Here’s a newborn baby Douglas squirrel. Their nest was found broken on the ground with no other babies or mom in sight. We think it may have been a predator.
We also have 6 Western cottontails and a new screech owl. The last screech owl has recovered well and has been released.
I’m in Digital Illustration II now and we’re doing practicing realistic techniques. Not as fun as narrative illustrations, but I’m definitely picking up some new things. I had a great trip to New York City – I’ll post that later this week. The smaller picture is the photo reference.
I just turned in this illustration last week for Illustrating Literature class. It continues some ideas I have about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea with Animals. I learned a lot more about painting water, textures, and lighting on this one and this week I’m working on more sequential illustrations from the story.
We’re continuing to draw our way through the animal kingdom. Each week’s assignment follows the same pattern – block out the geometric shapes, then draw animal gestures. We’re also doing a skeleton study and ecorche / muscle drawing, so it’s busy. Having done an ecorche for each group helps in making a fantasy hybrid animal (WIP). These are just a few of the sketches from the past weeks.
I’ve had a week off before heading into the new quarter and Concept Illustration. I know a lot of animal artists talk about visiting the zoo to draw animals from life, but the zoo has its limitations – including the fact the animals are usually pretty far away. Yesterday I went to a 
chalk artist, then became a full-time fine art painter. I learned from him that skin tones can be mixed with a green underpainting (verdaccio) and flesh tones.
In the morning, I painted an African hornbill.
