I've Been Framed!

Inspiration:
The picture below is another of my friend's pups. I have used the gouache "ink" technique on dogs with black and white before, could I pull it off on a totally black dog?
I sent my friends the drawings of her dogs, Brae and Shasta (#30). She loved them so much, she had two of them framed as a gift for her husband.

I like how she included the original pictures, and notes I sent her about the drawings on the back of the frame. She plans to get the last picture framed at some point in the future. 

#31: Brae

Reference Photo

What I like about the drawing:
Not much! Yeah, it looks like a black dog, but I don't think I captured Brae's personality very well. I am fairly pleased with the white charcoal highlights, however. 

What I might do differently:
I made Brae a bit too fat! Oops, sorry about that, girl! My gouache was not thin enough. It isn't visible at first glance, but if you had the picture in front of you, and held it a bit sideways, you would see areas that were quite thick and a even a few bubbles. 

What I learned:
It would be helpful to test the gouache on a scrap before beginning to paint. In a previous gouache drawing I lost sight of the lines of the drawing. This time I made a copy of my sketch before I covered the original with gouache and I found that helpful to use as a reference.