Malamute

This is a drawing of a friend's beautiful Alaskan Malamute. He is about nine years old (the dog, not the friend). This is not a commission, I just wanted to have a dog drawing on hand.

Featured on Scientific American

I am quite honored to be able to announce that my recent drawing Evicted has been featured on the Scientific American blog Symbiartic, a collection of science-related or -inspired art.

Evicted

This drawing is based on my recent experience with a wildfire. The background is based on reference photographs I took of the fire the day it started and the day we were allowed back into town. While my town was spared, many houses in neighboring areas were destroyed. Wildlife were also hard-hit by this, the largest wildfire in state history. Animals are coming into town looking for food. There was a black bear on my street recently, going through garbage cans. The wildlife hospital has taken in a record number of undernourished bears, including one with burned paws. I find it very hard to live through such an ordeal and not want to capture it on paper, so here is my depiction. A mother bear and her two young cubs leaving their mountain home in search of a new forest to live in. Around here, forests are few and far between. The mother trudges on, because she must, while her cubs are scared and confused.

I will donate 25% of my sales of this drawing and prints to The Wildlife Center to help feed and rehabilitate the bears.

WIP - Black Bears

The bears are in place but still need work. I'm also adding a little to the background here and there to give it more depth, and I ended up putting the grass in with a brush instead of a pencil. My next post will be the completed drawing!

WIP - Wildfire

Here is my progress on the wildfire drawing. With the exception of the four large trees, the entire thing so far has been using paintbrushes or the chamois to apply charcoal powder. I used the chamois for the sky and smoke, the round-tip brush for the foreground trees, and the angled brush for the tree trunks and burned mountain trees. The foreground will be grassy, which I will probably do with a pencil. That round empty part near the center will be the animal, which will also be done with pencil.

Art Imitates Life

I know the saying is usually the other way around, but in this case it is true. I often get ideas, or inspiration, from things I see. And what could be more inspiring than witnessing Mother Nature in one of her more violent forms? I was recently evacuated from my home due to a wildfire. Even after they let us back, the fire raged for weeks. It is entirely contained now, but I doubt it is extinguished. Anyway, I was able to get a ton of great photos of the smoke, fire, and aftermath, and wanted to capture the experience in a drawing. So here is the beginning. There will, of course, be an animal, but I'm working mostly top-to-bottom on this one. This is probably the first drawing I've done where I have reference photos of the background but not of the animal. Stay posted for more!

Chocolate Lab Portrait

The client who commissioned this drawing gave me permission to post the final lab portrait, so here she is! If you are interested in a commission, please shoot me an email or check out my commission info page.

Chocolate Lab Portrait Finished

Oh, how I wish I could show the finished lab portrait! But it is going to be somebody's birthday present so I'm going to wait until the end of August to show it here. Tomorrow it is being shipped to Florida.