BORDER COLLIES!

I have always admired my three border collies.  They belong to the family of my boyfriend.  Yes, they are all insane, they each have strange little quirks, and they are quite a handful 100% of the time. 

But they are wonderful creatures, and good friends.  Before you look any further, here are my dogs.

I've fallen in love with the breed, naturally living with them for so long.   Yet, I've rarely drawn them.  Drawing border collies from life is difficult, if not impossible.  They are gestural, blurry streaks on the lawn.  They only ever stop moving when they are asleep.

I spent the majority of my night drawing Border Collies.

I started out trying to do quick gestures.  Different dogs were used for reference here.

I've always felt jipped that there are very few borders in animation.  The only one I can think of is the Border Collie in Rover Dangerfield.  I realize now that it's because they're pretty complex.

I tried to do some character sketches, determining head shapes, eyes and muzzles for the males and females.  I like how these came out.

This came later on in the night after I had warmed up.  

These are some cartoon designs I came up with.  

I think that the left is the most simplified, but I like the one on the right the most.

 

Lastly, a couple sketches of Finn and Brooke. 

Brigit has a funny attention phobia.  

She hides from both cameras AND sketchbooks.

Needless to say, I didn't draw her this time.

She'll get over it.  :)

Enjoy, lovelies!