My mother is a Hallowe'en fan and, although she doesn't do full-blown house decorations, she has a small collection of little figurines and things that she puts out on the hoosier. A tree with fall leaves and dangling skeletons; a set of miniature gravestones (with the names of late, great, racehorses added to them). I loan her my Hagen-Renaker black sitting cat and scaredy cat, and a couple of years ago I made her a Fimo vulture for her tree, since I couldn't find a dollhouse-scale vulture anywhere.
I've been meaning for some time to make her a black dog. I started this last year but couldn't find the right dog to start with. Toy dog figurines just aren't very menacing; too many of them are happy Labradors and tail-wagging golden retrievers. Wolf-type dogs seem too obvious. Everyone is afraid of wolves. A Great Dane with cropped ears seems too artificial: Who would crop a hellhound's ears?
I almost settled on a stone resin Great Dane with natural ears, which was a little too big but was pretty close to what I wanted, when I found a new stone resin mastiff. Bullmastiff. It's not a very good bullmastiff but I think it has potential as a hellhound. I'm going to try giving it longer ears, more of a tail, and maybe a longer nose. Then, it gets painted black with red eyes.
I did some research. It seems that a lot of people have much more grandiose ideas about this kind of thing than I do:
Overdone.
Overdone, #2.
Overdone, #3.
Overdone, but getting better.
Cerberus. Too specific.
Oddly comical.
Hell . . . monkey?
Hell . . . 'possum?
No, I think that's the Minotaur.
WTF??
WTF?? Part II. Actually, I kind of like this, but it's still too much.
Is it me, or does this look like a Chinese crested dog?
. . .
Now, we're talking.
I think mine needs floppier ears.
Black Shuck. I've got this book. Too wolf-y for me, though.
Classic.
Diamond when I took away her chewie.
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
I've been meaning for some time to make her a black dog. I started this last year but couldn't find the right dog to start with. Toy dog figurines just aren't very menacing; too many of them are happy Labradors and tail-wagging golden retrievers. Wolf-type dogs seem too obvious. Everyone is afraid of wolves. A Great Dane with cropped ears seems too artificial: Who would crop a hellhound's ears?
I almost settled on a stone resin Great Dane with natural ears, which was a little too big but was pretty close to what I wanted, when I found a new stone resin mastiff. Bullmastiff. It's not a very good bullmastiff but I think it has potential as a hellhound. I'm going to try giving it longer ears, more of a tail, and maybe a longer nose. Then, it gets painted black with red eyes.
I did some research. It seems that a lot of people have much more grandiose ideas about this kind of thing than I do:
Overdone.
Overdone, #2.
Overdone, #3.
Overdone, but getting better.
Cerberus. Too specific.
Oddly comical.
Hell . . . monkey?
Hell . . . 'possum?
No, I think that's the Minotaur.
WTF??
WTF?? Part II. Actually, I kind of like this, but it's still too much.
Is it me, or does this look like a Chinese crested dog?
. . .
Now, we're talking.
I think mine needs floppier ears.
Black Shuck. I've got this book. Too wolf-y for me, though.
Classic.
Diamond when I took away her chewie.
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
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