Above: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen sketch with light gouache washes in a 9 x 12 inch Fabriano Venezia in-studio journal. Magenta and dark indigo Schmincke gouache, and M. Graham yellow ochre gouache. Click on the image and view an enlargement.
I really only have one thing to say about Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer: Exercise, Discipline, Affection.
Anyone I've seen raising their dogs (or children) in an unstable manner nurturing anxiety, fear, dominance, etc. could be helped by Cesar's show. But then they would have to be able to recognize themselves.
Cesar's show really isn't about dogs, it's about training people, to have better lives. You can of course do this if you don't have a dog, but the great thing about dogs is they show us how to do it every moment of every day, when they are balanced. We get to help them do that in return, by being balanced ourselves.
Late one night (early one morning) tired of working from dog park photos I was watching a bit of TV and an episode of DW was on, so it seemed appropriate that I take a moment and sketch Daddy (a pit bull who for many years accompanied Cesar on his missions).
I've included this sketch on the blog because lately I've been sketching on blank spreads and then before I start to paint I've been taking a 3 inch flat brush and making random strokes about the place. Not quite random—I try to use colors that I'm going to need in the final image and I try to leave highlight areas in the broadest sense, i.e., I'll go high or low of them but I won't take time to carve around the highlight areas when I'm making those random strokes.
I find this variation of painted backgrounds great fun. Also since I've picked the colors that I'm going to actually use in the sketch I don't have to worry about covering the background with thicker layers of gouache.
OK, what I really like is taking a huge flat brush and stroking it randomly all over the sketch I just made. With abandon. Sometimes I also take a paper towel to those strokes, while they are still wet, and blur and muss them more.
The addition of modeled color to Daddy's face was then accomplished with a 3/4 inch filbert working right over any previous random strokes. If you look closely you can see that in some instances I let the 3/4 inch filbert get very dry, flattened it out so that it broke up into parallel groups of hairs and then used it to make parallel lines all in one stroke (see the eyes).
If you can't spend time with a dog today, make a point of painting one, and remember what it's like to touch that balanced energy.
