Art / Interviews
Drawings of dogs
Henry Garrett is a philosophy student who also draws pictures of dogs. He wants to be a professor one day but if he could just draw dogs all the time, he would.
“I needed some sort of art project,” the postgraduate tells Bristol24/7 by way of an explanation for his unusual hobby.
“I did art at school despite my mum telling me I was crap at art at age 14.
“I’d done a couple of comics as birthday cards and I kept talking about doing an art project of fine line drawings of dogs but I kept putting it off. I’m a huge procrastinator.”
The real impetus came from trying to win back a girl. She told Henry that he could make something of these drawings and that he should be posting them online.
That, combined with the desire to do anything but revise for his finals, led Henry to start posting the comics onto Facebook.
His ideas for new cartoons comes from various places. Henry, who lives in Redland, often takes his own dog Billie, a Parson Russel terrier, for walks on the Downs, where inspiration might strike and he tries out jokes in a few different incarnations on his brothers and sister.
“For as long as I can remember I was begging my parents to get a dog and then during my GCSEs I got ill and ended up missing a year of school,” Henry says.
“My parents got me Billie to keep me active and to keep me company. She was a very mischievous puppy but she was also very helpful in keeping my mood up. I’m very attached to her because I think she really helped me get better.”
“The truth is that I draw dogs because I love dogs and they’re the thing I’m least crap at drawing. When I came back to school I spent most of my time in the art block drawing pigeons or dogs.
“But I do think dogs are an interesting subject for art and comedy because they’re a reflection of us. We chose their personalities in breeding them first to work alongside us, and then simply to make good, loyal friend.
“Most of these jokes aren’t really jokes about dogs, they’re about humans.”
To see Henry’s latest work, visit www.drawingsofdogs.tumblr.com.