Introductions

Pencil and Watercolor

I found out that an art style you can do is drawing a pencil drawing...and then use watercolor to give it a splash of color. How fun! :D It is pretty neat. I’m not as practiced with watercolor as I am with colored pencil, but the color does go on faster. I made these for my co-workers as I left my mouse handling job to do art instead.

I gave this one to my vet friends who taught me SO MUCH. I got to trim little mouse toes when they got itchy skin to keep them from scratching it. I also learned how to trim mouse teeth!! Mouse teeth grow constantly and if they have malocclusion (where their teeth don’t line up right), they can grow out of control and be deadly to the mice. So we trim the bad ones to keep them healthy and happy. :) I also learned how to put ointment and eyedrops in their eyes. Basically what vets to with other animals...only on a teeny tiny scale. Between the mouse’s legs in the picture is the BASE OF THE TAIL. >.>

This was for my supervisor. He loooooved skulls. I thought having a scene out of “Hamlet” I mean “Hamouse” would be good. ;) ‘Alas poor Yorick, I ate him well.’ To a mouse, your buddy’s death is an excellent source of protein sometimes. Because mouse. We don’t talk about that side of their behavior. Instead, did I tell you mice have cute widdle noses? Cause they do!

This was for my project coordinator. She was so sweet, she was basically the mom to all of us. She is all about love, friendship, and positive thinking. :) The world definitely needs more people like her!

This was for a couple of people I worked with and we got pretty close. When I gave this to them, one said “Ha! We got the CUTE one of baby mice. Not the ugly ones with needles and skulls.” ;D They made me laugh so much! I will miss them all!

Sumi Ink

I loooooove sumi ink drawings. I love the simplistic style the oriental paintings have. Then I thought - simple must be easy to do, right? Oh honey.

After taking a workshop I learned quickly it is not easy. Of course it takes people years to master it. This picture is one of my latest after a workshop, a class, and a few practices. It still could be loads better, but finally getting happy with the results instead of “let’s speak of this to no one” status.

The goal of this piece was to dilute the ink to give it atmospheric shading.

Fus Ro Draw!

This next project I am quite giddy about. The goal was to make many sketches with a black pen. Then I would photocopy my images and change their size or invert the colors to make a black and white collage.

I was thinking what would be really good as black and white. Then my mind wandered to Skyrim, as is usual, and how there are white and black dragons that kind of fall on different sides of the battle. Or so I’m told. Truthfully I started the game and played several hours of actual storyline until they release the Hearthfire DLC. Now I find ways to get money to make my house better. I also travelled town to town finding eligible bachelors wearing the Amulet of Mara. Then I realized that dudes never looked twice at me, but all these women kept throwing themselves at me. But who was the heroine who secretly had a crush on me, but would follow me all across the country bearing my burdens? So I married Lydia. Who wouldn’t want such a faithful parter? <3 After our beautiful wedding, she suddenly departed on foot. -_- I had to command line to catch up with her, and modded the game so I could give her a companion horse. Who says I don’t look out for my wife. <3 

Aren’t we just the cutest couple? Aside from my character’s heavily scarred and tattooed face...

OH RIGHT....ARTWORK. THAT’S WHAT WE WERE HERE FOR.

I started by copying down the dragon alphabet. Here it is “A” through “Rawr” ;)

Here are some dragon shouts I copied down as well. There are quite a few, so I only chose some. The very bottom one (bottom right) is Fus Ro Dah!

Here is a reference photo from in game that I decided to use. This is Paarthurnax. He is a dragon that betrayed and helped defeat Alduin the first time. He teaches you shouts too.

Pencil map and measure

Now time to draw it for realsies in pen.

Paarthurax had other aspirations.

Here is a reference photo for Alduin. He’s a black dragon, but to make this easier on myself, I inverted the colors on the image. Now I can draw him as a white dragon in pen and inverse the colors later.

Like so.

Here’s a couple other tiny dragons.

Now to put it all together. After many hours of shrinking the dragon alphabet and then repeating it over and over again, we get a kind of cool “greyish” background. I used this for the sky. Then the larger print was to outline clouds.

Like this. then you invert the tiny dragons, so they are black and menacing after being risen from the dead by Alduin.

The dragon text that was shouts - I inverted the colors so that was all black with white text.

This I used as the ground and rock that Paarthurax could guard.

Here is the black colored version of Alduin. :)

And the full version of Paarthurax guarding the shouts.

And all together. I used Copic markers in various shades of grey to give it some atmospheric perspective.

Social Media

I love social media. I want to have a presence in many. Below is my plan, but I’ve already noticed it changing a bit. For example, Instagram is becoming random pictures about art and flowers :P and ...I still have trouble with Twitter.

