Nicholas Ivan Snowbear

Nick 1988 - 2002

On April 23, 2002 we lost the second of the famous three Samoyeds. Nick was the best dog ever, and I will always miss him. The photograph was painted using Corel Painter oil brushes. This is the story I wrote about him.

NICHOLAS IVAN SNOWBEAR

Nick was the second of the famous three – Minka, Nick and Flash.

It was love at second sight. First sight was not promising. He arrived, pulling his owner on a short leash, hopelessly matted and tick infested. He looked huge and powerful and a little scary, not at all like the compact little Minka. His owner was moving to Atlanta and could not take Nick. His vet, and also ours, sent the young man our way, knowing that we had a Samoyed, and thinking surely we would want two. His owner, obviously upset, had waited until the last minute to make arrangements for his dog, and announced that if we couldn’t take Nick he would have to go to the pound the next day.

I was not in favor of this addition to our family, although nobody believes this. I sent the young man off, nevertheless, to get Nick cleaned up, and agreed to take him long enough to find a home for him. Nick was returned while I was not at home, and I dreaded walking in the house and finding the anticipated chaos. The front door opened to silence and I cautiously proceeded to find all people and dogs quietly watching TV. Minka had checked him out and found him acceptable, and he had found a comfortable spot and parked himself as though he planned to stay awhile.

So, there he was, a two-year old, sixty-five pound, outsized Samoyed with a coat like a lion and Elvis eyes. There was never even a hint of a discussion of finding him another home. He stayed with us for the next twelve years.

The opposite of a scary dog, he was gentle and sweet and very, very serious. He was so solemn that his nickname soon became Milhous. Minka bounced around trying to get him to play, but he didn’t know what to do with toys even when she hit him in the nose with one. He had his favorite spots and routes by which to reach them, but he always made his way with an unhurried amble, in direct contrast to the dancing Minka. It wasn’t that he wasn’t strong, because he could climb a a chain link fence, jump over a baby gate or thunder across the yard in record time whenever he had to investigate any dog that had had the temerity to approach the fence. Since he was never in a hurry, he didn’t mind stopping for you to give him a hug. We were used to Minka, who could not stand to be restrained in any way, not even for hugs and kisses.

He would take food and treats and barely brush his lips against your hand. When we had to take care of a litter of puppies whose mother (Minka) would not feed them, Nick hovered over them anxiously. After we bottle fed them, we would hold them out to him, and he would lick them just like the mother was supposed to be doing. Unfortunately, the puppies were all sick, and despite our and Nick’s efforts, they all died.  Minka’s instincts had told her this all along.

Sometime before he came to live with us he had developed a fear of storms. He thought he was safe with us, so when he sensed a storm (about when it passed over Memphis) he searched for us. Ninety pounds (he’d gained a little weight) of dog arriving abruptly in your bed was a sure sign of an approaching storm. One day I developed the same fear. Tornadoes were dropping out of the sky all over middle Tennessee. I cleared the coat closet in the hall under the stairs and took all three dogs and a cell phone in for safety. Nick pushed his way to the back of the closet ahead of all of us and took up residence. He was sweet, but not inclined to share refuge. Minka didn’t care anyway, so she volunteered to the the one half-in and half-out of the door. When I called the all-clear, Nick didn’t believe me and stayed in the darkest recess of sanctuary. From that time on he would stand by the closet when a storm made him anxious.

Samoyeds are Siberian sled dogs, so naturally, they revel in cold weather. Nick would sit outside in his corner in freezing temperatures like it was a day at the beach. I used to laugh when the weather person announced some arctic temperature (in Tennessee that starts at about thirty-two degrees), and issued the warning to be sure to bring pets inside. One freezing, rainy day he came in such a mess that I hauled him to the tub. After I had washed the mud off, a section of 2 x 4 lumber floated into the tub from where it had been frozen to his belly.

