How do you get them so small?

A minor background character from Beetlejuice inspired this picture. I like the traditional makeup and illusions that are used on the dead waiting room people. I watched the 2 scenes that this explorer with a shrunken head is in. He looks like he has big eyelashes in my drawing, when he really has wrinkled bulging eyes. I think it's funny how he has this staring expression. I used my heliotrope pen to rough out a sketch while watching the movie, then went back after to tighten it up. He's contemplating what to do with his hat now.

Things I noticed: in the first scene, his hat has a plain khaki band, but in the very end it has leopard/cheetah spots. He's also has a National Geographic on his lap in the first scene, and what appears to be the Handbook for the Recently Deceased in the second scene. So I did a bonus super-quick doodle of him checking out the magazine.

Underwater Pineapples

Pineapple fish look very cool. Swimming bilbies like to chase them around.

Watercolor and heliotrope ink sketchy painting.

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.

Now You're Takin!

Scribbley time! These are some doodles with my purple pencil. Takins are very cute and fuzzy. I would like to pet one.

A dumb drawing of a lion that's been interrupted from his shower by the phone (yeah, that's a phone he's holding). Lion styles are difficult if you don't want them to look like Simbas.

A rolly bear. A bear-rel roll! With a giant head and big long arms! Oh bears, with their pointy lips and fuzzy ears.

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!

What the heck! A whole month has almost gone by! I have some weird little doodles to post, I'll slowly get to scanning them. This first one is from one of my favorite quotes (more like huge rant) from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride. I know Vizzini is a bad guy but I still like him.

Never go against a caecilian when death is on the line! It's hard to make limbless creatures wear little coats and peasant shirts. I did an ugly painting job on this one, bleh.

Neither More nor Less than a Pig

Alice in Wonderland seems to be a subject for almost every artist. It's very well-known and iconic, I guess. I doodled up this picture while exploring Wonderland subjects for a gift painting. I decided that no one really wants a picture of Alice and the baby that turned into a pig hanging on their wall. The image of a pig in a baby bonnet is fun though. I drew this with my heliotrope pen, then painted it with watercolor.

Here is a bonus drawing of a mome rath outgrabing. The caterpillar describes it as a lost green pig making a sound like bellowing and whistling with a sneeze in the middle. I always thought the mome raths in Disney's version were cute, but look nothing like the book's illustration.

Ho ho!

I've had this idea for a while, and just got around to sketching it. I think this would make a fun button set -- animals with double names. I can't think of a good title; it seems that there are lots of words that have rhyming syllables but I can't think of any with repeated syllables.

There are a few more birds that fit this category (dodo being the most obvious) but I didn't want too many of them. I like motmots a lot. Did you know that they make their tail feathers look like this? They pull bits off to make the little spatulas.

Dikdiks are quite a bit skinner than this one but I was trying for more cartoony. The cuscus is my favorite drawing of all. It would be fun to do these again, or some more. I just like to get the idea down before it's lost to the ages like so many of the artwork I see in my head but never record. These are tiny watercolor paintings with purple inking, by the way.

Boba Bilby

Someone help me, I need new animals to draw! A quick bilby, again. I like the big straws they give you to drink boba with. This is meant to show their weird toes (two claws on one toe, whaaa?!?)