Bonnie's A-Z of Dog Sculptures- Update Abruzesse Sheepdog!

Thank you so much again Kosta, this is so helpful!
I love Papo dogs too, but I sadly only found out about them this year and so have a lot of catching up to do with my collection! But I'll definitely use the TAW, and I also really love the Safari Ltd Great Dane! I'll have a look at my Schleich dogs, thank you so much again for the advice!
That's the same with me Susanne, I think about Pebble every day and people say that eventually you'll get over it but I don't think I ever will Losing a dog is certainly one of the worst things that ever happens to dog owners !
Thank you Adam , I don't yet have the Papo Husky but here is a photo with the Yorkshire terrier and border collie (They are a bit bigger than Schleich's newer dogs!):
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Very, very helpful Lilias! Thank you

No problem!

Your sculptures are quite big, I didn’t realise. That makes it easier for doing details. Your latest works are lovely, you put a lot of personality into their faces

Wow I’d never seen the Safari Ltd Great Dane, that’s a really nice model. I used to collect dogs, Papo dogs are good, I also liked some of the CollectA ones.

Thank you so much Harriet! And I agree, I definitely find the bigger dogs easier because you can include more detail!
And I also agree about all the dogs, there are so many lovely models!

Bonnie, you are a great sculptor. I like the fact that your dogs aren't just realistic, but you have given them a very friendly personality by putting your own personality into them. It's the hallmark of a great artist that they do more than just showing reality.

Thank you so much Roger!
And I'm glad that they have personality, I definitely agree that it is nice to have a model that doesn't just show reality! I still have a long way to go though, so I'm so grateful for all the help I have been given on STS!
Thank you very much for your kind words!

If we have another confinement you'll be able to make every single dog breed!

Yes that is certainly a positive about lockdown! Although there are more than 1000 breeds so I will be very busy!

I am discovering this breed too and I am sure there will be many others! you already have a nice pack!

Very nice work, Bonnie!

Can't wait to see more- you do have a gift!

Thank you so much Caracal, Blaine and Kelly!

I just can't stop looking at your Afghan hound, she is gorgeous

Oh thank you Susanne! I'm glad you like her!

Next up we have another bulldog- this time the larger Abraxas Bulldog! This breed is a fairly recent one from the USA, and is another attempt to recreate the now extinct Alaunt, by crossing the American Bulldog with the Rafeiro de Alentejo and carefully introducing Amstaff blood.
These dogs have not been sold to pet homes, and are bred solely for a working ability, due to their naturally aggressive nature. Which leads me to the question... should we really breeding overly aggressive dogs? But I made my models a little more friendly looking!
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This time I experimented with gloss for all the other models, and also a couple of veins on the adult Abraxas Bulldog! And this may be the last one for a while as I'm back to school soon!

I love his glossy tongue and nose! Great muscle detail too!

Beautyful models again, - and I like the fur, and - like Harriet - the glossy parts

I totally agree : Why breed more aggressive dogs ?
The kind of people who get them, are not the ones who try to make their dog a nice, kind dog.

Didn’t know the Portuguese Rafeiro Alentejano was being used to breed that bulldog. Again a unusual breed and a great work from you.

I like the look of him!.. and I am impressed by your ability to make open mouth showing teeth and tongue!

Well done Bonnie !
Like Alain said, it is not easy to make open mouth for animal model and you did it very good.
I see that your texture now look`s much better for a dog like bulldog
If I may give again one - two tips ? :)
It will be even better, if you try to make the scraches for the fur much shorter ... very small.
When you make them longer on some places, again it shows longer fur, so try with very small ones :)
And now it`s time to improve more and more how to work for a better proportions.
How long the legs should be, compared to the body and head... and how massive it should be...
The same for the paws..
How big or small the head should be, compared to the body...
...Thinkgs like that :)
And again, you are showing a dog breed , which is not popular, which makes it even more interesting :)
Well done !

Thank you so so much Harriet, Susanne, Roger, Alain, Luc and Kosta!
And thank you so much Kosta for the tips, they are so helpful so please keep giving them- it is a privilege to be given advice by a sculptor like you!
And I'll definitely try and make the fur shorter for the next short-haired breed! This time I used a wire sort of brush for the fur, so I'll try and do shorter strokes with that! It seemed to work quite well for a thinner texture- just made it a bit scratchy!
Oh yes and of course the proportions! They are very difficult but I'm sure with practise it will become easier! Maybe I should build up more wire on the armature so that the proportions stay the same? At the moment the armature is usually just one 'line' for the body, head and each leg but laybe it should have more support?
Thank you so much again everyone!

Another pair of lovely dogs

What might also help with the proportions is by printing out a side view picture of the dog you are going to recreate and measure everything in 'heads'. It might sound a bit strange but you can measure how long the head of said dog is is and measure and write down on the printed paper how many 'head lengths' the back is or the neck or the legs or any other bodypart. This way, if you know how big the head of the sculpture is (going to be) you can check if the length of the body is, for example 2,5 x the length of the head or that the legs are 1x head length (in case of a dachshund). This always helps me to be more conscious of the proportions during sculpting as well as during drawing.

I hope you understand what I mean, otherwise I can draw up a little example

Keep up the good work! I can already see you're improving and it is very interesting to read about the breeds too

Thank you so so much A-J too! And I'm glad that it is interesting reading about the breeds!
That is such a good tip! It really makes sense and I can see how that would be so helpful! The problem with the last breed was that there was only one slightly blurry photo of it online, but definitely for the other breeds that will help so much with the proportions!
Thank you ever so much!