When I worked I did not understand that my dog was ready for adventure at all times. Now I know because Luke is always at my feet, always waiting for an expedition, and always projecting this through body language and eye contact. His constant presence makes him an excellent subject for my sketches, and I appreciate him for this.

My goal for deliberate practice this week is to use paint more assertively to convey a story. Specifically, I want to adjoin splashes of paint together so the viewer connects the marks, sees the image, and understands my intention without me feeling compelled to be quite so explicit with putting down paint and line in all the expected places. In this sketch I got the splashes to work for Luke’s body, but even as I reminded myself of my goal, I changed my mind and used quite a bit of flat color in the background. And then there was something about the ellipse his body made as he curled up that begged for the emphasis of the water-soluble pencil. In the end I conveyed Luke’s reluctant modeling through his curled up body, raised eyes and the somewhat displeasing yellow color in the background.