Cats and violence

It's what I do, right?

Sketchbook page of our 15-pound cat, Lily. I bought an inkbrush to try, and I'm loving it. Toned with watercolor and gouache.

The event log from my current game of Dwarf Fortress: adventure mode. I'm playing a dwarf covered in shields (not shown) and weapons, and yet I slew the leader of goblin bandits by throwing a giant cockroach I found in a cave.

This game is ridiculous and I love it.

Some random arts!

I realize it's been some time since I posted, so let's throw some drawings around!

A tribute to Mr. Brian Jacques, the man who shaped my childhood and taste in fiction. He died of a heart attack on the 5th.

In which I biff crocodilian anatomy. My excuse is I didn't have internet (and thus reference) at the time, but I guess it's kinda cool anyway.

Attempting to learn how to use watercolors again. This time I come armed with paints that are dark/rich enough to allow actual value contrast.

Aaand some more Mossflower boards, of a pretty short scene. It's a warmup for a much longer scene that will probably take me months to finish. >:)

Hooters gotta hoot!

Not long ago, I stumbled unexpectedly into the fact that owls are awesome and amazing amounts of fun to draw.

Check out the Striped Owl. They are gorgeous birds. I went kinda nuts and drew a whole ton of them.

And barn owls. I like how their silhouettes looks headless when they fly.

Now I suppose it's time to play around in some other styles for these critters. What fun! X)

best of zoo - July 2010

Finally got to the zoo, after far too long. This time, the Columbus Zoo!

I'd forgotten how much bigger this zoo was than Hogle - we were rushing at the end just to get to all the animals we wanted to draw!

I did the whole thing with a brush pen, except at the end where I switched to a chisel-tipped pen. The watercolors were all added after we got home, because I felt like experimenting.

black swans and a parrot-like bird, from the (South Asian) "Islands" area.

Komodo dragon, from the same area.

Okapi, from the African Forest area.

A big lazy lion. There were also some half-grown cubs, with spots still on their legs and bellies.

And at long last, the brand-new Polar Frontier exhibit. This is the first time I've been able to see polar bears live. The filtration system had some minor glitch, so the underwater viewing area wasn't open, but the two bears in there gave me plenty of sketching material.

Good ol' brown bears and a couple bison. Such awesome animals.

This I found amusing because these fish are completely native to the area, and yet, during a zoo trip, I took some of our precious time to sketch them. Oh well.

Thunderbolt!

And old artbug has resurfaced as of late - a desire to draw a comic about WWII fighter pilots. So my Memorial weekend was (appropriately) spent devouring the subject in text and Youtube form. Who knows if I'll get a story worked out before the bug goes dormant again, but at least I can gather resources and practice drawing difficult things like AIRPLANES.

These were referenced from photos, except when otherwise noted.

Olympics III

And here's the last of 'em! I ran out of steam near the end so I only watched the very last events, though I did draw Dakkan playing hockey on some printer paper for kicks. Otter playing hockey, it almost works. :V

Olympics II

Part two!

Olympics I

I make it no secret - I LOVE the Olympics. I love watching almost every single event I can, and I love rooting for American (and my other pet favorite countries') athletes as they strive for medals. This is something I can't adequately explain, but I love 'em anyway.

On the list of "why the Olympics are awesome" are the opportunities it presents for gesture sketching. Like in life, you don't have a pause button. Sometimes you have replays and can cheat a little, but you've got all these great dynamic things going on and it's great.

So I'm going to put my Olympic sketchbook pages over the next few posts, uncensored for suckitude. How exciting. :P

more summer sketchbook!

My last bishopric was fun to draw.

FHE trip to the Bean - live reptile show!

sketchbook update!

I'll start off with this drawing I made of the Hinckley building while waiting for the fireworks on July 4. Yay... not avoiding drawing architecture!


The rest of these are my favorites from the two zoo trips I took in August. They have FOSSA (pronounced "foosa") as the temp exhibit now, you guys. They are like a mix between cougars and weasels and they are AWESOME.

fossa

baby giraffe and cheetah

birds and a sloth

The little jubilant "me" in there is happy because I'd never seen the red panda awake before.

This tiger knows he is a fine beast.

100th post?

That's a lot of posts! It's so crazy!

And it's been forever since my last post, geez. Wanna see the holdup?

It's my storyboard from Ryan's class this past semester! 8|

It took so freakin' long to post because as I timed it out in video form, I noticed more and more things that were wrong with it. Which made me less and less motivated to finish, but eventually I decided I'd just post it and move on. I'll have to suck less on my next one, though I did do better at pulling out the camera this time. *sigh*

Also I have a sketch page of the little hurt snail I took in a week or so ago. His shell is thickening back up, actually, so I can release him before I leave for Ohio on Sunday. And stop snickering, Jake and Anthony, I can hear you from here. >:|

That's all for now, though I do tend to catch up on all my summer sketching now that I've finally thrown out that storyboard as promised. Looks like all my dA links broke too somehow, dagnabbit.

Animals, for realz

Even more zoo drawings!! What a surprise!! I am going to post my boards from the final in Ryan's class soon. Really. :P