Kooikerhondje

Kooikerhondje (2015 coloured pencils A2 Hahnemuehle Nostalgie paper)

A kooikerhondje is a Dutch spaniel, originally bred to lure ducks into traps. In addition to their attractive colouring they have dark strands in their ears known as ear-rings. This drawing is based on a photograph sent to me by a friend who is lucky enough to own one of these splendid dogs. As before, the subject dictated the medium: the soft fur and delicate colouring suggested coloured pencils. Artists such as Tom Homewood can do wonderfully free paintings of dogs but at the moment that’s a little out of my reach.

Unfortunately to get any sort of image you could actually see I’ve had to beef up the contrast a bit here. There is more subtlety – I promise – in the original.