I think most people know what Sharpies are. They’re black markers (available in other colors, but black is de facto choice), available in different thicknesses. They’re an interesting medium to draw in, since you can’t erase, and the ink can spread a bit on the cheap printer paper I drew this on.

Anyway, I was looking at my Google Analytics, and saw that one of the more popular entries on this site was an earlier Sharpie drawing. The image came up quickly for a Google Images search on “Sharpie Dog,” as well. It really isn’t one of my favorite (or best) pieces, it was just a quick sketch without a net (or eraser, whatever) to see what came up. Why oh why was this so high on my hit list? Then I searched Sharpie Dog myself.

It suddenly became clear. People can’t spell. People looking for a certain dog breed, and even people who own a certain breed, are unable to spell that dog’s breed name. Shar-Pei, not Sharpie, folks.

I’ve always been a good speller, and I’m a bit impatient, unfairly so, with other people’s spelling. I bite holes in my tongue while teaching kids as they name their background layers “backround” and their character layers “persun” or “heero”. Bad spelling drives me mad, especially with automatic spell-checkers underlining mistakes as you type. I’ll let it go now, as bad spelling has improved traffic to my own site. If you got here by misspelling a dog breed, welcome.

Oh, one more quick spelling lesson to do with dogs. There is no “o” in Dalmatian. If you didn’t know that, file it away. And forgive me for being pedantic. As I forgive you for your bad spelling.

Categorized as: Drawing