Pride and Joy

It's taken me awhile to gain the confidence or courage to work a serious sketch of my youngest fur-baby.  This is Miya we traveled six hours one way to get one year for my birthday. 

We had a choice between her and a sister.....Miya being the runt.  The sister was very stand offish not really wanting anything to do with us whereas Miya came right up to Terry first thing.  Terry and I were both sitting on the floor and after she spent a bit of time with Terry, she came over and climbed up nestling in my lap.

Both pups were adorable and we had seen them online before making an appointment to drive out and spend some time with the dogs.  Initially we were attracted to the sister due to her markings but was disappointed in her reaction to us.  We started leaning towards Miya because of how friendly she was but the breeder was concerned after learning we had a large lab/collie mix that Miya might easily get hurt.  After quite a long while, the breeder had convinced us that we'd be better off taking the larger pup. 

I remember picking up the sister and sitting at the table to finalize the sale.as the breeder took Miya and placed her in a room closing the door.  As the breeder was going over the paperwork, Miya started pitching a horrible sounding fit making noises he'd never heard or experienced from the pups before.  And I think he could tell I was very torn about the decision he had initially convinced us to make.  He asked me..........would you prefer the other pup and I immediately said yes.  No sooner did he get Miya and place her in my lap, she immediately settled down.  Miya chose us and the breeder even made a comment about that.

As for her being so small and Smudge being so much bigger..........not a problem!  Smudge for one thing being a very gentle, calm, and loving dog would let Miya do anything to include climbing all over him.  At age five, Miya rules keeping Smudge and our other small dog in line.  She also helps keep them young both being 14 and 15 years old.

My sketch is Miya back before we started keeping her fur trimmed.  Her long fur is super fine and baby soft easily getting matted so we keep it rather short to save from having to cut out large sections we can't work out with a brush or comb.

Sketched in the Handbook journal with a Pentel Twist Erase mechanical pencil 05 lead.

To tackle this, I started at the nose and worked up to the eyes, the top, down the sides and finally below the nose.  If I started to feel a bit confused or lost with all the multi-colored, wavy fur, I would concentrate on the light and the dark shapes working one section at a time.  Used a tortillion for blending and shading and a kneaded eraser to go back and lift areas as needed.