In the spring, however, there came that day when the combination of temperature and humidity became unacceptibe to Samoyeds, and the annual shift to lying on the air conditioning vents occurred. That signaled time for the summer haircut. Minka looked darling. Nick was ridiculous. Although short hair was too informal to suit his personality, Nick’s thick coat was a nuisance and prized at the same time. The 2 x 4 was the heaviest object to get caught in it, but he collected some impressive branches and other assorted forms of plant life, bringing about the nickname of Chief Leaf in his Tail.

I found a bird nest in our yard, carefully constructed by mama bird with strands of Samoyed hair. The long, guard hairs were woven outside and the downy, soft undercoat formed the inner lining. A friend in the Handweavers’ Guild took bags of fur from summer haircuts to weave into cloth. We think nothing about cloth from sheep’s wool, but we all carried enough dog hair sticking to us without deliberately making our clothes out of it!

At age fourteen, Nick was physically worn out. His joints weren’t supporting him very well, stairs caused him pain and breathing was difficult. Finally he developed a terrible sore on his elbow that was going to require surgery to repair. We didn’t think he could tolerate that.  He missed Minka, and on April 23, 2002, we let him go with her. We will plant another dogwood near Minka’s in the backyard and bury his ashes there.

Longing for Spring

 

Longing for Spring

 I have had an irresistible urge to bring some Spring into my life ever since I saw the crocus leaves peeking out of the ground beside the front steps yesterday. Undaunted, they scoff at the bone chilling temperatures that have had me shivering. I will watch their progress over the next few weeks with joy, but today I needed something that heralded even warmer days, like Iris!

In my vast Lightroom storage vault I found the picture I was looking for, and even though it was several years old, I can still remember the sun that day that turned the Iris into an impossible periwinkle color and warmed the skin on my arms and face. I would spend a few hours turning it into a painting with Corel Painter brushes and forget about cold fronts and wind chill.

My first step was to turn the whole canvas into a haphazard mass of paint strokes using the colors from the original photo.  I used Den’s Funky Chunky brush to do that. I downloaded this brush from a CD that came with one of my favorite Painter books by Jeremy Sutton, and the brush itself has become a favorite.  It pushes and smears paint around in a controlled but unpredictable way that works well in creating backgrounds.

I brought the Iris back through the background using various Cloner brushes, mainly the Oil Brush and Smeary Bristle Cloners, then used the Square Chalk Brush to add some leaves and increase the size of the petals on the left that were in shadow.

The Iris exercise didn’t make me any warmer, but that and the big cup of mocha coffee I drank while I painted made me forget to shiver for a little while.

Going Bananas

Capturing the repetition of curving lines was the original attraction for this photograph of a bunch of bananas in a bowl on the kitchen counter. I decided to make a version using Corel Painter, where I softened the lines, added some green to  complement the red background, some purple to complement the yellow of the bananas, and then drew some squiggly lines to emphasize the playfulness of the subject.

Pet Portraits – Bella

Bella

Bella is famous!

Her picture is on page 26 of Raquel Wynn’s book, Stretch Your Dog Healthy, a Hands-on Approach to Natural Canine Care, where she is demonstrating the shoulder extension stretch.  Raquel asked me to be her photographer for this book, and I got to meet many great dogs and their owners in the process, from the beautiful Mastiff Bella, to Merle, the Hound.  I was glad my job was to manipulate the camera rather than Bella’s shoulder.   The name of Bella’s breed isn’t Mastiff for nothing!  Bella loved her stretch, however, once she figured out what was going on.  All the dogs loved their stretches.  They get aches and pains and frozen joints just like humans, and stretching is as valuable for them as it is for  us.  Raquel shows how to do it in her book.

In addition to dogs with their limbs in various stretching contortions, and humorous poses (like Bo’s Ear Pull!), I took some shots that I intended to paint in Corel Painter, like this one of Bella.  I completely changed the bright red background, and then under-painted the whole area that Bella was to occupy with a bright blue as complement to her orangy coat.  Bits of blue only show up when Bella is enlarged, but  the eye knows it’s there.  Color theory informs us that the eye seeks a color’s complement, and that complementary colors side by side brighten each other.  I would never have figured that out, but seeing is believing.  I used Painter’s Oil Brushes to complete the painting.

