My Family

Drawing Dogs

| Martha Lightfoot

A few years ago I started doodling scenes from my family life. I wanted to capture moments that I might forget, things that made me laugh or stop and think.

I meant the sketches to be very quick and silly, but I was getting caught up in whether they looked enough like my children.

I tried drawing them as little dogs instead, and to my surprise the drawings began to flow much more easily.

When I tried out drawing them daily for #inktober on Twitter a few years ago, the characters began to develop a different shape.

Then on holiday in France we got caught in a thunderstorm while we were visiting an amphitheatre. We made a dash for the car under a tarpaulin that didn’t quite cover us all, and as we ran though the streets of Orange laughing and getting soaked, I knew that it was a scene I wanted to draw. I sketched it that day, then did an ink drawing back home in England. I wanted to capture the exhilaration and the holiday feeling, and it was the first time that the dogs seemed like a family.

There have been loads of dog drawings over the past few years. There have been stories that didn’t really get anywhere, and lots of dioramas.

Last year I was very ill and was lucky enough to be able to take the time to really rest and recover. Throughout my treatment and as I grew stronger I drew, wrote and collaged a lot, and found I didn’t want to draw dogs at all. Because I was drawing in a journal just for myself, and not thinking about posting anything, it didn’t matter if my characters looked ‘right’ or not. For the first time in years I could draw without thinking about an audience. Despite the circumstances, it was liberating. I began to realise that I wanted to do more than little inky dog doodles.

I didn’t know if I would go back to drawing dogs, but alongside experimenting with printmaking, painting on canvas, writing and paper cutting I started working with an iPad and Ipencil for the first time, and the dogs have found a new lease of life there. So I think the dogs characters may still be around for a while…

… but in amongst lots of other things.

#inktober: All of it

| Martha Lightfoot

This is the first time that I’ve completed #inktober (an inky drawing each day of October) and it’s been really good fun – but also more challenging that I expected. I started out with the aim of doing some more detailed drawings (usually I draw quite quickly in ink) and I did manage a few. But at the weekends – when I’m busy with my family and don’t go to my studio – I found I was forgetting until the evening, then doing a really quick sketch. And in half term I only really did quick sketches too – but I realised that was ok. It’s about drawing regularly, not having a pile of finished artwork.

I wanted to try using colours that I wouldn’t normally choose so I selected colours at random from a paint chart. This worked well in the studio but in my sketchbook I allowed myself to just use a black or grey pentel brush pen and a pencil.

It did remind me that capturing the things that make me smile or the moments that I want to remember is really important to me, and that actually drawing every day if possible is more important than posting photos of the drawings!