My Dogust 2026 art challenge continues with The Watchful Dunker, a mixed-media portrait celebrating the distinctive appearance and personality of the Dunker. With its long ears, patterned coat, and attentive expression, this Norwegian hound gave me another interesting breed to explore through my artwork.

For this piece, I wanted the Dunker’s face to be the main focus. The dog looks directly toward the viewer with an alert but calm expression, which ultimately inspired the title The Watchful Dunker. I surrounded the portrait with a vivid blue background, helping the browns, blacks, creams, and whites of the dog’s coat stand out.

Creating The Watchful Dunker

I began the drawing with a mechanical pencil, establishing the proportions and details of the Dunker’s face, ears, eyes, nose, and coat markings. I then used a kneaded eraser to lighten and refine the pencil work before moving on to color.

For the finished traditional artwork, I used:

• Mechanical pencil
• Kneaded eraser
• Watercolor pen
• Acrylic paint pen

The watercolor pen helped me build the different tones throughout the Dunker’s fur, while the acrylic paint pen allowed me to strengthen details and highlights.

Once the traditional artwork was complete, I photographed the drawing and edited it using Snapseed and Procreate. These final digital adjustments helped me prepare the artwork for sharing online and offering as prints.

Changing My Dogust Plans

When I started Dogust 2026, I had an ambitious goal of creating 31 different dog drawings throughout August. I love the idea of using the challenge as an opportunity to explore many different breeds, but as the month progressed, I wasn't able to keep up with the number of drawings I originally planned.

Rather than rushing through artwork simply to reach a number, I've decided to adjust my plans.

I now plan on creating one sheet featuring six additional Dogust artworks.. This will give me a smaller collection that still celebrates the spirit of the challenge while allowing me to spend more time on each drawing.

Although Dogust isn't turning out exactly as I originally envisioned, that's part of the creative process. Sometimes an art challenge has to evolve alongside the artist. The important part for me is continuing to create and coming away from the challenge with artwork I'm happy to share.

With The Watchful Dunker completed, I'm excited to see how the six-artwork sheet develops and how the individual dog portraits look together as one larger piece.

A Portrait of a Watchful Hound

One of my favorite aspects of this drawing is the Dunker's expression. Its eyes seem focused on something beyond the picture, while the long ears and relaxed face keep the portrait from feeling overly intense.

That combination of attentiveness and calmness is what led me to The Watchful Dunker. I wanted the title to describe not just the breed, but the personality I see when looking at the finished artwork.

The blue background also became an important part of the piece. Instead of creating a detailed environment around the dog, I chose a simple, saturated backdrop that lets the hound remain the center of attention.

Watch The Watchful Dunker

I also created a YouTube Short featuring The Watchful Dunker and my Dogust artwork.

Watch the YouTube Short

The Watchful Dunker Fine Art Prints

If you'd like to add The Watchful Dunker to your collection, the artwork is now available through The Artistic Shepherd.

Print options allow this Dogust portrait to move beyond the original drawing and become artwork for dog lovers, hound enthusiasts, and anyone who appreciates portraits celebrating individual dog breeds.

View The Watchful Dunker artwork and available prints

Continuing Dogust 2026

Dogust has already given me an opportunity to experiment with different breeds, markings, expressions, and personalities. Even though I've scaled back my original plans, I'm looking forward to completing the six-artwork sheet and seeing how the collection comes together.

The Watchful Dunker represents another step in that journey: one dog, one breed, and one expression captured through my mixed-media style.

There are still more dogs to draw, and I'm looking forward to seeing which portrait becomes the next addition to my Dogust 2026 collection.

— Justyn Simon
The Artistic Shepherd