Trilobite

On our first day in the Zoological class or nearly the first day, we got to look at trilobites and take photos. So I used those photos to make my final poster for the Intro class.

Click to "embiggen"

Mosasaur tooth measured line drawing. My first line drawing!

Mosasaur tooth in carbon dust. This was my first go at carbon dust.

Trilobite in carbon dust, but I just couldn't get it to look the way I wanted so I did another one in ink for the poster.

Some photos I took of the trilobites in class since we didn't get to keep them.

You might recognize this guy.

Burke Museum Paleo Day

Susan got us a day down in the bowels of the Burke Museum to sketch their paleo collection. Here's what I did.

Oreodont jaw in graphite

Macaque skull in graphite

Albertosaurus skull in ink

And here are some photos I took. It was such a cool day to see behind the scenes at the Burke. A little terrifying too to be near all those priceless items.

fossilized flower. So pretty.

Cast of an Albertosaurus skull

Front view of the Albertosaurus skull

Macaque skull

Upper jaw of the macaque skull

Complete macaque skull. - Abe had to help me put the jaw on because I couldn't figure it out

Adorable slow loris posed skeleton. Saw it at Mammal Day later next to a similarly posed taxidermy slow loris

Teeth of something I wouldn't want to bite me 

Oreodont teeth.

Chicken skull

Chicken Skull Time! This was a fun project. Susan said they don't usually come with the hyoid bone (which is our adam's apple, but attaches to the tongue on the chicken) nor the sclerotic ring (which mammals don't have but is a protective bone over the eye. They are also usually cleaner. These had a lot of dried fleshy bits left of them, which isn't super gross, but makes them harder to draw.

Gestural drawings

Measured line drawings

Graphite value studies

Ink drawings. Upper left is stipple and the rest are contour lines. This was the actual final assignment for the chicken skulls

Gouache and colored pencil. This was my favorite technique I learned in the whole class and was not for an assignment really

Bone Bi-Point

The bone bi-point was for learning about archeological drawings. It was a fun assignment, but I did pick a rather simple object. It as pretty small, too. The bone bipoint, from a West Point excavation site, is from abut 3500-2700 BC. It was made using the incision carving method, I think. That's where they just cut at it until it is the right shape.

Measured line drawings of a bone bipoint, which is essentially a sort of fish hook.

Ink drawings of bone bipoint, an illustration of how the bipoint was used, and some ink tests.

Bone Bipoint

Measuring the length of the bone bipoint

Measuring the width of the bone bipoint

Cat cervical vertebrae

I am not surprised, but the bones are my favorite to draw. The cat vertebrae was out first one. This is the cervical vertebrae from the neck.

Measured line drawings of essentially the top?

Measured line drawings of the side

Measured ine drawing straight down the top (or up the bottom?)

on scratchboard - which I love

Leaves of fall

This was a really fun assignment. We had to collect leaves to do colored pencil drawings of. And it was fall, so we had some great choices! Anways, I had a ton. My work has some gorgeous trees, so I would go for walks to pick leaves. But then we had to also do an overlay and I was so excited about drawing the leaves that I forgot to leave room.

Leaf rubbings where I traced the veins and added colored pencil notes

Apple Snail

Our very first assignment was with the apple snails. I had a blast with these. Eventually. I freaked out a little because I had to go to Bellingham ComiCon that first weekend. So I ended up drawing some other snails.

Gestural drawings and some notes about apple snails.

Measured line drawings

Dr Who snail I drew at Bellingham Comicon

I thought Susan said French Apple Snail and this was all I could think of for the next week. Snail with a Poirot mustache.

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.