Alex Konahin’s Ornate Ink Portraits of Dogs

Alex Konahin draws dogs the way a goldsmith works metal: no surface is left plain. The Latvia-based illustrator has long been known for an almost recklessly decorative line — insects, skulls, whatever he turns his pen to — and his dog series may be the most likeable subject he has taken on yet: animal heads built entirely from scrollwork, radiating fans and cross-hatched shadow, worked in black ink with nothing left to chance.

What makes the set more than a technical exercise is how it started. Konahin was coming out of a long break and an intense creative block, and the first portrait — an English Bulldog — was less a plan than a way to get drawing again. A German Shepherd and a Pit Bull Terrier followed. That origin explains the energy running through the series: these are pictures made by someone who needed to make something, not by someone filling a brief.

More of Konahin’s work: konahin.com, Behance, Instagram, Facebook.