Squid (Loligo opalens), watercolor
I haven’t done many watercolors, but our class assignment was to paint a squid in watercolor — so voila! We each got a squid in class to draw (not alive, of course — just from our local Pike Place fish market). We arranged its tentacles and arms, took measurements and lots of photos, and went to work!
Seashell 1, Graphite on Bristol
I started my classes for the Certificate program in Natural Science Illustration at the University of Washington, and this is one of the first assignments — to draw a shell in graphite and also in carbon dust.
Seashell 2, Carbon dust on Bristol
I’m still getting the hang of carbon dust. The technique is cool, because you paint the dust onto the paper with a brush! I’m going to do more drawings to practice getting a smoother look.
Seahorse, graphite on Bristol
I wanted to draw a seahorse, because seahorses are cool. 🙂
Zebra, graphite on Bristol vellum
Another safari animal!
Orthoceras, graphite on Bristol
I wanted to try something paleontological, so I composed this scene of a little orthoceras (a nautiloid) living among marine plants about 450 million years ago. So many drawings of life in the Paleozoic era show lots of attacking going on, trying to show the survival of the fittest at work; I wanted my orthoceras to have a moment of peace, so I tucked him safely in some seaweed.
Giraffe (Head and Neck), graphite on Bristol
Moving on to some mammals…
Giraffes are awesome. They look like they could have just arrived via flying saucer. They’ve got the largest eyes of any land animal. They sleep standing up, needing at most two hours of sleep a day. And baby giraffes can walk and run just half an hour after being born.
Heron, graphite on Bristol (plate)
This is another bird we see on Orcas Island, especially along Crescent Beach just out of town.
