#215 The Shoebill

Animalia: Day 150

The Shoebill

Went simple on this one.

Tomorrow: the shrew

#214 The Sheep

Animalia: Day 149

The Sheep

No coloring on this one, just a regular ol' drawing.

Tomorrow: the shoebill

#213 The Seal

Animalia: Day 148

The Seal

Tomorrow: the sheep

#212 The Sea Turtle

Animalia: Day 147

The Sea Turtle

Bonus turtle:

Tomorrow: the seal

#211 The Sea Scorpion

Animalia: Day 146

The Sea Scorpion

Also known as a Eurypterid, another Ordovician / Cambrian fella.

Tomorrow: the sea turtle

#210 The Seahorse

Animalia: Day 145

The Seahorse

I based this seahorse design on a Dutch 17th century 

ornamental style referred to as the auricular or Kwab style.

The most famous example is this 1614 ewer by Adam van Vianen:

There was an exhibition about Kwab at the Rijksmuseum in 2018,

and an associated symposium, during which I drew the seahorse.

Kwab is very melty and bodily. It's basically 17th century

H.R.Giger w/ a hint of Cronenberg, but prettier.

Still, lots of bodily forms, some pretty sexually charged,

some very sea creature-y, others kind of demonic.

Some examples from the exhibition:

And here are some other doodles from that Kwab symposium:

Tomorrow: the sea scorpion

#209 The Salmon

Animalia: Day 144

The Salmon

I drew this a long while back, but didn't scan it until last week,
along with a batch of other drawings.

Salmon: surprisingly colorful.

Also delicious.

Tomorrow: the Seahorse

#208 The Sailfish

Animalia: Day 143

The Sailfish

And another I drew while on family vacay:

Look up sailfishes! How is this a real animal?!?

Every image you find online looks photoshopped/CGI?

(definitely not) Tomorrow: the Salmon

#207 The Saiga Antelope

Animalia: Day 142
The Saiga Antelope

After an absurdly long hiatus (4 years, actually... I've
been getting a PhD man, back off!), I drew this HQ:


Look at this Alf-lookin, Gonzo-nosed, vacuum cleaner of an animal!

And that is that!

Tomorrow (but actually right now!): the Sailfish

#199 Seven Wonders Sketches Part Two

No Animalia Post today. Sorreeee. But here's this instead.

For the Seven Wonders Series:

A sketch of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in large

part inspired by what I remember of Nick's early sketches,

one of which can be seen in my last Seven Wonders post.

I'm very happy with this one, and for the battle, it'll be drawn

very large, with smaller Zeus and Artemis monsters fighting it.

#198 The Rhinoceros

Animalia: Day 141

The Rhinoceros

After Albrecht Dürer

After Albrecht Dürer + TMNT

Dunno.

Explanation: So I approached this drawing thinking about Dürer's ever-present rhinoceros. Dürer's rhino is a landmark in the history of art and – more importantly for me – in the history of printmaking. Perhaps more broadly, it is a landmark in the history of science and knowledge. It accordingly serves as the cover illustration of Susan Dackerman's exhibition catalogue Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge. I take this print as a teaching point every time I talk about the history of prints and the power of images, especially in terms of multiples. 

(Dürer's Rhinoceros, via wikipedia)

It remains the quintessential image of a rhinoceros. Despite its inaccuracies, this image was powerful enough to shape the very idea of 'rhinocerosness' for hundreds of years after its production. One can read the wikipedia article (yes, it has its own article) for the whole story, but suffice it to say that this image – apart from looking super cool – changed the history of art, science, and knowledge itself.

And it is still effecting images of rhinos, and artists interested in interpreting Dürer's work in countless ways:

Don Moyer's 17 sketches of Dürer's rhinoceros from memory.

Rhino robot.

A reimagining of Dürer's rhino.

Another reimagining, this one with extended neck.

So I thus knew that I too would pay homage to Dürer. I first considered showing a more realistic rhinoceros removing the armor plates that Dürer has applied, as if he were wearing a suit of armor. This website is pretty exciting in showing the armor in its constituent parts. I then was thinking about more anthropomorphic rhinoceroses, and remembered Rocksteady, the constant companion of Bepop, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember him from the cartoon, but it occurs to me that I might have had his action figure as well. I can't remember for sure.