Animal Portraits – Foxy

Foxy

Who would imagine that one day you would be sitting at your computer, absorbed in bits and bytes, and a dog would come and make you get up to go to your dining room where you would look out of the window and see THIS? Mannix is such a wonderful dog that I could almost be convinced he came to get me because he knew it would make me happier than anything to get a picture of this fox in my very own yard. Almost. He was quivering with his own kind of excitement, and that involved me opening the door to let him at Mr. Fox! I  had to disappoint him, but the two of us stood in the window and watched Foxy sit staring into a thicket, until suddenly a vixen trotted out of the bushes. The two of them sat and talked for a long time, then Foxy watched her as she returned the way she had come. Foxy  walked off in the opposite direction, in no particular hurry, stopping every once in awhile to look up and down the street.

I returned to my computer and, thanks to the magic of digital photography, immediately downloaded the fox pictures and began to work on a Painter portrait of him. Mannix was still trying to figure out how I could have failed him in his single-minded mission to get the fox. I guess I was having an adrenaline rush, because I raced through Foxy’s portrait in just a few minutes. Every brush I tried was just the right one. There were no design quandaries along the way, and when I made the last stroke, I knew it was complete and finished.  That doesn’t often happen.

I can’t remember all the brushes I used, but the most obvious are the Furry distortion brush for the tail and some accents of  the Shattered Glass brush in the foreground area. I had to create the tail several times before I had it under control. The way the Furry brush works is to put the stylus on the tablet, then as you angle it, color shoots out in the direction of your angle. It’s not an exact science, but I had a pretty good tail after just a few attempts.

Who says you have to go to exotic places to see amazing things? All you have to do is keep one of man’s best friends around to alert you to the wonders in your own yard. Thanks, Mannix. Good boy!

Pet Portraits – Herbie Sings

Herbie Sings

Doesn’t this little guy warm your heart on a cold December day? This is the third pose of Herbie that I painted in Corel Painter. The others are Herbie on His Purple Blanket, and Herbie Listens.

Pet Portraits – Herbie on his Purple Blanket

Herbie on his Purple Blanket

This is Herbie on his Purple Blanket, the second of three poses I painted for his people in Corel Painter. Yesterday, Herbie was introduced in his first pose, Herbie Listens. His people will remember him best in his perch on his blanket on their couch.  Herbie does look very happy there.

Pet Portraits – Herbie Listens

Herbie Listens

In September I received a letter from Herbie’s person saying that it had been four years since he and his wife had rescued Herbie and that he had given them a ton of love since then. Herbie had been diagnosed with Lymphoma and his person wanted to have a portrait and some note cards made to give to his wife for Christmas. He ended by saying Herbie didn’t have a lot of time left.

My level of sympathy for people losing pets is very high. I have found that an occupational hazard of doing pet portraits is that you are asked to memorialize quite a few beloved pets. I am honored when asked to do this, but I shed a few tears in the process.

I did three different poses of Herbie from photographs his person sent me. This one is Herbie Listens. Herbie on his Purple Blanket and Herbie Sings will be posted tomorrow and the next day.

Pet Portraits – Lila

I regularly take classes and correspond with friends I have made through Better Photo. One of those friends took this picture of Lila and sent it to me to paint in Corel Painter. Lila wins, hands down, for having the most individual paint strokes depicting fur than any other pet portrait I have done to date.

Detail is mainly confined to the face, to keep the focus there.  The eyes get special attention. Working at very high magnification, I make tiny lines using many different colors to get depth and sparkle.  I usually start a portrait with the eyes because they are so important in expressing the animal’s personality.

Pet Portraits – Little Lou and Callie

Little Lou and Callie

Callie didn’t want his picture made, letting me know this by turning his face away from the camera.  When I finally got him, I didn’t tell him his stern face was cute, for fear he would completely leave the scene.  As soon as I got a full face of Callie, however, Little Lou turned away! This photo consists of two that I combined in Photoshop before I painted it in Corel Painter.

Click this link for information on pet portraits by Three Dog Studio.