll a 3 when you wake up for no points. You are screwed. You spend all day in bed in extreme discomfort. You cannot shower or do anything else requiring action points. On Sunday, you again roll a 3. You still cannot make up your action points. You spend all day in bed suffering again. Finally on Monday you roll a 4 for 12 points and can make up the points you overspent. You can finally shower, but if the shower is up a flight of stairs, be prepared for more Very Bad days.

WINNING THE GAME

You don't. The game continues indefinitely. You may progress to the point where you are essentially rolling a 6 every day. You may even progress further than that. But there is no guarantee. No matter how good you feel, you will always know it is possible to do too much and collapse. You will always remember the Very Bad days. You will never know spontaneity again. You will never truly feel confident that you will be able to support yourself or do basic life tasks for the rest of your life.

Game is over when you die.

MULTIPLAYER

Everyone plays alone. However, you will undoubtably be forced in the course of playing to affect the lives of those around you, particularly your spouse or family members who will be forced to care for you when you cannot care for yourself, which is almost always.

Subtract 2-10 action points every day for every caretaker you are forced to rely on who is abusive in some way.

If you have no access to caretakers of any kind, I don't even know what to tell you. You are already playing a very different game.

EXTRA HANDICAPS

For added challenge and absolutely no added benefit, choose one or many of the following handicaps while playing:

• other pre-existing serious health problems (subtract 2-10 action points every day!)
• very young (15 or younger) so no one takes you seriously
• old age (65+) so no one takes you seriously (and subtract 2-10 action points every day!)
• poverty
• live in isolated rural area with few doctors and far distances to do life tasks
• live in large city with lots of health-destroying pollution and inability to own a car
• live in backwards country without guaranteed health care for all humans

HAVE FUN, KIDS!!!

*  *  *

Thanks to CM for allowing me to share this. I hope the day comes when you roll nothing by sixes day after day after day!

Courting the Barn Cat

The pretty wild kitty.

O.C. and Syd in the stable.

I've gone back to grooming Drifter once a week as I rebuild the strength needed to get back in the saddle, but truth be told, I think I've spent nearly as much time grooming the barn cat as I've spent on Drifter! I'm trying to win her over, you see, and that takes time.

O.C. is one very attractive kitty, with a long, soft coat and an amazing pair of luminous green eyes. She's not what you think of when you think "barn cat." But she was born to a feral mother and has been virtually wild since she was a kitten, so she's happiest in and around the stable, keeping vermin at bay. She's extremely skittish, wary of the slightest noise, alert to the littlest movement, and does not trust people. That isn't to say she doesn't like people; it's just that if you startle her (and she startles easily), she's going to object with her teeth and her claws before making a run for it!

Snoozing on horse blankets.

Naturally, this interest in people and petting coupled with her extreme skittishness intrigues me and makes me want to win her over. I haven't had any cats in my life since the Ancient Kitty passed away last year, so I was feeling ready to make a new cat friend. I may prefer dogs over cats, but that doesn't mean I'll pass up an opportunity to pet one. And O.C. has heavenly, soft-as-a-cloud fur.

O.C. looks very silly with her leg stuck up in the air.

It was her fur, in fact, that brought us together in recent weeks. It just so happens that I not only like to pet animals, I also like to groom them, especially when it comes to working matted and shed fur out of an animal's coat. I find it deeply satisfying and animals tend to like it, too. So when I noticed that O.C. had several large mats in the long fur behind her head, I had to have a go at them! She will jump up on a lap readily enough, but I was concerned that the inevitable pulling on her fur that would occur when I started working the mats out would provoke a painful response. I therefore went to work rather gingerly, but she made it quite clear that she loved what I was doing! I think the mats had gotten to the point that they were causing her some discomfort and she seemed to understand what I was about. She purred and purred as I worked the matted fur free, pushing her head into my hands, begging for more.

O.C. is now sporting a shorn spot on the back of her head.

I was able to get most of the mats out with my fingers, but there was a particularly large and stubborn one that could only be removed with scissors. I hated to evict O.C. from my lap, knowing that there was a good chance this would constitute a criminal attack in her eyes and she wouldn't let me come near her again, but off she went, much to her displeasure. It did take some time to persuade her to come back for further ministrations and for some reason when she DID get back up on my lap, she decided that my left hand was not to be trusted. It is rather difficult to snip mats out of the fur of a cat using only one hand, but every time I moved my left hand, she'd try to bite it. It was protected by the sleeve of my winter coat, so no harm was done, and she only managed to sink her teeth into me once. The stable owner told me that they'd given up on trying to cut her mats out because she so frequently drew blood, so I was quite pleased to learn that I'd been able to provide this service to O.C. with minimal acrimony and bloodshed! I don't mind when she tries to bite or scratch me because I know she's just scared and doesn't know what else to do.

O.C. on the alert!

