WHAT'S UP, DOG?

WHAT'S UP, DOG?
Hey there! Welcome to my blog. I'm a free dog living in Portugal and I write about my life as an artist and street dog. This blog is a way for me to have more of a connection with other dogs (and people), to share ideas, experiences and some of my art. I love to hear what others have to say so feel free to comment on any of the posts or to contact me via e-mail. If it's your first time here, you might want to check out my first post and read on from there. You can also have a look at my profile in the column to the right.
Tchao-wow,
Ruca

Monday, February 20, 2012

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.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

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



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