I don't think the glass slippers will fit

Giant Armadillo-rella is surprised by her Pink Fairy Armadillo Godmother. Correct scale, what's that? A small watercolor sketch to try to get the creative juices flowing again. I always end up putting too much detail when I try to draw cartoony animals that aren't easily recognizable.

Cute 'n Fluffy

Pink fairy armadillos love old-school bottled sodas. She's wearing two carnations on her head too.

I've drawn many a platypus in my day. Not one eating a donut before now, though. Bonus persimmon hat!

Here's your favorite American marsupial and mine, the peanut-eating, muskmelon-snooded opposum!

A plantain squirrel samples an edamame pod.

A checkered elephant shrew has a delicious Pop-Tart, possibly cherry flavored. The cliche of the fez had to show up sometime in 100 clothed creatures!

Fun with Taxidermy

Had a nice visit to the La Sierra University World Museum of Natural History. It has all kinds of taxidermied animals; reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals. Many are very well done, not the weird shrivelly creatures you sometimes see (a lot were prepared by freeze-drying). But since the collection was still being worked on, a lot of animals didn't have labels.

We had some time alone inside to sketch. The guy manning the office came over to see what was going on after I made a bunch of noise ripping paper out of my sketchbook and rattling around my watercolor set. Later, a big bunch of people came in on some kind of campus tour. Since I was sitting on the floor, leaning on another display case, I was either in their way or they'd try to be sneaky about looking at what I was doing. On to the sketches!

The museum said it has the largest collection of Southeast Asian birds in the US. There were many colorful birds of unknown species. The ones I painted had labels: two hornbills (a man said about the Helmeted Hornbill "That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen") and a cuckoo. The coolest birds were up too high to see while sitting and I it's hard to stand and hold all my watercolor stuff. I was kind of lazy with my color mixing on these. It's fun to draw birds that are holding still!

There were strange groupings of mammals; armadillos, monkeys, civets, baby hoofed animals. The bushdog looked a little off, but I liked its curled tail and shocked expression. I think the little armadillo was a six-banded. The capybara looked kind of mad too.

Armor + 9 Bands

A nine-banded armadillo. It's eating ants. Black and white art by me, what do ya know?