Fun Fish in Black and White

These are from a while ago now, maybe a couple months ago, but I was going through the education list of fish illustrations they didn't have and chose my favorites to start off with. For me, pen and ink is a very calm affair, zen-like almost. Turn on the music/podcast and slowly watch a piece develop under your hands. The time frame for these illustrations was more than usual since I was just filling time between projects, so they're more detailed than I would normally get.

The best of the recent black and white illustrations:

A frogfish.
They move around on their fins like they're part walking, part hopping along the ocean floor. They're also related to anglerfish and are ambush predators with a lure on their head.



A Pacific spiny lumpsucker.
These guys always remind me of muppets. A very cute fish. Their disk shaped ventral fin lets them hold onto rocks in high tide areas.



A wolf eel.
Not truly an eel—they have pectoral fins—these guys have some brilliant orange and brown colors with blue-green eyes as babies and then turn into grey, spotted, heavy-jawed animals as adults.

Tuco-tuco

A subterranean rodent that lives in South America, the tuco-tuco of the family Ctenomyidae.
Fulfilling an old request to draw one in black and white.

Garden Signage: Non-Plant Illustrations

Here are a few close-ups of the non-plant ID images used in the Garden signage.

Food waste that can be used for composting. This image was a simple pencil sketch composed from various photos and colored in Photoshop.


Compost and worms. Again, a simple sketch composed from various worm and compost photos, colored in Photoshop.


Organic pesticides. Usually when I do a vector image of an existing object, I start out with a trace of a photo of the object, usually low res, and adjust accordingly.


A close up of the home with the programmable drip irrigation box. Composed from various Illustrator and Photoshop elements.

Garden Signage

Here following are the Aquarium's garden signage, which feature my plant illustrations and vector drawings. The first two are used out in front to talk about our drought tolerant garden, designed to match existing signage in the front and the other one is used behind-the-scenes at our compost bin, designed to match our other BTS signs.

Water Wise Plants for the Home Garden

The Aquarium of the Pacific had it's official opening of its Earth-Friendly Garden on Earth Day 2010, featuring drought-resistant plants. The goal of this project was to show a variety of plants that had low water usage and that also looked beautiful, encouraging guests to plant a few in their home garden. I did the illustrations for the signs and based the layout on existing signage. Ahead are just a few of the many beautiful choices for a drought-resistant garden.

Foxtail Agave
Agave attenuata


Blue Fingers
Senecio mandraliscae


California Lilac "Blue Cushion"
Ceanothus "Blue Cushion"


Douglas Iris
Iris douglasiana


Jester Flax
Phormium tenax "Jester"


Spanish Lavender
Lavandula stoechas "Otto Quast"


Carmel Sur Manzanita
Arcostaphylos edmundsii "Carmel Sur"


Rock Rose
Cistus "Sunset"


Cleveland Sage
Salvia clevelandii "Winnifred Gilman"


Next time, a post of the actual signs and some plant illustrations from last year for the Watershed Exhibit website.

As I Sail On

Here's the latest large art project I was involved in for work. It's a sail-like banner for the Aquarium's Shark Lagoon, currently hanging on the elevator tower. Actual size is ~8' x 13'. Original was a sketch that was colored in Photoshop. I've only got a digital file of it now; the photos I took on the day it went up turned out too dark and grainy. Better photos of the actual sail to come.