So each time that I've come to groom Drifter since, O.C. has been around and I've immediately sat down and invited her up for a little bit of petting. I work out any mats that are starting to form, massage her ears and her skull, tickle her under her chin, and give all manner of physical affection around the head. She's made it clear to me that I am not to run my hand along the length of her body (that's how I got bitten), touch her anywhere other than the head, or make any sudden moves, but if I abide by those rules, she wants nothing more than to snuggle.

The contented kitty.

When I came by the stable yesterday to groom Drifter, we followed our usual pattern. She meowed when she saw me and jumped up on my lap as soon as I sat down on the bench. I separated some hairs on the back of her neck that were starting to get matted and then gave her lots and lots of petting. She was purring so fiercely that she began to drool, which made me laugh. Benny, the Ancient Kitty, would do the same thing when he was happy. It made me glad to know that O.C. was enjoying my caresses to such an extent! At length, I decided that since I was here to look after a horse, I ought to get to it, and dislodged O.C. from my lap. She stayed nearby, however, curling up to snooze in my coat when I took it off, but what really made me happy was that when I was bending down to clean Drifter's hooves, with my hands near the ground, O.C. came over and tried to persuade me to pet her some more. She actually trilled! I suspect that O.C. has not trilled for many human beings, so I felt very honored. When I was finished with Drifter, I sat back down on the bench and O.C. immediately got back in my lap, butting her head against me, purring and drooling, snuggling her little face into the crook of my elbow, licking my jeans, and even, at one point, playing with the strings of my hooded sweatshirt.

O.C. watches a flurry of falling snow through the open barn door.

And so I sat on the bench in the chilly stable, listening to the sound of steady rain falling on the metal roof, the vibration of O.C.'s purr traveling up through my hands, marveling at her warm but virtually weightless presence on my lap. I could see Bear's steaming breath wreathing his head as he stood at his stall door, pondering the rain that fell beyond, and hear the quiet but solid noises of the horses shifting their bulk from hoof to hoof as they dozed away the afternoon. The air was full of the sweet perfume of the hay stored in the room behind my bench and my skin and clothing were imbued with the scent of horse. As O.C. writhed in my lap, seeming to ache with an urgency to get as much pleasure from my touch as she possibly could, my soul broke free and my being opened to a sense of peace.

Evil kitty ears.

After half an hour of this quiet meditation through interspecies physical connection, I decided, rather reluctantly, that I ought to go before my blood sugar dropped or I got too tired to drive. I began the delicate process of trying to persuade O.C. to leave my lap. She did not wish to do so, and when I incautiously moved my hand to give her the classic feline eviction nudge, she perceived it as an attack and responded in kind, drawing blood on the back of my hand with her claws. I was sorry that our wonderful session had to end with blood and misunderstanding, but was glad when O.C. immediately began to clamor for my attention. I do not know cat vocalizations and body language as well as I know the language of dogs, but I am pretty sure she was pleading for a return to my lap and more petting and was quite sorry to see me go!

O.C. has the most beautiful green eyes with glittering gold undertones.

And so I am happy. Altruistic joy has a particular keen-edged sweetness. I felt it very strongly during the Ancient Kitty's final years, when he was old and greasy and bony and my pleasure in touching him had to come from knowing that my doing so made him happy. I'm feeling that again with O.C. I don't need to own her or coo over her or tame her of all her wild ways. I just want her to know that I wish her no harm, that I will happily untangle her fur, and that I only seek to give her pleasure with my touch. It is immensely gratifying to me to that her trill, her head butts, and her drooling purr all would indicate that O.C. has come to understand my intentions and is, in my hands, knowing joy.

Follow c.creativity on Faceook!

Visit c.creativity's Etsy store!

Drawing Dogs: A Portrait Process

Kora.

Photography has become my primary mode of creative expression in recent years, but for much of my life, including the period when I was studying art in college, drawing was my preferred medium. Between the migraines and the medications I take to treat them, I have felt that I haven't had the cognitive capacity to answer to the demands of drawing. Photography has been perfect for me because all the effort it requires is for me to be alert in observing the world around me and I am never out of alert mode! So drawing has fallen by the wayside.

But then one of the foster parents for a dog rescue I follow on Facebook started up a project of drawing a dog every single day. Apparently, she, too, had once studied art with a focus on drawing, but had put it aside in recent years. I was so delighted and inspired by the drawings she posts daily on her blog, dogadayart.wordpress.com, that I had to start sketching dogs, too. I don't draw one a day, since my intellectual and creative faculties are not always equal to the task, but I've really enjoyed getting back into drawing. Most of the drawings are small sketches of the dogs I dog-sit, some from photographs and some from life. I've been working a lot in pencil, which is more forgiving than ink, my previous preferred drawing method. I've been posting the dog drawings on my photography Facebook page and they've been a huge hit, so much so that my sister asked if I'd be willing to make a large, custom portrait of her friends' dog for a gift. I agreed and received a photograph of their sweet mutt, Kora, and got to work. I documented my progress because I always like seeing images of works as they progress and thought readers of this blog might enjoy seeing the process.

