Drawing Candid Animal Poses

For my final blog post, I have decided to recreate an old photo of my dog in a candid state. Candid, for those who do not know, in the photo sense is when a photo taken informally and without the subject knowing.

Hammond shares her opinion on how art and emotion go hand in hand and that candid poses can showcase the personality of your pet and prevent your art from becoming dull and boring (80). I agree with Hammond in the sense that I love to take photos of my pet, but she does not always like to be photographed. I have some of the most funniest and cutest photos of my dog trying to get as far away from me as possible when I pull my phone out.

Throughout this section of the book, Hammond displays different candid animal sketches she had done through the past. There are humanlike poses, enthusiastic movements, viewer involvement, and playtime.

The type of candid photos of my dog I will be recreating is that I personally enjoy. Out of the four displays Hammond showcased, I will be recreating photos that are humanlike and enthusiastic.

Hammond states in her humanlike poses section about the Pug she drew, "To me, this pug looks like a distinguished old man" (80). This solidifies her point on how recreating candid photos can express a certain type of emotion, in this case, the emotion was humor.

In her section on enthusiastic movement, Hammond draws a dog with his tongue sticking to the side and pure joy in his eyes. You can tell feel that emotion despite not being in that moment through his facial expression.

In this photo of my dog, Hiwakea, she's not even looking at me, or paying attention to the fact that I'm right in front of her. Her eyes are focused to something out of the picture and that I can only assume was another dog, cat, or something that she'd like to chase and eventually catch.

  

Being a husky, she feels more in her element outdoors when the temperature is colder or, in this case when there's snow around.

A person that does not know her at all can tell through her eyes that she wants to just play or do something active, at least by the look of eagerness in her eyes.

Now this next photo can be arguably one of the best photos I have ever taken of my dog. This picture was very tricky to draw because of the many different things going on in the photo, like the look of confusion in her eyes and the may fur lines. I had done my best to recreate it, but ended up not doing so great.

 

I really hope you can feel the emotion that she's emitting. You can believe me when I say she made the same exact facial expression when I showed her the drawing of her.

What do you think of the emotions shown in the drawings above? Did you like them? Did you not? Let me know! Thank you to all that commented!

Love, Jadenne and Hiwakea.


Hammond, Lee. Drawing realistic pets from photographs. North Light Books, 2005.