Dogs

When a friend's dalmatian died, she was so sad.  I thought it might be nice to send an etegami to let her know I was thinking of her.  This friend is very spiritual in a non-religious sort of way. I imagined she might think of being reunited with her dog some day.  I thought my doggie turned out kind of cute but a bit awkward. 

 But I decided to send it anyway.   

 She really, really appreciated it 

which made me think that is not the last dog I will paint

And sure enough.  Another friend's German shepherd died. I watched a video online of her howling via Skype and pretty soon he was howling back.  It was a most amazing thing.  She was so very sad when he died. So, I painted this for her.  This one really painted itself.  I got some water into the black ink so it bled a little more than i was planning. I used a regular pen to get the outline of the eyes right and indeed, the eyes are my favorite part.

  Unfortunately, it just got returned in the mail today after 3 weeks (wrong address, I guess) so she has not really seen it yet.  I hope it will be meaningful to her.  Just looking at it makes me want to cry!!!