Back to Black

While I have done some color pieces for work, it's all been concept for projects that aren't public yet, so here's a few more ink spots that I've done lately. On the homefront, I am working on a couple of pieces, but they are still WIP.

Here's a whitespotted bamboo shark:


A porcupinefish, no species in particular but the markings were modeled after a Diodon holocanthus:


A male American Kestrel:


A Harris's Hawk; I feel like the head's too big:


And while not strictly black and white, it is fairly monochromatic. Here's an octopus done in Adobe Illustrator in the style of Live Trace for a volunteer name tags board:


Working on a Crested Caracara pen and ink drawing now. Otherwise, mostly working on new signage.

Spreading the Ink

Tried out some pen techniques at work with a few duck and other recent illustrations. I realized I don't really have a good brush for inking; at least it worked for the large patches I had to cover. So, the duck foot was done in the precise, careful inking I normally do, same with the buffalo sculpin. The generic duck was done partially with a brush, and the duck head was done with some looser, more varied strokes. The desert tortoise was a slower process with more detail, but I fiddle with stroke variation on the shell.

The Simplicity of Black and White

Been working on images for the volunteer information cards at work. I've forgotten how quick and simple black and white can be, plus I really like working with the ol' croquil and ink bottle. Some microns tossed in as well for the stippling. It's a fairly pleasant way to fill the hours. Besides, I can eliminate any major ink smudges with the erase function in PS. Here are just a few of the images.

Dead things don't move as much

K and I went to the World Museum of Natural History in Riverside this past weekend. Unlike drawing from life, all the animals there kindly sat in the same position for hours on end (not that I have a thing against sketching from life; this was just a different take on things). K is a much faster artist and therefore got a ton done, in the two hours we spent there.

On the other hand, I concentrated on one kingfisher specimen with some beautifully colored plumage. As far as I can tell, it's a White-throated Kingfisher, Halcyon smyrnensis from Asia, but since that's only a guess from googling, I can't tell you for sure. Not many of the animals there had labels, and I don't have a bird guide to Asia. Some well done taxidermied animals there. Will have to revisit. Some minor post work done afterwards.
Colors changed from the scan.