#model dog

Dove back into a little paleoart for the first time this year...and I even included the before/after pic to show just how much work went into this little critter:

A while back I got a lot of custom fodder with the usual mix of Breyer models and various other brands. One of the models was this tiny, no-brand, probably made in China at some point in the past couple decades, toy rubber dog. It's the sort of thing that ends up passed from artist to artist as they pick and choose which "bodies" they want to customize, and which ones to pawn off on other artists. I almost dropped it in the destash pile, but then I realized that the poor little thing was likely going to just end up tossed out down the line, so I decided to hang onto it.

Looking at the overall profile, it actually reminded me of Hesperocyon, the earliest genus of canids that evolved almost 40 million years ago. So I figured, what the heck, let's give this a try. For those who don't customize, rubber is a LOT tougher to work with than hard plastic. It doesn't sand well since it tends to just tear up into little rough crumbles, and carving it is a pain as well. So this little critter got a lot of epoxy putty in the process of lengthening her back, resculpting her face and ears, and adding new hair texture. She's not as weaselly-looking as some restorations of Hesperocyon because I didn't want to shrink-wrap her, and instead gave her a pretty generous coat of fur, similar to the bush dog (Speothos venaticus) that I modeled her coat color off of. Her paint job is done in earth pigments and acrylics, and her eyes, nose, mouth, and claws are glossed.