Endangered Species alert

Black footed ferret and Namdaphu Flying squirrel. Two Critically endangered critters. Would write more but it's late and I'm tired and I'm not overly proud of these pieces.

Just a Lone Tit

That's all I have to show off today. One Yellow Brested Tit. I hope you like it.

Reading Groups and Bizarre Creatures

There is a science known as Cryptozoology - the study of creatures that do not - or perhaps SHOULD not exist. It is a branch of science that I am most sceptical about but one cannot argue that there are still large tracts of the world where things have never been discovered and that maybe somewhere out there are creatures unknown to science or believed to be extinct. That is not what these pictures depict. I have sought out the more outlandish, the more bizarre of the Cryptids for the "Unknown Creatures" swap. Then I drew them based on written descriptions.

We have here:

The Dingonek of Africa, but for no real reason, I've made him blue -
"... he was a sight—fourteen or fifteen feet long, head big as that of a lioness but shaped and marked like a leopard, two long white fangs sticking down straight out of his upper jaw, back broad as a hippo, scaled like an armadillo, but colored and marked like a leopard, and a broad fin tail..."

The Sigbin of the Philippines (cousin to the chucapbra, perhaps?)
"...It resembles a hornless goat, emits a very nauseating smell and possess a pair of very large ears which are capable of clapping like a pair of hands and a very long flexible tail that can be used as a whio..."

Also the good ol' Bunyip of Australia -
"...Common features in Aboriginal descriptions include a dog-like face, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers and walrus-like tusks or horns or a duck like bill..."

And Caddy (Cadborosaurus Willsi) of British Columbia -
"...as some sort of a mammal, long, slender, and with a bifurcated tail. ... the head of the creature is described as a camels or a horses..."

Also, a couple of pieces for my Reading Group (complete with my reviews)

Tanglewreck by Jeanette Winterson
"Tanglewreck" is a bit of a trainwreck of a book. The plot tries very hard to be clever, with name dropping and insertation of scientific theories. This makes the plot rather confuluted and the science highly flawed. It tries to be sensible and scientific, throwing in a bit of magic and then having the "speed of love" rescue someone from a black hole. Some moments are downright creepy, others merely random and weird. It feels to me like the author has just shoved a random bunch of ideas together and tried to come up with a fairly lame plot to connect them. Not particularly recommended.

Picture depicts Elvis the Robo-dog not quite sure what to make of Bigamist, the psycho bunny spy:

Linnets and Valerians by Elizabeth Goudge (also known as The Runaways)

Enchanting, delightful, charming and quaint are all words to accurately describe this beautifully written, engrossing classic. The characters are delightfully eccentric, the children charmingly naughty and Uncle Ambrose gruff but loveable. From his one-legged manservant to the reclusive old lady next door, the mysterious artistic hermit and the wicked woman with her equally wicked cat, all of the characters are beautifully described and affectionately developed. The language is lyrical and evocative - you can smell the english country air and the delicious home baking will have you drooling into your book. Overall, exquisite and magical.

Picture depicts Abednego the monkey "manservant" with Gertrude, the lovely doll he is given by the youngest girl. Behind, a trio of bees cluster on the window. Bees played a relatively important role in the tale.

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle...

Three cards for the Jungle swap on ATCsfor all:

Spix Macaw - one of only three blue macaw species, the Spix is extinct in the wild and has the rather unfortunate distinction as being one of the world's rarest parrots (I'm not sure whether it is rarer than the Kakapo or not).

Victorian Crowned Pigeon - a beautiful mostly ground-dwelling pigeon found in Papua New Guinea and sporting an impressive crown.

Golden Lion Tamarin - one of the world's rarest primates. These wee fellows are found in Brazil where they are highly threatened by logging.

Also, drawing inspiration* from "mothstorm" by Philip Reeve, we have a steampunk submarine:

*That is to say, copied from one of Wyatt's pictures with a few of my own touches added. Sorry Wyatt, but my imagination is not grand enough to incorporate Steam Punk.

Also drew the robotic dog, Elvis and the psycho-bunny, Bigamist from the book "Tanglewreck" but haven't scanned it yet.

Drawing a Blank on Drawing Day

Today was Drawing Day and my intention was to produce a very fine piece depicting my delightful characters in an artistic mood. Complete Failboat. I could not get them to look right and eventually gave up in frustration and decided instead to loosen up my mind with a couple of 13 minute bird headstudies.

The first, a Victorian Crowned Pigeon (16 mins or so) turned out pretty well, pretty!

The second, a Hammerkop was another complete mess:

And finally, to complete everything nicely, my first "Reading Group" piece. A scene from "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell - Rontu, Tainor and Lurai. I hazarded a guess and made the birds Western Tanagers.

They turned out okay. But now it is past 11 pm and I need my beauty sleep (although there ain't enough of that to make me a beauty), so it is time to retire to my delightfully warm bed.

A bird in 13 minutes?

Well, not quite - most took slightly longer, but the challenge for this swap was to spend no more than 13 minutes per card. I decided that choosing the subject should not be included in that time! To also cut down time expended, I used my prismas, which are still in their original tray. Thus no fossicking through my large tin trying to find the one inch long terracotta pencil that is "in there somewhere".

The birds are:

Blue Heron, Oriental Bay Owl, Eider Duck
African Skimmer, Hoatzin and Crowned Crane.

I will likely not be sending the Blue Heron as the composition and balance are shocking and thus it just does not look right to me.

Also today my artistic offerings are:

A total failure at drawing something creepy, not cute. Then again, it is hard to deny that aye-aye are intrinsically cute. Especially if you've ever seen a year old youngester at close quarters.

A tropical butterfly perches on a ginger flower. I'm quite pleased with this one, and the effect I am managing to achieve on my flora pieces.

These two cards are for HmmNBird I think her name is. Should she want them!

Do you know that June 6th is DRAWING DAY?

Once more with feeling, err shading

After an honest and a little embarrasing critique of my proudly displayed "tyto alba artistic evolution" piece yesterday, I am humbled and a little shameful. Yes, I was lazy and refrained from shading it (not that she accused me of laziness, being too tactful for that). I have no real excuse (given the other changes I had made to the original piece), except that I was eager to get it uploaded and found it cute, so when I decided it needed a bit of blue shading I threw it on with little thought and any consistency. This is not, I admit, a very good way to learn and improve your art!

So I have reworked it again, but only a little this time - taking into consideration the backlighting
from the moon.

I am still not particularly good at imagining the play of light on fur, feathers or fabric and thus my shading is still most likely off. then again, a backlit subject like this would be almost entirely just a dark shadow with highlights on the head and along the tops of the wings, so I feel a few liberties must be taken.

She also implied it was rather too cuddly - and I agree, Barn Owls should be mysterious and a little creepy. However, I'm guilty as charged - I've become stuck in the saccharine children's book style.

So my challenge to myself today is to draw something dark and creepy and only a little bit cute. I am tempted to redraw this relatively archaic piece:

Also in the "Bluemoon" set, it is one of my early efforts at drawing an aye-aye, and rather a poor one.