And the last one, before I head to bed myself. 

It’s a shame how resolved pieces become too “mannered” and lose the verve of more carefree studies.

( Edit: Sorted out the colour mode. Oops!) 

The second set. Not that people were likely to notice, but the shadows in the earlier ones track the course of a day. There’s also a sense that the man-dog is giving into doggidom and going on all fours more frequently (but I got lazy in the car exhaust fumes and had him on all fours anyway). I’d made a quick sequence about how a man got out his umbrella when it started raining, but the man-dog began running around and splashing in puddles and seeing flying fish. Revelling in the moment and pure-sensation. Not sure how well I communicate these ideas in the actual pieces, but I’m pleased I had them.

This project’s been handed in, and I’m finally getting round to uploading things here! Some of the roughs for proposed paintings from The Dog Under the Skin, a case study by Oliver Sacks in his book The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. I’ve already shared the rough for dreaming about being a dog, and that seemed to get such a good response, it HAD to be among the final paintings. (But to be a complete tease, I’m sharing that one last.)

All the illustrations in this set are about what it might be like to have a heightened sense of smell. Not really conveyed through the roughs (why do I depend so much on colour?), but hinted at by the abstract shapes. Like mini pyramids. And pointy-sharp-sooty-diamond pollution. (Yes, I was drawn to this topic as an excuse to think as laterally as possible.)

Also chiefly inspired by a Richard Dawkins quote from the last chapter (I think, hazily; it’s been a while since I read it) that stuck with me, about dogs perhaps being able to smell in colour, which always seemed like a neat way to describe it.
 

Added some darker areas, and touches of white. Not quite the look I was going for, but it was fun practice. 

First scan of this one.

Last night I dreamt I was a dog…

 Tempted to do a more resolved painting for this one. Ghost dogs!

(Can I just say, I’m also thrilled that some of you liked the not-quite-thumbnails spam! I’m always really nosy about other artists’ processes— and sketchbooks, but that goes with the territory— and thus like sharing mine.) 

Things start to come together when I get my paints out. (I think this is a hint to paint more, and I must remember it!)

From when I was considering Margaret Atwood’s The Female Body.

My favourite, so it’s getting its own post.