Haribo

Not the sweets. Instead, this is about a dog.

‘Haribo’ isn’t this dog’s real name, but it is a very cute nickname for Harry, my friend’s adorable pet labrador. Not long before Christmas last year, this very close friend asked me if I’d like to have a go at drawing or painting Harry. He thought it would make a nice gift for his parents.

I have to be real. I follow a lot of pet portrait artists on Instagram and I am in absolute awe of their work. I haven’t really drawn or painted any animals other than birds and butterflies and the idea of not just drawing a dog, but creating someone’s actual pet was rather daunting!

My friend was very understanding about this. We agreed that I’d start to have a go and if it wasn’t feeling right we’d come back to the project another time. 

To say I didn’t know where to start is an understatement. That said, I’d learnt enough from my Instagram stalks to know that the character of the pet is the most important thing. Without that, the picture could just be of any other cat or dog in the world. I was lucky in this respect. My friend had sent me a selection of photos and I thought one of them was particularly perfect.

It might be different for you, but the first thing I was drawn to in this photo was Harry’s nose, closely followed by his eyes. So I decided to focus on these areas first. He took me on quite a journey and I learnt an awful lot about eyes. Turns out, sometimes an eye doesn’t look like an eye until other features are present too… 

I then worked backwards from there, towards his ears. I used a HB pencil first and tried really hard to focus on the shapes and shades. Then I used a B pencil to touch up some of the darker areas (including parts of the eyes and nose). 

I felt the photo did justice to Harry’s character in itself so I tried to be as honest to the source material as I could. I did make the photo a bit lighter though. I messaged my friend when I was almost finished and asked him how dark he wanted me to go. One thing I hadn’t considered with black and white drawings is that the shades have to reflect both the colour contrast in what you’re trying to create and the contrast between light and shadow. If you get that slightly wrong then it can really mess up the picture.

It was definitely one of those pieces that needed to be completed in calm and careful stages but I enjoyed it so much. It really helped me learn more about drawing in black and white. And I learnt a lot about pet portraiture as well of course!

Before I finish up – and just so you can get to know him even more – my friend kindly sent across something for me to include in this post and I think this says it all really (and he very, very kindly says some nice words about the picture). Harry is certainly one special pet!

To say we adore and worship Harry is an absolute understatement. Yes, he may snore loudly and yes, he has a penchant for lying in the middle of doorways (a clever ploy to get attention), but we forgive it all very swiftly when he comes lolloping towards us, usually for fuss (or, squeezes, as I like to call them). What I particularly enjoy about the portrait Emily created was she captured an essential part of Harry’s personality: an utterly unshakeable knowledge that he is supremely, sumptuously gorgeous. When stroking him, he will often look over his shoulder both to implore you further in the stroking and a tacit acknowledgement that it is fully deserved. This isn’t just a picture of a Labrador: this is a picture of Harry himself and that is why this wonderful work by Emily is in pride of place in the living room. The royals have their portraits done, so I don’t see why this is any different; Harry is royalty after all!