#64 The Dog

Animalia: Day 47

The Dog

Thumbnails.

Sketch

Final version 1.

Final version 2.

Okay, I know, I'm a day behind.

But seriously, look at them past few drawings, they took a hot minute.

I wanted to do the dog justice for a few reasons.

For starters, there are a ton of dog breeds that should all be their

own species considering how morphologically diverse they are.

Apart from that, my girlfriend (and I) has a Boston Terrier pup

who we have been living with for a few months, and I had to do it for her.

So there (s)he is as Johnny Storm, the Boston Terrier.

Then there is the Papillon as Sue Storm,

the Bulldog as Ben Grimm, and the Dachsund as Reed Richards.

So, I wanted to do a couple different species,

and I thought of just doing the heads,

which reminded me of the old comics that would show

just the heads of the characters in the top left corner.

With that in mind, I thought the F4 would be good because

they each have distinct characteristics and personalities, like dogs.

I took FF#1 as inspiration, and intended to include a title and the head box at top,

but forgot about them when doing the large drawing,

while also adding in some octopuses to be the foes.

Anyways, version 1 was the finished version,

where I realized it lost its comic book feel in the background coloring.

So I just took all the BG colors and upped the saturation and lightness,

which lead to version 2.

Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to get back on schedule tomorrow or the day after.

Tomorrow: the Dolphin.

#63 The Dodo

Animalia: Day 46

The Dodo

This one is a bit late because while looking at dodo pics,

got distracted by how amazing looney tunes are. and from 1938.

Also, wanted to do some birds eye view,

to try and fix my inability to draw perspectives.

A couple hours (and thumbnails) later,

I had a preliminary drawing.

Finished it this morning, then decided to add a background.

Anyways, I'm happy with how this turned out,

though I wish the mouth was more frowny and froglike,

and it's a little too Toucan Sam for my liking.

Later today: the Dog.

#62 The Dimetrodon

Animalia: Day 45

The Dimetrodon

Apparently the Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur.

Then what is it?

Who knows.

I should have scanned the thumbnail sketch for this, it's much cuter.

Also should have just done the shading in pencil,

and not bothered with doing it in pen.

Oh well, live and learn.

and get Luvs.

Tomorrow: the Dodo

#61 The Deer

Animalia: Day 44

The Deer

Boring boring boring.

You can tell by the eraser marks and sketches on the original that

the majority of my time was spent drawing those stupid HQ legs.

You can also see the erased original tiny bodied version I did.

Basically, by the time I got the legs looking half decent,

I hated the drawing, so I didn't color it either.

Tomorrow: the Dimetrodon

#60 The Crow

Animalia: Day 43

The Crow

Based on the [probably offensive?] crow characters in Dumbo. 

Tomorrow: the Deer

#59 The Crab (Heike crab or Heikegani)

Animalia: Day 42

The Crab

Last time I was in Japan, my dad told me about Heike crabs.

They're special cause they got samurai faces on they backs.

My drawing is pretty faithful to the actual things, except that I pulled

details from a few different examples in order to make it super face-like.

The biggest change I made was moving the circles that make the pupils up a bit,

so that they were contained within the eye area, normally they are just outside of it.

You can read about them on Wikipedia, and see some pictures here.

Tomorrow: the Crow

#58 The Crocodile

Animalia: Day 41

The Crocodile

Topical humor circa five years ago?

So, this crocodile stands in contrast to the alligator

we did over way back on Day 3.

I chose to do a comic, which was originally just going to be three panels,

but kind of took on a life of its own.

Notice how the shading style I stole from Eric Powell for my chicken

has worked its way into the EMANCIPATION panel.

I only spent 20 minutes on the colors because I want to sleep tonight,

so I am kind of displeased with them. They're just sloppy.

Wish I had more time to spend on stuff like this.

But I am reallyreally happy with how the story panels came out.

Also: Schnappi. CLICK IT.

or ticket.

Tomorrow: the Crab

#57 The Cowfish

Animalia: Day 40

The Cowfish

Animalia is back from a 3 day hiatus with the cowfish!

I first learned of the cowfish when I saw them at the City Museum in St. Louis.

They were my second favorites in the aquarium after the nautilus,

which ended up dying. So they're my favorites now.

The cowfish is one of those animals that is so ungodly cute

that you can't possibly believe they actually exist.

It has the legs of a Zubat, the fins of a Horsea, and the ears of a Pikachu.

+___________

cowfish

I mean, honestly. It's adorable.

I will probably add color and repost tomorrow.

Also, maybe the mouth of a Jynx.

Tomorrow: the Crocodile

#56 Nick Francel Collabs

Met up with Nick today.

Some of our collab plans didn't come to fruition,

and we resorted to exquisite corpses.

Maybe they will get colors someday.

We might meet up tomorrow and work on more stuff.

Animalia will resume Monday.

#55 a friendly note

Sorry kids, no animalia tonight.

Went to a Ramblin' Jack Elliot concert and didn't have time tonight.

Also, Nick is in Boston, so we will meet up tomorrow

and hopefully make some sweet arts.

This should also give him a bit of a chance to catch up on animalz.

To hold you over, my friend Lilian drew this exquisite picture of a sloth:

She also sends these fun tidbits:

• Three-toed sloths only have two toes, but three fingers.

• Sloths are funny looking when they cross streets, youtube it.

