humpback

whale with calf

sketched from nature documentary

possum

I sketched this guy last year too, at the Museum of Natural History

Flamingo 2

gestures

the necks bent all ways to rest or preen

attitude!

Flamingoes

sketched from photos I took at a zoo

Aardvark and Tamandu

from the Museum

the animal was posed facing into a termite mound, plus there was an information panel in front of the display case, so it was hard to get a good view of him.

The Tamandu is a small arboreal anteater

bushbaby

wild hogs 2

from the Museum
bush pig

and wild boar

both sketched a year ago as well

pine marten

from the Museum

clouded leopard

in a stretch that shows off his beautiful coat and long canines (the longest teeth in proportion to skull size for any cat) sketched at the Museum of Natural History

sharks 2

young blue shark

seahorse

study of the head, side and front

fishes 3

sketched a few fish the turtle lived with among a floating raft of seaweed when small;
don't know the species. The first one was a pale dull color with dun stripes and spots, almost gray
the second one was greeny-yellow irridescent

crabs

little crabs on the shore that scurried to catch the baby turtles as they left the nest

wader

white wading bird on the shore (these were all the same bird, caught in different poses)

baby turtles

Watched a film last night about the life of loggerhead turtles (seafaring). Did some sketching.

odd ones

some strange critters I drew at the Museum of Natural History, animals I'd never heard of before, much less seen or drawn

Pink fairy armadillo I do believe the first one pictured is the exact specimen I drew

Solenodon, a shrewlike creature with a long snout

springhare, an animal in its own family. Its hind feet have very long straight claws.

crested rat looks bristly like a porcupine, but that's fur. I am very certain that the specimen I sketched from is the same one pictured here

armored rat I wasn't sure this one actually had spines until I read the wiki article

rabbits

from the Museum again...

arctic hare

cape hare

toddling

still awful at hands...

tall trio

When I look at the pattern on reticulated giraffes, it appears that white lines form the shapes more than the bold spots. I tried three methods here of making the spots. The first giraffe I drew the outlines of the spots, then filled in. The second one I freehanded the shapes with hatching, just eyeballing it. The last one I actually drew lines to represent the white between the shapes, then filled among them. If I'd done the lines with pencil to then erase it, I think that method would have had the best effect.

reading

another sketch of my two daughters, older reading to the younger one
the hands are awkward but I am pleased with how the fat little baby feet turned out in this one

prickly

two spiny animals from the Museum of Natural History,
the echidna (only other egg-laying mammal):

and a Cape porcupine (another one of my favorite drawings from that day):

hanging

Two critters that were hanging head-down at the museum, the two-toed sloth:

and the kinkajou:

jaguarundi

I've always been curious about this rare cat, seldom seen and little-known.

The second sketch here was drawn last year at the museum; at that time I felt I'd made the ears too large. Both times I've felt that the legs are too long, in photos I've seen it looks like the jaguarundi has relatively short legs but I drew it that way both times so this specimen at least, must have appeared long-legged. Or maybe because the back is arched, the body doesn't look as long as it really is...

civet 2

Another animal I drew a year ago at the Museum of Natural History: African civet