Ruffed and Ready

Sketches of red ruffed lemurs at the zoo. Lemurs have such difficult faces to capture. I avoided this by doing quick scribbles because they moved around a lot. They spent most of the time grooming themselves and changing sunning positions.









These were done with a Japanese brushpen that turned out not to be waterproof, which I found after I started using watercolor over it.

Re-introducing Folderol!

I've decided to call the sporadic dumb little comics I make "Folderol", which means "trivial or nonsensical fuss", because I make them about things that don't really matter. Time for Episode 2, once again inspired by real-life events. Kids really need a bit more explanation before their teachers send them off to do their yearly science projects.

(This is a real experiment someone really came in to ask where our books about it were.)

New Year, New Banner

I've had the same banner art since 2009, so I painted a new one. I had the idea to make two animals who've given their lives for art. I painted the two on blue watercolor paper after inking them with purple. I ended up flipping them for the banner, which seemed to make the composition work better.

The Siberian weasel's tail fur is used to make fancy Kolinsky brushes. I decided to make them like cherubs or conquering angels. I also took a shortcut I saw in another classical painting of cherubs where each had only one wing. This makes for a more readable silhouette (and I didn't have to try to make even more tricky feathers!)

Oxgall liquid, made of bovine bile, is used to make paint flow and wash easier. This picture is heavily influenced by an ancient sculpture. Even though the jar of oxgall got reversed in the final picture, it's so small and blurred that it doesn't really matter.

Ex Libris

I like books. I like fancy bookplates. I like bilbies. I made myself a bookplate with a bilby on it to stick in my books.

I drew the picture with my crowquill and ink, then colored it blue digitally and added the border and lettering. I found a fun map font with flourished letters. Now I can't bring myself to stick them into any new books.