Wild Thing!

The May focus in my Natural History Illustration students group was called Wild Thing, as we were led by Kate Jenvey who is herself a candidate for Wildlife Artist of the Year.  She helped us to look at the underlying structure (musculoskeletal) of the animal to understand how it moves before attempting to draw it.

Here's my giraffe.  I drew the skeleton, and then put the muscles on it (most of a giraffe's muscles are in its neck) before sketching the final animal.

Eastern Bluebirds are back!

After several years with no sightings, the bluebirds have returned to  my garden.  So exciting!

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Seen in exactly this pose at Audubon Center/Francis Beidler Forest Sanctuary last weekend.  The photo reference was generously granted permission to use by the amazing wildlife photographer Phil Fowler who often birds at Beidler.

This was done with Polychromos and Luminance colored pencils on steel grey Stonehenge paper.

Phil Fowler's stunning photography can be seen on his website: http://phil-fowler-nature-photography.redframe.com/#/page/home/