My trusty studio buddy
I have always known that my dog is beneficial to my mental health, but it took a January art challenge to really bring it home to me.
I have blogged before about how helpful I find my daily doodles
I have to admit however, that finding daily inspiration can sometimes be tricky.
January Challenge
When I saw a face book post suggesting the challenge of sketching animals doing household chores, my creative antennae started twitching.
At the time our mischievous labradoodle Logan was enthusiastically helping with recycling our Christmas tree.
It occurred to me that I could do regular tongue in cheek doodles throughout January of him playing his part in our daily household routines.
Logan carrying out the tree branches for recycling
And so it began.
Daily Doodles
I did think that I may struggle to find enough to doodle about, but Logan came up trumps, showing me on a daily basis just what a helpful little canine he is.
The doodles started off being quite light hearted, such as him alerting us to when the postman is coming
Logan on Postman alert
But as the month drew on, the tone of the doodles shifted ever so slightly.
Mental Health Benefits
I started to notice how he instinctively knew when to be gentle and snuggle into one of his humans after they had had a tough day
Comforting hugs, that only a dog knows how to give
Or how, when my husband was weak after a hospital stay, it was Logan who would encourage him to get outside for some gentle exercise
Gentle exercise, just what the doctor ordered
And my heart started to burst even more than usual, with love for our fluffy bundle of naughtiness.
Or course, it has long been recognised that pets are beneficial for our mental health. There is a great article on the website mentalhealth.co.uk that illustrates this
So yes, our little labradoodle is without a doubt very naughty, very noisy at times, and very greedy. But we wouldn’t change him for the world. And I am glad that I caught just some of his antics in my scrappy little daily doodles.
Who stole all the cushions?
If you want to check out all of my doggy doodles, you can find them over at my facebook page.
I highly recommend doing quick little doodles of your pets.
Trust me, it will make you appreciate them even more 🙂
