Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Draw the dog

Nate Kapnicky: Quartyard's canine caricaturist

Kapnicky, filling in the flesh tones
Kapnicky, filling in the flesh tones
Place

Quartyard

1301 Market Street, San Diego

Lyla

Lyla sits still like a pro. Which is a miracle here in the middle of flailing dogs and foamy beers and baby strollers. The little black and tan pooch obviously doesn’t know what’s happening, because she’s sitting right next to a sign that says, “Get Your Pet Drawn Funny.”

This is Sunday afternoon at Quartyard. All of East Village condoland is here, getting their dogs out to their favorite social hour with every other pooch of the hood.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Nate Kapnicky has set up under an orange canopy, surrounded by dogs on short leashes. They’re all waiting to have their mutt mugs drawn funny, too.

Starting in on Lyla's portrait

Nate promises a portrait in ten minutes for $20. Now he stares down at Lyla, draws two almond-shaped circles on white paper for eyes, then the nose. Then he fills the eyes in black, leaving out bright, realistic reflections in the pupils. Pretty soon he’s got the nose down, then the ears with their flop-overs, whiskers, and the two plaintive little eyebrows. Then he’s filling in with gray marker, and presto! A complete — okay, slightly exaggerated, but recognizable — portrait of Lyla.

He shows the pic to the owners. Sounds of delight. He gets out his iPhone and Square, slides the guy’s card, then checks his order board to see who’s next.

“How do you get the dogs to sit still?” I ask.

“Draw quick. I sometimes get the essentials in three minutes. Your eye just picks out the main traits, and which bit you can make fun of in the drawing.”

Like, slightly wonky eyes, long snout, big ears, drooly mouth.

“People love it because, unlike with a photo, I can exaggerate a characteristic that may not be beautiful, but it is true to their dog.”

He says some dogs are easier to draw than others. Easiest: French bulldogs, the bug-eyed little guys with the big ears. They’re already so cartoony. Also, bloodhounds. Wrinkles. “Chihuahuas are the most serious dogs I’ve ever drawn. Yorkies are always alive and playful. Never angry.”

Hardest dogs? “Dogs with long snouts, like collies. It’s getting the perspective right in the time.”

Kapnicky studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, in Ohio. “I had been expressing myself on paper since I was three years old,” he says. He ended up doing portraits in SeaWorld, and then went out on his own. He has two books published already, Beasted, and Little Beasties. He gets a lot of requests for doggy portraits from pics sent over Instagram.

Loving pitbull

His heroes? People who take on the system, like Charlie Chaplin (think Modern Times, 1936), Salvador Dali, and Sebastian Krüger, a German caricaturist. “I was raised to believe artists can’t make it in this world. But then I thought, ‘Imagination can take me anywhere.’ So I set out. And here I am in San Diego.”

“Have the dogs ever attacked you?” I ask him.

“Biggest attack I had was a pit bull,” he says. “That bad boy just about licked me to death.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Kapnicky, filling in the flesh tones
Kapnicky, filling in the flesh tones
Place

Quartyard

1301 Market Street, San Diego

Lyla

Lyla sits still like a pro. Which is a miracle here in the middle of flailing dogs and foamy beers and baby strollers. The little black and tan pooch obviously doesn’t know what’s happening, because she’s sitting right next to a sign that says, “Get Your Pet Drawn Funny.”

This is Sunday afternoon at Quartyard. All of East Village condoland is here, getting their dogs out to their favorite social hour with every other pooch of the hood.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Nate Kapnicky has set up under an orange canopy, surrounded by dogs on short leashes. They’re all waiting to have their mutt mugs drawn funny, too.

Starting in on Lyla's portrait

Nate promises a portrait in ten minutes for $20. Now he stares down at Lyla, draws two almond-shaped circles on white paper for eyes, then the nose. Then he fills the eyes in black, leaving out bright, realistic reflections in the pupils. Pretty soon he’s got the nose down, then the ears with their flop-overs, whiskers, and the two plaintive little eyebrows. Then he’s filling in with gray marker, and presto! A complete — okay, slightly exaggerated, but recognizable — portrait of Lyla.

He shows the pic to the owners. Sounds of delight. He gets out his iPhone and Square, slides the guy’s card, then checks his order board to see who’s next.

“How do you get the dogs to sit still?” I ask.

“Draw quick. I sometimes get the essentials in three minutes. Your eye just picks out the main traits, and which bit you can make fun of in the drawing.”

Like, slightly wonky eyes, long snout, big ears, drooly mouth.

“People love it because, unlike with a photo, I can exaggerate a characteristic that may not be beautiful, but it is true to their dog.”

He says some dogs are easier to draw than others. Easiest: French bulldogs, the bug-eyed little guys with the big ears. They’re already so cartoony. Also, bloodhounds. Wrinkles. “Chihuahuas are the most serious dogs I’ve ever drawn. Yorkies are always alive and playful. Never angry.”

Hardest dogs? “Dogs with long snouts, like collies. It’s getting the perspective right in the time.”

Kapnicky studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design, in Ohio. “I had been expressing myself on paper since I was three years old,” he says. He ended up doing portraits in SeaWorld, and then went out on his own. He has two books published already, Beasted, and Little Beasties. He gets a lot of requests for doggy portraits from pics sent over Instagram.

Loving pitbull

His heroes? People who take on the system, like Charlie Chaplin (think Modern Times, 1936), Salvador Dali, and Sebastian Krüger, a German caricaturist. “I was raised to believe artists can’t make it in this world. But then I thought, ‘Imagination can take me anywhere.’ So I set out. And here I am in San Diego.”

“Have the dogs ever attacked you?” I ask him.

“Biggest attack I had was a pit bull,” he says. “That bad boy just about licked me to death.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
Next Article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader