dogtionary

Dogtionary

I’ve got some pretty tech savvy friends. My best friend Rita, for instance, spends a lot of time at her person’s bookstore where she meets many interesting people and learns about many things.

Rita

Rita is the one who introduced me to something called Instagram. It’s an iPhone/iPod (or in my case iPawed) application that allows users to edit photos in creative ways and then share them online. A whole community of “Instagrammers” has erupted. I’ve been participating for about six months and I’ve enjoyed connecting with many clever and creative Instagrammers.

One follower of mine (and whom I follow - hi @hiker083, oh and hi @rosselion who started the dogtionary thingie) suggested I participate in a little Instagram game called dogtionary. The idea is to post a photo of a dog and add the identifier “A is for Aussie” or “B is for Border Collie” etc. Then write a description or definition for that dog. It’s a fun exercise. If you are a registered Instagram user, just search for #dogtionary to see all the entries.

Here is mine: P is for Podengo

easy chair

And here is what I wrote for the description:

Portuguese Podengo

this ancient breed
built to hunt
lightning speed.

Wire haired or smooth,
large, medium, or small
ears like a donkey's
alert to all.

Sharp of wit
but not of tongue
ages well
forever young.

Loving and silly
watchful and smart
independent yet loyal
an incredible heart.

Not one to argue
your reason nor rhyme
Portuguese Podengo
a character sublime.

Unfortunately I can’t seem to track down any way for non Instagrammers to see all the entries, but I’ve just put up a page (click on instagrams at the top of this blog) of some Instragram photos I’ve done over the past six months, so at least you can have a taste of what all the Instagram hype is about.  I will add more from time to time, so check back every now and then.

Tchao-wow!

afternoon quickie becomes marathon

How does an afternoon quickie turn into a marathon? Allow me to explain.

It was mid-afternoon. 3:00. I hadn’t been doing as much sketching as I would like to have been doing. I thought “I’ll just do a quickie. Or several quickies.” Não é um problema. So first I looked through the stash of photos I’ve taken lately. "Hmm… here’s one of three friends in Vale do Boi."

over-exposed

But the photo was pretty crummy. Over-exposed. “Well, I’ll just do a quick fix on it. Perk it up a bit,” I said to myself. (No one else was there to talk to.)

touched up

That’s a little better. Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be able to salvage it, but it’s okay.

“Now to get down to business. Hmmm. Pencil first? Or straight to pen?” Well, I started with pencil. “I’ll just rough in the basics, then switch to pen.” But I got a bit carried away with the pencil. Then I thought, “I’ve put so much into this it’s going to look strange if I ink in all those pencil lines. It’ll be too busy.” Some of the pencil lines were indicators for where shading or colour values change. “I guess I’d better use coloured pencil to take advantage of all the details I’d sketched out.”

So, three and a half hours later (yeah yeah, I’m slow) I'd managed to turn what was meant to be a quickie - or several quickies - into a full afternoon of cross-eyed, mind-numbing, pencil-pushing productivity.

one of my friends in Vale do Boi,
coloured pencil, 17cm x 16cm

Now I really need a nap! Then a coffee.

I can fall asleep anywhere.

Sundown

Sundown is one of my favourite times of the day (or night).

Not only is it a visual feast, it’s also an aural feast. It’s the time when we dogs pass on our news. But this news need not be particularly eventful. Just as people use status updates on Facebook, we (dogs) like to make our voices heard, however insignificant what we have to say may be.

Click on the video above to see what I mean.

It’s just a way of connecting to the community of canids, of adding to the pulsing pandemonium. The barking, yelping and baying ricochets down the valleys, dozens of ruff voices overlapping and mingling in an odd dissonance that both excites and sooths my doggy soul.

another beautiful sundown in Portugal