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.

Goodbye Old Year. Happy New Year!

Walking away from 2010 into 2011. Wishing everyone reading this a prosperous new year!

Ptarmigan, Winsor & Newton watercolors.

Merry Christmas!

And a quetzal in a pear treeeee!!!!

3-Minute Comic Theatre

A very fast comic about life's little irritations. I have a blanket with yarny tassels hanging down on both ends; I guess it's supposed to be decorative rather than used to cover yourself. And I do like bugs, but I still have that human reflex to flip out if I think one is sliding down my philtrum.

Populating Boot Hill

Another late-night doodle idea was a Grim Reaper from the Old West. This is the sketchbook scribble. It made sense to me but it looks pretty strange now. They had scythes then too of course but I thought he'd be more at home with a giant Bowie knife. And a little scorpion buddy.

I love doing research of clothes from past eras. I used a few period photos, but somehow he doesn't look very Western. Though a lot of the pictures of famous outlaws have them dressed in more formal clothes than cowboy stuff. Surprisingly, the final is very similar in pose to the skeletal (ha ha!) sketch. I inked and painted it in sepia tones to capture that old photograph look. That is one big and crooked knife!

B&W Birds

Some more birds drawn with my crowquill. The laughing thrush has the coolest 'do. I wanted to draw some that had large areas of black and white. These are really cute birds.

White-plumed antbirds (my book is old and has outdated names) have great tufts in front of their eyes. I wonder how they see.

The quick brown fox just became the lazy dog

I have sketchbooks near my bed for picture ideas that pop in to my head in the strange times when I'm almost asleep. The other night I had a vision of foxes being miniaturized and pet-ified.

We could end up with Pomeranian-type foxes, tiny and floofy with curled tails. Or maybe a teacup fox, with Chihuahua head.

How about sweater foxes? Or, similar to what happened with those foxes in Russia bred for their fur, ones with dog-like spotting. Fox terrier, indeed!

Another fox on a leash, this time with harness. The last is a weird long-haired, flop-eared variety.

Hoppin' through the forest

 More snowy white forest animals. Fuzzy!

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.

Inka Dinks

Talking about crowquill pens the other day made me want to use mine again. I did a few warm-up scribbles of birds. I've always wanted to draw a skimmer, with their wacky beak. Bird feather texture in ink still eludes me.

The moustached swift has a very proper look about him. I tried to get some tone and line variations in this one. More to come!

Arctically Speaking

Painting white animals is a challenge. You have to try to make the shadows look like shadows on white and not gray markings. This is a ptarmigan. I love their floofy feet! The scanner seems to have eaten some of the lighter blues. These are small paintings, about 2 or 3 inches across.

Here I was trying out a water-painting technique. It came out OK; at first it looked pretty bad, but I was able to salvage it. With watercolor, you really have to try hard to preserve your highlights in water. I put on a bunch of greenish blue/indigo stripes down first, then got a wet brush and pushed the paint around. Narwhals are fun, I wish I had a narwhal tusk!

Pensando en la muerte

This is my Frida Kahlo pumpkin. I couldn't get a good picture with just the candlelight. ¡Feliz dia de los muertos!

Going Bump

Happy Halloween! Monsters have to be trained and cared for when they're not stalking you, you know. The scary one is kind of like a bat-dinosaur-boar. It was fun to do a bit of creature design. An inked sketch that I painted with watercolor.

EDIT: I found the scan of the ink-only version. I sort of like it better.

She thinks of him, and so she dresses in black.

It's become kind of a tradition for me to draw a picture of my little bilby character in a Halloween costume. This watercolor sketch is a very tiny painting of Pinki as Paul. This is why I don't draw her with shoes on -- look at how weird those Beatle boots look!

Cold Macaroni

Hi followers! I'm trying to update at least once a week. I hope I can try to do it more often. This picture is a small watercolor/brush pen. Penguins are fun to draw. And I haven't made any griffins in a while, which are some of my favorite things to draw.

The snow came out kind of cool. I made a list of flightless griffins, so that's why it says Part 1. Let's see if I actually draw any more of them!

Up from the Depths

Another small watercolor sketch. I've frequently had images of big, dark shapes underwater where you don't know what kind of creature it is. In dreams, it's often been scary. I wanted to paint a more benevolent scene. This isn't any particular animal, just one that likes eating lilies.

The one that got away

This is a picture from my "watercolors of things that pop into my head, possibly to become more finished paintings some day" sketchbook. I had the idea of a large prehistoric deerlike creature with decorated arrows in its hide. Don't worry, it climbed up high and is going to be fine. Now with rudimentary background! I wish I had made his antlers much larger, like an Irish elk's.

Awooooo!

I heard the song Werewolves of London and wanted to draw a werewolf. He's supposed to be eating beef chow mein but it looks more like ramen. I tried for a wolfier werewolf, in coloring and ears, but he seems to have some werehusky in him. And werenerd!