Chillin' Turtle

Another sketch/painting done whilst in Key West.  One of the hotels has a display of turtles.  This little guy was just chillin' off by himself, with his head held high, like he was posing for a picture.  So I obliged him.  I really liked the way the shadows hit the top of his shell.

                                    Watercolor in Etchr sketchbook

Inktober 2019 - Crocodile

I am often asked, what is the difference between a crocodile and a gator.*  Below is a crocodile with its tell tale V-shaped snout.  If it had been a gator, it would have a U-shaped snout and wearing several national title rings, duh.

          Pen & (Robert Oster Crocodile Green) ink etchr sketchbook







*only kidding, this never happens.

Inktober 2019 - Greg's Bear

This painting of Greg's bear (not to confused with Greg Bear, author of Dinosaur Summer) was based on a photo from his front yard's animal cam.  His. Front. Yard. Animal. Cam!!!  Time to move, I say.  :-P

                            Watercolor in etchr sketchbook

I was going to give the bear crazy, glowing white (or yellow) eyes to demonstrate the tapetum lucidum, but decided not to do so.  He can be crazy all on his own.

Again, I love all the lovely effects of the granulating Lunar Black watercolor paint (Daniel Smith).

Spyhopping Orca

Spyhopping or photobombing?  You decide.  

This is another piece using a similar technique as the unfinished penguin (ie, letting high granulating paints do their thing).  Daniel Smith's Lunar Black really is an interesting paint.

                         Watercolor 9x12 on 140 lbs watercolor block


I hardly ever do a study before painting or drawing (probably should).  I did this itty-bitty orca for fun and liked it so much that I did the larger one above.

                                               Watercolor 3.5x5 on paper

Unfinished Penguin

Some people have unfinished business, I have an unfinished penguin.  Go figure.

I might finish this. . .but then, probably not.

              watercolor on 6.9 x 9.8 200 GSM (110 lbs) Perfect Sketchbook

Xenopus!!

This is an illustration that I have been meaning to post for awhile.  It is a request from a friend that I was happy to accommodate.  It is an illustration, but with watercolor.  So instead of just pushing water and color around the paper and hoping for the best, I had to exert much more control.  I really like the final product.

                                       Watercolor on 140 lbs watercolor paper 9x10


And this little guy is actually not watercolor, but Sketch Ink (by Rohrer & Klingner).  Done mostly using Emma (a dark green ink) with a touch of Carmen (a yellow-orange ink).  

                                  Pen & ink on 140 lbs watercolor paper 4x6

New Year's in the Keys 2018-19

It has been a few years, but we returned to Key West for a New Year Celebration Spectacular.  It was glorious!!!  The weather and company could not have been finer.

We drove thru the Florida Everglades and snapped some photos of the local fauna.  Below are a couple of simple watercolors I did based on those photos in my Strathmore watercolor journal (5.5x8.5 inch; 140 lbs paper).  I tried out a new technique to try and improve my color mixing.  I think I nailed it with the gator!!  I have a few other gator photos that I might try to paint.

                                                           "Egret study #1"

                                                  "Submerged Gator"

                                               "Egret study #2"

Bison

I think I got the right mix of mysterious shadow and anatomical detail on this bison grazing in the snow.

                             Watercolor on 200 GSM cotton paper 7.09 x 10.24

Btw, the Perfect Sketchbook is just that, perfect.  Absolutely love this paper.

Creeping Tiger

Creeping tiger, hidden leg.  Just a simple painting of a tiger creeping. . .ready to pounce. This is the first painting using my new set of M Graham watercolors.

                                           Watercolor on 98 lbs paper 7x10

Wild African Dog -- Two Ways

Dingo ate my. . .  ::ahem:: Not a dingo but a wild African dog in Botswana (photo reference below).  I think I captured the dog's pensive, sentinel stare.

                                           Watercolor 7x10 on 90 lbs paper

Below is the same dog done with a folded nib (bought these really cool folded nibs that fit on a standard nib holder; from The Toronto Pen Company) as loose gestural warm up.  If I was smart, I could have done it as a value study, but I am not.  The eyes on this one are more cartoony and I did not quite get the shape of the muzzle and jaw.  However, it was very fun to do and this sketch definitely helped me get things right in the painting. 

                    Pen & Ink (Robert Oster Melon Tea)  7x10 on 90 lbs paper



Couple of doodles using the melon tea ink and light wash as I prepared to do the watercolor.  Not sure where the bird came from.

And here is the photo reference taken by a friend of mine whilst they were in Botswana.

Giraffe!

He is cute but chill. . .

                            Watercolor and Robert Oster Melon Tea Ink

Lion around

I'd be lying if I said it was not hazy, hot, and humid at the National Zoo this past weekend.  But, still it was a a lovely day.    

