My county has the most wonderful animal shelter, Rappahannock Animal Welfare League, also known as RAWL. They have a very high adoption success rate not the least of which is because of the fantastic photos Shelter Director Patricia Want takes of dogs that need homes.

Recently, RAWL shared a photo of an endearing terrier named April who is looking for a forever home. I fell in love with her. If it wasn’t for the fact that my current pack of terriers is just the right size, I am sure I would have already submitted an adoption application for her. As it is, I shared her photo with my friends on Facebook, many of whom also fell in love with her. The upshot is, it appears that April will be going to a new home very soon. I mean, who could resist that face?!

And here is a hastily drawn sketch of April, which I did as a warm up exercise this morning before digging into the portrait of Shiloh that is currently on my easel (and oh so close to being finished). This sketch was done on top of a landscape study which I didn’t care for. I initially sketched April with a  non-waterproof pen (oops), then scribbled in some colors with Inktense pencils, added some depth with watercolors, and came back in with an ink brush to pull out the details.

When the weather gets warmer, I’m going to start making regular visits to RAWL to play with and sketch the dogs there. I need more practice drawing dogs from life and that seems like the perfect way to get it!