Rocksteady (via TMNTpedia)

So I sketched out the body first on paper, then traced it onto the wacom tablet, giving me a basic outline. Since it was a sketch, at this point I hadn't added any of the clothes, but he was posed holding the gun. Then I started adding skin textures. Eventually, I had added textures to the whole thing, but hadn't added the clothes yet. This was more or less the third image posted above. At that point, I knew I wanted to post a version with all the textures visible, but the gun felt too violent, especially given what happens to rhinos in the wild, and other issues with guns happening right now in America. So I added the "Bang" to neutralize that. But it wasn't enough. I forgot about it and moved on to adding the clothes, which went well. I didn't go as far as giving him cargo pants and combat boots, but I still think it reads as Rocksteady without those, especially with the dangling turtle shell at his hips (what was that all about anyways?). Anyways, after having completed the full Rocksteady outfit, I decided to return and remove the gun (first image). It results in a somewhat awkward stance, but I am glad I did it. It is better than a rhino holding a gun for no reason. The monogram was added last, obviously inspired by / derived from Dürer's own. I also briefly considered adding a version of the Dürer rhino as a Judoon soldier from Doctor Who, but decided it would be too much work, and would cover up all the exciting textures anyways. So alas, no Judoon.

But here is a bonus Rhino from a few years ago, drawn from the Natural History Museum's brochure cover.

Tomorrow (probs not tho): the Saiga Antelope.

#197 The Raccoon

Animalia: Day 140

The Raccoon

So as I mentioned yesterday, this is one of a series of three drawings

of forest creatures on different sorts of vessels (plane, submarine, boat).

This was originally going to be a space ship, but I liked it as a sub better

because I could fill it with more animals. But the raccoon is still kind of 

floating in the way he did in my space ship sketches. The More You Know.

I did make one noticeable change in the actual drawing where I moved

the spotlight not he ground so that it lined up better. Cheating happens.

Tomorrow (not really sure what "tomorrow" is, due to time change going from Paris to Ky): the Rhinoceros.

#196 The Rabbit

Animalia: Day 139

The Rabbit

So this drawing and tomorrows – the raccoon (as well as the squirrel) 

– were done in 2011 and 2012 as gifts for my girlfriend at the time.

They form a series of forest animals in different ships of sorts.

Thus, they do not have the requisite "fig..." labels. But I colored them

for the purpose of putting them up for Animalia. It is also why the

animals are kind of secondary to the larger narrative of the image.

In any case, I really like how these turned out, hope you do too.

Strangely enough, they will be getting posted in the opposite order

that they were made. So the squirrel, which won't be up for months,

was actually done in early 2011, with the others done in 2012.

Tomorrow: the Raccoon.

#195 The Quetzalcoatlus

Animalia: Day 138

The Quetzalcoatlus

The quetzalcoatlus is an awesome giant-headed pterosaur.

It's also pretty cool that they're named after a feathered 

serpent God of the Aztecs. After having watched this video, 

I am realizing that I totally misunderstood the structure of

how its wings collapse when it walks. Whoops. It happens.

Tomorrow: the Rabbit.

#194 The Puffin

Animalia: Day 137

The Puffin

By request, I did the Puffin last night. It threw off the numbers

for the next few I've already done, but I removed the rat from

my list since I drew at least fifty of them for The Alchemist, as 

well as having already drawn a mouse, besides other rodents.

Done digitally, due to lack of scanner. Turned out alright tho.

Tomorrow: the Quetzalcoatlus.

#193 The Pufferfish

Animalia: Day 136

The Pufferfish

Dat smileeee. More texture brush here for the coloring.

Tomorrow: the Quetzalcoatlus

#192 The Pteraspis

Animalia: Day 135

The Pteraspis

Devonian period jawless fish with a hard shell front half.
I'm not really sure how its mouth works.

Also, I rediscovered some texture brushes I used to use,
and so you will be seeing some of those in the next few.
Also, I am pretty proud of the water texture, which was
done with a regular brush at low opacity, and then filtered
with blur and sharpness until it looked as it does here.
Surprisingly successful in its verisimilitude.

Tomorrow: the Pufferfish.

#191 The Psittacosaurus

Animalia: Day 134

The Psittacosaurus

Some simple colors but I like how they turned out.

Wasn't a fan of Barney when that was a thing, but apparently

I am kind of into coloring dinosaurs pink and purple.

Tomorrow: the Pteraspis.

#190 The Pronghorn

Animalia: Day 133

The Pronghorn

My first horned quadruped in a little while!

As much as I dislike all of the images of hunted and dead animals,

I am still pretty into taxidermy and the aesthetic of mounted heads.

Also, ritual masks that are way too big for their own good,

and art that emulates that sort of aesthetic. Anyways I kind of combined

those into a dude wearing a big animal head and dancing.

But I am very happy with how this one turned out.

In any case, I had originally drawn a boring body for this guy,

which reminded me too much of my drawings of the deer and chamois,

so I switched his body out for a human carrying a mounted head.

Which kind of negates this guy's status as a horned quadruped, eh?

Here's how it was originally going to look, via phone photo of process:

Tomorrow: the Psittacosaurus.

#189 The Porpoise

Animalia: Day 132

The Porpoise

The porpoise. For me, feels like another kind of boring one, but people 

seemed to really like the Porcupine, so maybe folks will like this too.

In any case, the next few days will be filled with ones that I think

are a lot more exciting and fun, so look forward to that!

Tomorrow: the Pronghorn.