A quick, almost gestural painting of the lion, just lying around.

                                 Watercolor 6.9 X 9.8  on 110 lbs paper (PS)

San Diego Zoo

Both San Diego and DC are my favorite zoos.   I love the opportunity to sketch the animals.  Having been in San Diego for work, I took some vacation days to go to the zoo.

This gorilla was so majestic and so. . .sad.   I was unable to sketch him live, but kept thinking about the photos of him that I took on my iPhone and envisioning this sketch.   Once, back at the hotel, I just had to get it out of my head and on to paper.

I had wished to put a little more detail in this sleeping Rhino, but his buddy had other ideas and rousted him in the butt.  Sometimes, it is the quick, gestural drawings that have the most character.

Smoosh Faced Tiger

This tiger is cute in his own, odd way.  His face got a little smooshed and he is a bit cross-eyed but he has oodles of character.  

I knew the proportions of his face were off when I first sketched it.  Instead of redrawing, the plan was to correct it during the painting process.  Obviously, that did not happen.  That said, there are many technical aspects of this painting that I am really pleased about (mixing colors on the paper in the background, the use of negative space, dry and detailed brush strokes).  So show this smooshed face guy some love!

                                       Watercolors 6.9 x 9.8 on 110 lbs paper (PS)

The Rule about Bears

A simple ink sketch using two of my favorite brown inks with a little bit of watersoluble crayon to round it out.

                    Pen & ink, neocolor watersoluble crayons on 180lbs paper

Twilight Feeding

This is a large, 12x16 inches.  I have been wanting to go "big" for a while, but taking photos of the larger paintings with my antiquated iPhone was not getting the job done.  The new scanner is allowing me use my larger paper/pads.  It is certainly freeing to be able to go big and use bolder brush strokes.  Lots of layers of color here, especially on the horse (its anatomy got whacked a bit as a result, but I am fine with the end product).

                                   Watercolor on 140lbs block 12x16

Technicolor Dream Pandas

I am experimenting with a looser style and tying to use more layers and mixed colors.  The "black" panda fur was not a tube black, but a mix of blue, red and orange (you can see some purples creeping through).  The cobalt teal created nice highlights to round out the white fur. 

This is the first picture scanned with my new large format scanner (goes to ~11x17 inches).  Most of my pictures are 9x12 and they do not fit on a normal letter size scanner.  Looking at the scanning bed, I am excited to try it for the larger 12x16 as well.

                                    Watercolor on 140 lbs paper 9x12

From the Gecko

Because we all knew that eventually. . .I had to. . .

"From the Gecko" is another colorful bastardization of the English language.  Roughly translated, it means "from the get go" or to do something at the start or beginning of a project.  Yet somehow, it never sounds that way.

                                           Watercolor, pen and ink

And here is the little doodle, starting out as a mess of squiggly lines to test a new pen out that eventually became a lil gecko.  You can see the squiggles at the top.  When I did an oval, it made me think of a gecko's head.  From there is became a more focused doodle.

                                         Watercolor, pen and ink

Saber Toothed Tiger

I was reading a National Geographic article on reviving extint species (de-extinction).  The article dealt with the science and of course the morality of the decision (would these reintroduced species become invasive and kill off other extant species?).  The article described the work of a team of Spanish and French scientists who reversed time to rivive a wild goat known as a bucardo, or Phyrenean ibex.  Unfortately, the one hybrid clone out of 57 that was born alive died within minutes of birth.  The science of "how" is far from being completely elucidated.

One of the cooler parts of the article (as if de-extiction is not cool enough itself), was the various artist renditions and models of animals like the wooly mammoth, thylacine and of course, the saber-toothed tiger.  Of all the species described, this one fires my imagination the most.  And like the drawing of the rhinos, I again choose to make my own toned paper and drew with a dip nib and brown ink.  Parts of the drawing does look faded as I tried out an newer brown ink (which I did not like) before finishing with the nut brown ink.

                         Nut brown ink on toned 140 lbs watercolor paper 9x12

Bunny in the Side Yard

When I went to run some errands this afternoon, there was a wee bunny just chillin' in my side yard.  Imagine my surprise when he was still there when I returned, undeterred by my car pulling into the driveway in front of him.  I decided to snap a few photos with my phone and paint the brave little guy's portrait.

                                   Watercolor on 140 lbs paper 10x7

I am pleased with how the bunny turned out and the amount of detail I achieved.  But I am even more pleased that I was able to layer a light wash of burnt umber and pthalo over the top of the bamboo on the side.  Normally, I would not want to ruin the under drawing and left it as is.  The drawing would have been all mid-tones and very boring as a result.