No. 217: Rudy

Rudy, randomly roaming the internet.

Long lobes, long frame!

This is the story of the dog that wasn't there.
He's a Basset Hound and we shall call him "Rudy."
I just think that's a good hound dog name.
Rudy dropped into this picture.
No, that's not right: Rudy was dropped into this picture, by me.

Rudy and pseudo-Rudy

I get asked, every now and then, to put people together, or people and pets.
I'll take two or three photos from different times and places, and then try to scale them close enough, and shade them the same.
I call these composite drawings. They're creative fiction.
They are a challenge but people like to see the fruit of their imaginations.

Imagine that!

The couple in this picture, I am told, loved Basset Hounds -- but didn't have one.
They are holding a stuffed hound in the original photo.
The woman who hired me to draw them said it would be so great if I could put a real hound in there.
Right.
After a couple of days I did start hunting online for a hound that was in the same general pose and direction as the stuffed animal.
Voila! Rudy.

Two hung low.

I had started the couple a few days before, and had made good progress on them, leaving a gap for the dog.
What I had failed to take into account, however, was the length of Rudy's long and flappy ears.
They made the drawing more than two inches longer than originally planned! (When you are trying to center an image, two inches is a lot.)
Plus, these hounds are pretty stout. I may have trimmed a few pounds off of our boy.

Happy together!

The final tricky thing was making the woman's hand look like she's holding onto Rudy, rather than the stuffed animal. I decided to make it look like her hand goes behind the ear flap.  If you look, you can see her fingertips poking out the other side, on the dog's white chest.
More fiction.

I gave him a name right about here.

The end result is a new image and a new memory, imagined or not.
Everyone is happy now, that's what's really important.

What'choo lookin' at?

No. 217 is the fourth holiday 2013 gift that I have done this year.
There are less than three months until Christmas, and I am taking holiday orders up to Thanksgiving.
Prices are posted in this blog:  http://tomwillsproductions.blogspot.com/2013/09/order-original-no-216-ten.html
To discuss an original, contact me at hankbonesman@embarqmail.com or willstom01@gmail.com
What can I put together for you?

 And, woof.