Portrait of a Border Collie

As of late there seems to be a fad consisting of art studios for amateurs such as the chain “Muse” that feature one-shot painting classes reminiscent of what was done in grammar school fifty years ago: “class, draw the sky (everyone colors the top half of their paper blue) now draw the grass (everyone colors the bottom of their paper green) now draw Little Red Riding Hood (everyone draws Little Red Riding Hood, facing the same way, wearing the same dress, etc. etc.)”. The main difference between these new classes and what I did fifty+ years ago is that now we get to buy an overpriced glass of wine to drink during class. Actually, back in Sister Delores’ fourth grade art class was when I really could have used the wine, but I digress.

The local “Muse” franchise offered a “draw your pet” night. I cannot draw or paint to save my own life (thanks, Sister Delores); after some cajoling, however, my sister talked me into going with her. She would paint her daughter’s schnauzer while I would attempt to paint Olive.  My sister made the arrangements, reserving two spots and submitting photos of the two dogs.

Upon arriving at the studio, we were invited to get wine at the bar (naturally) and find our canvases. Someone had lightly sketched some pencil guidelines for each of the pets on the canvases. Our first task was to choose a background color (since we were each painting our own pets, there was more room for individuality than the “Little Red Riding Hood” format). I had in mind a mint green close to what my living room is painted; when I mixed up the colors that an instructor suggested I got a bluish color that I thought was acceptable even if not what I had envisioned. The next step was to paint the area outside the penciled outline on the canvas.

Next we were given some guidelines on how to paint the eyes and nose. By some fortunate accident my eyes came out fairly well using brown and black paint with a bit of mixing. The paints were water-soluble acrylics that were reasonably easy to mix and paint over, the latter being a godsend for me. I had less success with the nose, though with some repainting and blending I got mine to look something like a dog’s nose.

One of the harder parts of painting is mixing the colors right. Since Olive is all black and white I had an easier time with that than most of the other participants. A few different shades of grey so as to not look too cartoony, otherwise I used mostly pure black and pure white. By this time, to my surprise, my work actually started to somewhat resemble a border collie. At an instructor’s suggestion I mixed a little of a mustard colored paint with white to create a bit of shading so that Olive’s chest wouldn’t look pure white.

Below are the painting and the photograph that the painting is theoretically made from. Hardly worthy of Leonardo da Vinci or any other of the great renaissance masters, but not as embarrassing as I had feared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Olive and I are still attending the “disk dog” classes. One basic move for the dog is that the dog should chase after one disk that I throw (perhaps a yellow one) then after catching (or missing) it I should be able to thrown a different disk (say the blue one) and Olive would immediately chase the blue one. Olive seems to focus on one disk until I physically pick it up. If I throw the yellow disk, she will stay focused on that yellow disk and ignore the blue one. Once I pick up the yellow disk, I can then throw either one and she will chase it. I tried standing on the yellow disk and throwing the blue one, but Olive stubbornly refuses to take her eyes off the yellow disk until I pick it up with my hands.

The instructor watched me work with Olive a bit, trying to get her to focus on whichever disk I threw, then told me that Olive has ME trained to play the game HER way. Thinking about it, that is likely true. She likes to be the one who decides where I have to go to pick up the disk. She will drop the yellow one and wait for me to pick it up; game is not over until I pick up the yellow disk where SHE dropped it.

The instructor suggested that I convey to Olive that we are playing a new game. That means me ignoring the yellow disk until she picks up the blue one and vice versa. I have been working on that. Olive can be stubborn, but I think we are making some progress. I praise her when she finally gives in and goes for the “live” disk. She still wants to steer me back to playing the old game. It may take a while.