Sweetheart sketches.

Until I began this portrait, all of my drawings had been made in a 5.5x8.5" sketchbook, so they were, by necessity, rather small. I realized, when I confronted my smooth expanse of 90 lb. vellum paper, that creating a 8x10 image would be too difficult for me to scale accurately in a freehand fashion. My drawing skills were returning as I had made more and more sketches, but I still wasn't up to whipping out a larger scale drawing, especially one that needed to be a realistic likeness, without some assistance. So I took the photo of Kora, pasted it into a Pages (the Mac program) document, enlarged it to 8x10, and drew a 1x1" grid over the image. I then used a ruler and placed a small, faint dot at where each intersection would be on the paper. I then went square by square, lightly sketching in the outlines of the dog's main features and markings. When I was finished, I had a properly proportioned guide of faint lines ready to be filled and transformed.

The original photo with the grid.

The faint outline ensures that my drawing
will be properly proportioned for a realistic look.

For the bulk of the drawing, I used a relatively soft 4B graphite pencil sharpened to a fine point. I am right-handed, so I started in the upper left edge of the image, working my way down and across so that I wouldn't drag my hand through the soft graphite, which will smudge. The smudges are erasable, but the less you have to clean up, the better!

And so it begins!

To make the drawing, I opened the photo without the grid on my computer and expanded it so that it filled my entire screen. I then sat down in my easy chair, some ten feet away, put my cousin's new album on (Jameson & Co.'s "Out of the Canyon on Crutches"), and went to work, typically two hours at a time, which was as much work as my brain and eyes could handle.

The left eye emerges.

One of the ways in which drawing differs from photography is that there are so many different ways to go about it. You can draw realistically or choose a more loosely evocative style. You can make an image extremely detailed or minimally detailed. You have to decide how you will convey textures, colors, and shadows. It made me laugh when a Facebook commenter referenced Magritte's famous "The Treachery of Images" when I posted one of my collie sketches because I'd already been thinking about how, unlike when you photograph something, when you draw it, you are always making an interpretation, a translation of the object. I choose to point my camera in such a way that it shows people things that they don't necessarily see themselves, but everything I photograph is there, in the present, completely real. When I make a drawing, even if the end result is recognizable, it must come THROUGH me.

The left half of the face has been sketched in!

Drawing in a realistic fashion is not something I ever spent much time doing, even when I was drawing a great deal. I was interested in the emotionally evocative power of inked lines, so this way of drawing was new to me. So I thought back to my days of Life Drawing class in college (that's drawing humans from nude models, for those of you who weren't art students) and decided the best way to create a realistic look without messing it up was to draw the light and dark areas. You see, if you try to draw an eye, for example, you will end up drawing your idea of an eye, and chances are, your idea of an eye is not going to look right at all. If you want to draw an eye that looks like an eye and feels like an eye, you are best off drawing the curves, the shadows, the light, the dark, making yourself blind, as it were, to what the thing is, focusing instead on what is there. Part of why I seated myself at a distance from the computer screen displaying the image as I worked was because at a distance, I could more easily shift my focus to see not a dog with eyes and ears and charming spectacle markings, but an abstract form of shapes and shades.

We have a right eye!

Once I had drawn the entire face with the 4B pencil, I used an even blacker and softer 8B pencil to increased the blackness of the dark areas around the eyes and nose. I also smudged gentle layers of the soft 8B graphite over various parts of the fur and features to increase the depth and dimension of the figure.

Dark details have been added; it is now time to start erasing and refining!
You can see some of my fingerprints about the right ear.

I spent a great deal of time fine-tuning the piece, trying to get exactly the right balance of dark to light. I must confess that the right side of the face gave me a great deal of trouble: I erased and redrew it several times trying to get the highlights of the white fur near the eye just right! Ultimately, deciding when to stop working was one of the hardest parts of the process. It's tempting for a perfectionist to simply refine and refine and refine without committing to a final version.

This detail allows you to see the layers of cross-hatching and smudging and erasing that went into giving the muzzle its appearance of three dimensions.

A detail of the work around the eye.

I ended up being extremely pleased with the final result. As I said, I'd never attempted something exactly like this before and was rather impressed by how well it turned out! The many short pencil strokes I'd used for the base layer of the fur on her ears and forehead ended up working perfectly to capture the velvet texture of her fur and my concerted effort to capture the shapes of the light and dark areas on her face paid off as far as giving her muzzle a beautiful, natural, three-dimensional feeling. I'm pleased to report that Kora's owners have received this drawing and love it! I'll still be working on informal sketches, but it looks like there will be more formal dog portraits in my future. Thanks, Laurelin at A Dog A Day, for bringing drawing back into my life!

The finished portrait of Kora.

Interested in commissioning a dog portrait? 

You can contact me through my artist's Facebook page.

Visit my Etsy photo store at www.ccreativity.etsy.com!