This is Shikse. Her health is in really bad shape... she has skin cancer, hip dysplasia, and arthritis. But she's still the most beautiful girl in the world.



I sketched her out and plan on finishing her tail in a sort of dragon/fish type swirly abstract thing... This is really just a very, very basic start... I hope to really get somewhere with this piece.



I thought I'd put it up at an early stage and just see what people think of her! :)

I didn't mean for that intro to sound weird... just trying to explain that I'm getting ready to lose my best friend and I want to make a nice portrait of her.

I LOVE the top half of her thats sketched out. I would definitely incorporate some line quality into her lower half so that the whole piece looks unified.

nice :) what sophisticated sofiya said, it looks great just keep working with it!



help me out?

Real vampires don't sparkle

I really like what you have so far. I look forward to seeing it in a more complete form.



If you get the chance, SCORE mine!



Oh, and sorry about your pooch.

I'm so glad you guys like her! She's totally not drawn in my typical style so this one's a bit of a stretch for me, but I really wanted to do her justice. :) Definitely encouraged and will try to work on her tail when I have some free time this week...

And thank you for the condolences, pheles.

Sorry about her illness(es) but this is shaping up to be a nice tribute! It's a great start, I'm loving the abstract touch. Good luck with this project, and my condolences for your dog.

Beautiful emotion in those eyes.



The nose seems a bit off though. Color or shading perhaps? If you want to change the color, I envision black, but if not, try a darker more natural tone.



Best of luck with this! I'm anxious to see the next version.

She's got a big ol' pink nose, so I don't want to do black. I haven't worked any shading into it though, which will probably (hopefully?) correct that problem... we'll see when I get it done!

Why is the tail a fuzzy blur?

Because I haven't sketched out the rest of her yet (see first comment).

What about the "tail" section partitioning off into separate, smaller "tails" that show how she was in her heyday, running as a pup, chasing frogs or bugs, rolling in mud (that WAS mud, right?), howling as sirens wailed by on the street... Show how she was before, leading the eyes up to the top of the design to show us how she looks now, with so much life behind her.



As for the pink nose, halftoning with the brown might bring down the "Rudolph" effect. But yeah, my old pal who is now long gone had that bright pink nose, too!

I agree with Hagnii - you've captured something special in those eyes.

And I also agree with bcrider - the multiple tails/tales angle! And toning down the nose a tad. Perhaps have a highlight on it to break up the solid pink?

Alternatively, maybe try a different tee colour... I think it's the pink and blue together that aren't working for me.

Neat design though and especially nice as it has a meaningful story behind it.

Whatever you end up doing, make sure it doesn't turn out as just a picture of the dog, because that would probably not score high in threadless.



Sorry about the her, be strong.

Honestly, I'm not concerned about how it scores here... this is sort of more for me, and it would be cool if Threadless folks liked it to boot. I don't mean to sound jerky at all... just that I want to take this where it does justice to her, not just trying to pitch a design, yknow?



Mynx: I went with the blue because it provides the background for her eyes, which is a colour I won't be using anywhere else on the shirt. Trying to preemptively conserve colours. I hate light coloured shirts myself, so if I have a colour to spare it will probably change by the end... but also, the pink will be very toned down once I get to halftoning the nose. Dog noses have always been hard for me so I've been slacking on it.



bcrider: Your comment actually made me laugh out loud (I refuse to use the acronym). Thing is, I've only had Shikse for 5 years, and she's somewhere between 12 and 15 now (she was a shelter dog)... she already had dysplasia and was a little slow-moving when I first got her, so I lose a lot of puppiness... But I do constantly think of what she must have been like as a puppy, so I'm sort of tempted to attempt that idea...



I finally brought the sketches home from my office-type-place, so I should have time to work on it soon... I may move this critique to the blog area instead as per several people's suggestions... so look out for updates there if they don't end up here.



Thanks everyone!

Love the head. I'd like more detail in the bottom. Although it's difficult, I'd really enjoy the perspective from seeing the bigger head and tiny feet, but only if it's done well.



Then again, I really like bcrider's idea too.

I like the upper area.. the lower needs work though

I absolutely love that you're doing this for YOU and your sweet companion rather than for simply another design. My heart just lept out of my chest when I saw her expression. Dogs are amazing animals and its so hard to say goodbye to a best friend. Okay getting emotional here...



Other than that, I just have a quick question - what's halftoning? You don't have to explain, but maybe theres a blog I don't know about yet that helps out with technical questions for newbies you could direct me to?:) THANKS!

Halftones are used in shading when you can only use solid colours (as in the screenprinting process). Search for "halftone tutorial" in the blog section, there's a really good one in there. :)

this looks good so far :)

critique mine ;]

We just lost Shikse yesterday... I am going to revive this project in her memory. I think I'm going to take bcrider's idea and make her tail break off into little puppies (perhaps on the back of the shirt?)... any other suggestions before I get started?

thanks so much for your detailed comments on my cat/dog design. I think your dog could be a winner. No one could resist those eyes! hope you get round to finishing the tail thingy!

definitly love the start of your design yea the tail thing needs fixing but heck you already knew that. lol make sure tho you take off the blurriness of it too, very distracting. i like what your doing for your dog and i know a lot people can relate to dogs with disabilities so if you take this shirt to the right path im sure it will do great! :) keep it up! and condolences to your beautiful doggy.

Great work! Don't beat distrakting, but face must to be on centre