Snoopy, Odie, Pluto, Scooby. There’s never been a shortage of famous Fido cartoons, and dog lovers are certainly captivated by both the artistry and the stories behind them. Now, a new Web site called Draw the Dog aims to capitalize on that success by popularizing the everyday pooch.
Not only does drawthedog.com offer a new canine cartoon every day (except Sunday), but the cartoons are inspired by real-life dogs, each of whom get an “inspired by” credit. The doggie drawings are even animated, so they actually draw themselves on screen before the delighted viewer’s eyes, taking on a magical life of their own.
Launched in September, Draw the Dog is the brainchild of Jim George, a former Disney animator, and Bruce Kasanoff, a marketing consultant. Kasanoff does the research, seeking dog owners for stories about their pooches that might inspire a cartoon, while George develops his technique. “The trick is to make a very difficult process look easy and fun,” he explains.
For owners who want to turn their dog into a cartoon, the process is easy. Just go to the site’s “Make Your Dog Famous” page and submit a funny story about something he or she did, along with a photo.
“The [point] is to inspire Jim by sharing the heart of an incident or idea that creates a visual image in his head,” says Kasanoff, who himself has two adopted shelter mutts, Dex and Dakota (although, they have yet to make their cartoon debut). “And since almost nobody has a camera when their dog does something outrageous, the photo shows Jim what their dog looks like so he can make the cartoon dog look like the dog who inspired it.”
One such inspiration came from Carol Mount of Matawan, NJ, owner of Strider, the not-so-obedient basenji who urinated on a reporter’s foot during a newspaper photo shoot.
“I was excited to see they thought the story was as funny as I did — once I got over being embarrassed it ever happened in the first place,” Mount says. “In the likeness of my dog, the animator was dead-on: The curly tail was perfect!”
Elizabeth Vagnoni of Westport, Conn., also sent in a story and photo of her dog Saba, whose favorite pastime is playing with the deer that wander onto her property. Saba’s deer-loving antics inspired a cartoon that depicts the dog communing with a buck, with two humans standing off to the side, commenting on the scene.
“[Jim George] totally nailed the situation,” says Vagnoni. “I was amazed at how instinctively he captured the event, and I got as much of a kick out of the way he portrayed me and my daughter as I did out of the way he captioned the dog. It was as if he could ‘see’ us in the kitchen with our noses pressed to the window!”
At the moment, Draw the Dog hasn’t received any stories from urban hounds here in NYC, but they hope that changes. “People in Texas think it would be impossible to keep a dog in New York City,” says Kasanoff. “We want to prove that there are dogs of all shapes, sizes and personalities here.”
Send Draw the Dog your stories and photos, and the funniest ones will be turned into cartoons on the site during the first week of February.
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