Mink Skull

We could choose from a spotted skunk, muskrat, or mink skull. I liked the teeth on the mink and this little guys was missing some teeth. Looks like the two front teeth fell out during cleaning, but his right incisor is closed in with bone, so I think he lost that in life. Pretty cool.

Gestural drawings

Measured line drawings

Graphite value studies

Gouache and colored pencil

Seattle Aquarium

On of our class days for Zoological Illustration as at the Seattle Aquarium. This was pretty darn fun.

Grumpy fish and a dogfish (which is really a composite of many dogfish)

Cuttlefish! No way to capture their entire cuteness

He really sat there for about 15 minutes like this just looking at me and everyone else walking by

Coral that fish were swimming around.

seahorses and stuff

Here are some photos I took.

Cuttlefish! I watched for a while and they kept changing color

This harbor seal just sat the for like 15 minutes. Looked like he was posing for me.

They got a new octopus and he is much more friendly

Sea horses!

Starfish eating a clam. Nom Nom

Blue Cockchafer Beetle

Fyi, the 'ch' in 'chafer' is pronounced as 'sh.' Anyways, This was a fun if frustrating project. I wish I had drawn the bug smaller. And my original bug got cold and separated from the lucite, turning completely silver, which made drawing him in color very difficult. I got a new one that did not separate, but he wasn't blue.

Measured line drawings.

Graphite on bristol

Color tests

Color pencil on dendril

Horseshoe crab

We literally got horseshoe crab and fiddler crab specimens. They are sitting in my living room in their jar of something slightly less toxic than formaldehyde. 

Here we have carbon dust and stipple on opposite sides of a sheet of dendril. Elyssa, one of the girls in my class, did an amazing bug using this technique, so now I want to try it again. But I didn't want to ever again after this project.

Gestural drawing

Measured line drawing

Dorsal View

Ventral view

click to embiggen

Shells

These are of the shell I got on the first day of class. Two views in two mediums. The stipple board is pretty much paper with a texture on it that then ends up making graphite look like stipple.

Gestural drawing and measured line drawing

Measured line drawing

Gestural drawing and measured line drawing

Scratchboard

Stipple paper (coquille)

Squid

Here's my watercolor of a squid. If I have time, I am going to do another one. I am not super please with this one. I really need to learn patience with watercolor. We all got a stinky raw calamari to take home. Pat said to take photos and draw sketches quick because it wouldn't last through the weekend.

Looks like he's dancing.

Close up of his mouth.

Angel squid

Measured line drawings

Sketch for teh painting

Gestural drawing, including a closeup of the mouth/beak

Final watercolor.

Stippled Eggs

As much as I like working in ink, this was not my favorite assignment.

Why would I do a measured line drawing of an egg?

Stipple of a cracked egg shell with a hunt 102 on dendril. Ugh.

Ammonite

On the first day of Zoological Illustration, one of the specimens we got was an ammonite (along with a shell and a mosasaur tooth). Our assignment was to do a carbon dust drawing of it. Lame. I would like to keep experimenting with carbon dust, but not a super happy camper with it here. Some people (I'm looking at your Crystal) are great with it. Not me.

Measured Line drawing

Larger measured line drawing in preparation for carbon dust

Natural Science Illustration

For the next while, I will be posting the drawings from my natural science illustration classes for Fall Quarter. Here's some information to orient you as I talk about my classes.
Susan Jones taught Introduction to Natural Science Illustration. We just learned about all the sorts of things NSI covers. We focused on small subjects like snails and trilobites.
Dr. Pat Weyer taught Zoological Illustration, which focused on invertebrates. Pat has a special focus on dolphins for a project she does every year in August.
Luckily, I also have 18 awesome classmates. We run the gamit of scientists and artists and it has been really fantastic to watch everyone's art improve over the quarter. At the beginning, there were a few standouts whose art you could always identify for its skill. But by the end of the quarter, we were all pretty fantastic. Everyone is very impressive. So get ready for some natural science art.