Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge

Yesterday I visited an amazing place in Delaware called Bombay Hook. It's a wildlife refuge with an abundance of untouched space where tons of animals can live away from the dangers that humans all too often introduce to natural environments.

My main objective at Bombay Hook was to take some photos of their beautiful birds, many of which are egrets and herons. Because I love painting these types of birds so much, I thought it would be really great to get some reference photos of my own. It's so important to actually observe an animal's movements when you're planning to draw it.

 One of the more common birds at the refuge around this time of year are the egrets. This is a Great Egret, which is typically about 3 feet tall. It was fantastic to see all of the ways that their necks bend, and how long their necks really are when they're fully outstretched! 

I sometimes wonder if I exaggerate the length and slenderness of egrets' necks when I draw them, but their necks really are extremely long and slender! Look how thin their heads are - you can barely even see his when he's looking straight at you!

Taking off - these are the types of photos that can be so informative. Knowing the ways the body bends when it moves in specific ways is so important when drawing.

When this photo was taken, I was particularly excited. In this picture there is a congregation of birds which I had never seen in the wild - can you see them? They blend in pretty well.

The birds in the previous picture are Glossy Ibises. I hadn't ever seen them outside of photos, and they've been one of my favorite birds for a long time now. I was so excited to learn that they like to feed and spend time in large groups, and also to see that they're much smaller than I realized. They're only about 2 feet tall!

I saw quite a few Great Blue Herons. This one was particularly close, and was extremely well camouflaged before he stepped out from behinds the reeds. These birds are typically around 4 feet tall and have wingspans of about 6 feet!

This is another bird I'd never seen in the wild. It's an American Bittern, a small, stout species of heron. It is about 2 feet tall. 

And finally, the best picture I was able to take yesterday - another Great Egret.

I also saw a few Snowy Egrets, which are absolutely beautiful and adorable, a lot of Cormorants, and a Snow Goose. It was such a wonderful day!

Wonderland

Today I worked on some sketches inspired by Alice in Wonderland. I love sketching these characters because I feel like I can make them really quirky and fun and weird and it's great.

Cheshire Puss

Today I worked on a painting for a fellow Alice-in-Wonderland-lover's graduation gift. The Cheshire Cat is one of my favorite characters ever, and I loved painting a new version of him that I'd never tried before. It's so great to be immersed in a painting and realize how much fun you're having! You may notice that I was inspired by the cat I drew from my previous post ;)

A detail shot :)

I can't wait to give it to her!

Wee Critters

Some sketches from today - kitty, elephant, and koala.

I love drawing little bitty critters! It's so fun to imagine the adventures they'd go on. Perhaps someday they'll become characters in my books :)

Takin' Care of Business

I got my new business cards in the mail today! I'm really, really excited - it feels like a fresh start in a way. I'm happy with how they turned out and I can't wait to give them out to tons of people and force them to look at my website, muahahaha...

:)

Organization

Last night I decided to finally tackle organizing my embroidery floss. I haven't been able to find a good way to sort it all, and so far I've been keeping it all in a big ziplock bag which has resulted in a lot of this:

But now I think I have it organized pretty well! Hopefully this arrangement works out better for me. Good organization can really make your life a lot easier. Here's what it looks like now:

The only problem is, now I want more thread to fill up the box!

Page of Cups

My school's Illustration Club has been working on a very big project for about a year now. We are creating an entire deck of 78 Tarot Cards with art by over 60 different students and faculty. I have had the honor of helping to lead this project, and we're getting closer and closer to its completion. I finished my 3rd and very last card today - Page of Cups.

The traditional Page of Cups card shows a man holding a cup with a fish coming out of it. One of the big focuses of our Tarot Card Project was to have every artist create her/his own interpretation of  her/his assigned card. It was pretty open ended, as long as the interpretation of the card still related to the traditional card. I chose to change the man to a bear. The story in my card is that the bear was sitting down to have a drink when suddenly a mysterious fish appeared in his cup, and now the bear can't decide whether he should eat the fish or if he should keep it as a friend. I think he'll choose to keep it as a friend :)

I always make quite a big mess when I paint/collage. It's always interesting to see such a mess transformed into an illustration.

I can't wait to see the project completely finished!

Mister Oryx Approved

In my last post, I promised I'd show you the oryx painting when I finished it, so VOILA, here it is, all finished!

Mister Oryx giving his stamp of approval.

:)

W-Oryx in Progress

Alright, that punny title doesn't really work out, but basically today I worked on starting a new watercolor painting of an East African Oryx, which is a large, long horned species of antelope. Here are some work in progress pictures - I'm not done yet, so I'll post the finished painting when I am :)

 Some sketches, trying to determine the pose I want to draw him in.

My plastic oryx helped me draw on the watercolor paper.

The painting in a very, very early stage. From here, I'll start developing lots of layers and incorporate more color and contrast.

I'm just as curious to see how it will turn out as you are!