#54 The Cow

Animalia: Day 39

The Cow

Didn't feel like drawing the whole body,

though the prospect of drawing veiny utters was tempting.

The hair on top of the head inspired me to make him super cool.

And cool cows stay in school and off the streets.

Tomorrow: the Cowfish

#52 cont. The Coelacanth

Coloredddddd

#53 The Cookiecutter Shark

Animalia: Day 38

The Cookiecutter Shark

I didn't know about this animal until recently,

but I am terrified.

They have mouths that take golfball-size

chunks of meat out of other, much larger fish.

Also, their teeth are terrifying.

Tomorrow: the Cow

#52 The Coelacanth

Animalia: Day 37

The Coelacanth

The coelacanth is pretty dope,

and was the subject of a Jetta ad years ago.

I added more head plating to make it

more similar to early jawed fishes.

As you can see, not much changed from the original to final.

Didn't have time to color it,

but maybe I will do that in the fyoo-chure?

Happy to do a texture other than hair or fur again.

Tomorrow: the Cookiecutter Shark.

#51 The Coati

Animalia: Day 36

The Coati

The coati is another marmot raccoon thing.

It is also known as the Brazilian aardvark, Mexican tejón,

hog-nosed coon, pizote, crackoon, and snookum bear...

I know, I thought Wikipedia had been vandalized too,

but I double checked snookum bear, and it clears.

Anyways, I did this drawing based on this

crooked hog-nosed coon (how is that not offensive?).

The background is my default grass to sky treatment.

Tomorrow: the Coelacanth!

(Finally something not small and furry!)

#50 The Civet

Animalia: Day 35

The Civet

The Civet is like a weird raccoon marmot cat.

Sometimes they got real long necks.

The end.

Tomorrow: the Coati

#49 The Chinchilla

Animalia: Day 34

The Chinchilla

I guess they can't all be winners.

Tomorrow: the Civet

#48 The Chimpanzee

Animalia: Day 33
The Chimpanzee

Started this one with the image of the expression of the

mouth and old cartoony eyes in my head.

Turned out well, I think.

The coloring doesn't add too much, but it is fine.

I think my rendering has improved since I started this project,

and I've added a couple of marks and techniques to my toolkit,

so I think it is an overall success.

Anyways,

Tomorrow: the Chinchilla

#47 The Chicken

Animalia: Day 32
The Chicken

Blogger has been down for about a day, hence the late post.

So.

Been trying some other stuff I've seen Eric Powell do in The Goon,

and that's how I arrived at the back lit chicken.

Also, some obvious nods to Carravaggio and the

long tradition of decapitation in the History of Art,

be it St. John the Baptist, Goliath, or Holofernes.

This being a result of the stories about chickens

living for days after their heads have been cut off.

The "Strange Tales" title just felt inevitable

when combining gangster horror comics and

true stories about headless chickens.

Maybe Tim Lane's influence had a part in it too.

Also, fairly happy with it because I didn't really

use any reference photos except for the head.

Tomorrow: the Chimpanzee

#46 The Cheetah

Animalia: Day 31

The Cheetah

Ignore the background.

Mainly just into the face on this one, took forever.

Tomorrow: the Chicken

#45 The Chamois

Animalia: Day 30

The Chamois

Apparently the Chamois is another HQ (horned quadruped).

It is described as a goat antelope, which I like to call a goat-a-lope,

not to be confused with go-ta-elope, which is what confused young'uns do.

I really need to figure out how to draw these HQs.

I always kind of cop out on them, the figure is never very strong,

which is why I think I liked the bull so much.

Anyways,

Tomorrow: the Cheetah

#44 The Chameleon

Animalia: Day 29

The Chameleon

Really happy with this one.

I'm in a pencil groove right now.

I think it's because I'm still working my way through all of the TPB's of The Goon,

and he does a lot of amazing stuff with pencils.

I would find more examples if I had time.

Anyways, happy with this one.

Tom will give me trouble about my flame-job.

Tomorrow: the Chamois (its an H-Q)

#43 cont. The Cat

Animalia: Day 28

The Cat - Part two

Turns out I value sleep less than I thought,

and I ended up finishing it tonight.

It isn't as good as it was in my head,

and I might actually like the pencils more than the finished.

Anyways, inspiration from this and a hint of this.

#43 The Cat

Animalia: Day 28

The Cat - Part one

I am taking a little extra time on this cat one,

or at least, not spending my time tonight on it.

So here is a sneak peak at the pencils,

which I will add color to and post tomorrow.

Hopefully this won't set anything else back.

Also, I went into the cat thinking it was going to be

really boring and lame because, honestly,

cats have been done and done and done.

But, I am really happy with this drawing and I hope it

turns out as awesome as it is in my head.

Tomorrow: the (karmakarmakarmakarmakarma) Chameleon.

#42 The Capybara

Aminalia: Day 27

The Capybara

Capybara's live in South America and look super chill all the time.

I ran out of room in my big sketchbook,

so I'm temporarily using a small one gifted to me from Kim Wardenburg!

Tomorrow: the Cat

#41 The Canary

Animalia: Day 26

The Canary

Canaries are really yellow. They also die in cages in mines.

That's about all I know about 'em.

I think Tweety was a canary.

Today was a quickie, but I still like it.

Hoping to do more like this and also do more sleeping.

Tomorrow: the Capybara