Still, I am on all of these and I try to keep everything varied a bit, so you don't see the exact same thing each time:

Facebook and Google Plus - You will see my finished work with some step by step photos and brief descriptions

Twitter - Random happenings an animal artist might encounter

Instagram - Finished pieces with pretty filters. Also animal (flower) inspiration pics.

Tumblr - In depth description with step by step pictures of the whole process. The best social media...amirite?

Neat!!!

🌿 Who is the Central American Tigrina? This tiny wild cat (Leopardus tigrinus centralis) might be a subspecies… or a full species of its own. Some studies even link it closer to ocelots than to its supposed cousins. Mysterious, elusive, and stunningly spotted, it prowls the forests of Central America — quietly vanishing before we’ve even figured out exactly who it is. 🐾✨

YakitisSacked

This was another entry into my portfolio to help me get into school (which I did! Yay again!) I took this picture at a zoo. I sadly can’t remember which one - either San Diego or Phoenix I think...

I loved all the different textures of hair this yak had. He was also pretty cute sleeping away in the sunshine. I don’t think I captured the hair texture as well as I would have liked. Practice! Practice! Practice!

Ready...set...DRAW!

“Map and Measure” which is fancy art speak for “this part looks like crap but is necessary before I can get all the details on.”

I start with the nose. Not for any strategic artistic reason. But because animals have THE CUTEST NOSES ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET.

The head has a body. A yak has a shape. A girl has a name.

All done! The white hairs against the black hairs is done with a battery operated eraser. Seriously - this eraser rotates very fast and you can make really white lines with it. :D

Enough introductions, let’s do this!

Let's start this off with a photo completion picture. I didn't get any pictures of the process. But basically I cut a picture in half and with pencil drew the part I had removed.

I had wanted to draw the rest of the otter (it’s back legs and tail) to look like it was 3D and coming off the page and leaving water marks on the page. However I ran out of time, and I didn’t feel my skills were quite up to that level. Still, can’t get better if you don’t try, right?

Also in the real picture half that I cut, the otter had a yellow stain on his mouth making him look all frowny when converted to black and white. So I drew in a bit more of a smile. Because artist.

Ugly Duckling Turns Into A Mediocre Swan

I don’t like this piece so much, but I wanted to share because I really like the concept and I’ve seen it used in amazing ways.

The idea is to take black and white paper, and cut and arrange it in any order. Then you draw black and white feathers on it. A white feather on the black paper is drawn in white chalk. A black feather on the black paper is outlined in white chalk. A black feather on the white paper is drawn in charcoal, but the white feather on the white paper is outlined in black charcoal. It gives a really cool image of feathers falling and crossing the borders between white and black.

I imagined having a white paper swan on a black background. The feathers would be falling down and on the middle of the swan a lone feather touches “water,” leaving water ripples. Neat, right? It would have been if I had actually pulled it off. Not sure what went wrong, but the feathers seem force-placed and not at all floating or falling down. Also I re-did the water ripples a bunch of times and they still don’t look as realistic as I wanted. Moar practice!

Lions and Portfolios

I was trying to get into school for Scientific Illustration (which I did! Yay!), but at the time I needed to build up my portfolio. My art teacher recommended that I draw something super eye catching. After spending quite awhile finding something that would look good in black and white, I found this. It was an incredible photo taken by National Geographic. Sadly the antelope did not make it. But if you look at this picture and imagine...it did. ;)

I never like the beginning of my drawings. I think they always look like crap. I’m a “finished art” person. Unless someone does a simplistic drawing - I love those. That takes a very special other set of skills to pull off.

I ended up flicking some white paint at it to give some water droplets. I also had fun jabbing my pencil at this a bunch for the black dots. The original image was of a lion and an antelope chance meeting at a watering hole. Mud, dirt, water flying...IT WAS A FIREFIGHT!

Haha this face. This is the face of an antelope who tells the god of death “not today.”

I'M BACK!

I've been gone for *checks calendar*...uhhh an embarrassing 8 and a half years. Yowzer.

I've had a few changes. I got a Scientific Illustration Certification from the University of Washington. I had two kids, who are both now finally school age. I found my passion is nature conservation and education. I will be taking my art in that direction and maybe pursue employment in that field. For now, I'm loving the art business, being around for my kids, and...oh yeah...about to move! It's been busy.

However, I am back here for hopefully good! I plan to update weekly with art. It will be a new piece every month, if not twice a month. The other weeks will be filled with art you haven't seen yet that I did over the last 8 years. There, sadly, was not much art done a few years in there where I was 3D printing humans and changing diapers. But you can't stop the art. I shall rise and continue...

So let's start off with a Morpho Butterfly! I was lucky to see them at a local butterfly habitat. They are unremarkable brown and then flash a brilliant blue in flight. Truly amazing. I did this artwork digitally. It would be fun to redo it sometime with pastels or paints.