Triceratops

walking bear

Hooded Merganser

male duck

Echidna

sable antelope

two versions
one a simplified graphic black-and-white:

the second with more color and pattern:

rhino

border collie

sea angel

Microscopic creature called the "sea angel", it's a pteropod. It flaps the little fins to swim and you can see through its sides to the interior organs

three sheep

border collie

truck

I don't usually draw vehicles but that makes this a challenge. Thought this old-fashioned farmer's pickup was pretty cool-looking.

plants

I really want to get better at drawing plants. Somehow, though I love to just sit and look at them, they're not as much fun to draw.

Maybe because when I draw animals I'm always thinking of the body structure, how they move, the interesting variation of proportions, the living creature. A plant seems such a static thing in comparison. Drawing a plant is more about paying attention to leaf shape and pattern, how the foliage is arrranged and repeats itself. I'm not as good at that- drawing repeating texture on things like, a leopard's coat, used to always get dull and I would rarely finish it off.

So I need more patience and practice to draw plants. These aren't very good- but then I didn't spend much time on them. They're of my dracanea and avocado plants, respectively.

waterbuck

snow leopard

This is another one where I particularly like the look of the artwork in different stages or pieces. Such as the gray shades under the linework:

topi

new vector illustration of an antelope with distinctive coloring (in the right light, the shoulder and thigh patches actually do look purple!)

dairy cow

Just finished this vector illustration

macaw

two sketches of a macaw parrot

rhino mom

sketched from a calendar photo

turtles

from that day when I drew sea turtles as infants, here are the sketches of adults:

close up of the head:

dive

Haven't done any vector drawings lately, been busy w/other things. Nor sketching pen in hand. But I still have a backlog of sketchbooks unseen, so to keep this blog alive here's a seabird poise as it dives into the water.

Kitty

I still think of this guy as the "blue kitty" because the original one was drawn with colored markers.

sad pup

chicken

here's the chicken image I've been working on for the past three days (stalled by computer problems for one day, and toddler interruptions the rest of the time!)

dingo

sketched off the same program that showed me kangaroos

bison

I created two different versions of this bison, first sketched at a very small scale with a sharpie for the outline and a felt-tip pen for the shading

One version recreated the effect of the original pen hatching-

The second version I used gradients for shading; it's my favorite.

tiger tiger

My latest vector illustration is this tiger.

I was telling someone how the vectors are done, so thought it might be interesting to show a bit of the construction process here. The vector program plots lines; basically you use the mouse (I'd rather use a stylus but don't have one yet) to put anchor points anywhere a line changes direction, then you can pull handles off the points to create or alter curves. The thickness and color of the lines, fill color and gradients can all be manipulated however you like; then there's creating and stacking shapes to make the picture. It's kind of a puzzle figuring out how to put it all together to make the final visual effect you want, and I rather enjoy it.

Well, the first step after placing my original drawing as a template (background)

is to draw the basic outline shape:

Next I create the black stripes and markings above it. The white shapes here are all drawn separately, then "cut out" from the more general black outline so this is all one path with holes in it, so to speak.

Then I add colors; the base orange color was the fill of the first outline shape, the whites and pinks were added on top of that. (Except for the nose, which had to sit above the black). The colors lie beneath the black lines, to make the final tiger.

I think this last, colors-only shape is the most fun to look at, next to the finished piece.

kangaroo joey

Young kangaroo joey, and with its mother

zebra portrait

tommie

baboons

Frogs

lioness stance

leaping serval

that graceful African wildcat the serval, poised leaping over tall grass. I rather like how this one came out

dancing horse

another vector illustration created a few days ago, with its original sketch (really a crayon drawing I once did to entertain my kid when she was little and constantly enthralled with what I could put on paper when she demanded: draw a cat! draw me a horse! etc -and then she would add her own lines to the drawing, as you can see)

walrus portrait