"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that. . . from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." - Charles Darwin, _On the Origin of Species_. (_Acanthostega gunnari_)
acantho.jpg - 2000-05-13
I work in a lab much like this one (but messier). A cockatrice air mage/scientist, spawned by another drawing, stands in his lab in that 'professor-explaining-something-pose' that I swear I've seen on *somebody* at my school. I don't seem to have a middle ground between eye-bleedingly detailed and no background at all. To be replaced by color when I actually get time to color anything.
airlab.jpg - 2000-10-26
What's she so excited about? He certainly doesn't seem as thrilled by whatever it is as she does. Barclay (Iguanadon bernissartensis) by Liz Raiman, Kawazkab (Allosaurus fragilis) by Ashley.
alopoing.jpg - 2000-04-27
I've noticed that when people set out to make a 'different' kind of dragon, they often either give them a ridiculous color or go beserk with spikes and web and spines. But nature can easily come up with things infinitely more intruiging, so these dragons are all based on existing antelope species - kudu, gemsbok, and bongo (left to right).
antedrag.gif - 1999-06-21
The geology student in her natural habitat. This is why there's not much from me as of late - I still draw, but mostly it's petrographic thin sections and stratigraphic columns these days. Taken in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, Borrego Springs, CA.
anza_jen.jpg - 2004-05-12
This and the two images that follow (cynog.jpg and acantho.jpg) are taken from a poster I made for a final project in my upper-division theology class; they come with some of the quotes on the poster. Here _Archaeopteryx bavarica_ floats down in a pose taken from a church image; to its left is a hypercube cross superimposed on a Japanese zen enso (mysticism), to its right, a birdwing butterfly flutters above a strange attractor (chaos).
archaeo.jpg - 2000-05-13
It's still an old, old picture, but Brian Root was nice enough to give my attempt at an Asiatic griffin a cool Photoshop coloring job. Is it not nifty?
asiagrif.gif - 1999-10-10
I've decided to channel my hatred of Pokemon (and the knowledge that I can draw/creature-create the person responsible under the table) into something more constructive. This is one recent result: the savannah atavis (_Terravis gigas_), a bird that fills the ecological niche of the elephant. An atavism is an expression of an old, previously surpressed gene, like the fingers on the wings, if you're curious.
atavis.jpg - 2001-01-12
Happy Halloween from the City by the Bay. That sunset attempt didn't turn out so well, but for pencil work, I suppose it's not bad.
bayseal.jpg - 1999-10-27
This is what I spend my free time thinking about - behold, one big page full o' biogeekage! Seth's still not physically possible (there are few good ways to make dragons that are), but at least he's logically consistent. He has two tongues because it looked cool on paper, by the way.
bioseth.jpg - 2001-08-18
Aaand here's Boadica, Seth and Omadon's sister. I don't know what she's poking at. . . and judging from her expression, neither does she. Still, she looks verra cute doing that.
boadica.gif - 1998-11-26
Calypso redux. Drawn in the new style with a body build that further accentuates the slender, drawn-out form of the natural fish, which you can see in the stylized female next to her (only females get so large, and so toothy). I don't know if I should be amused or frightened that I can make even deep-sea fish look sexy.
calynew.jpg - 2002-01-24
Several weeks back a friend and I discovered an extremely nifty carousel next to a large playground in Golden Gate Park, by Hippie Hill. It had just about everything you could think of on it - cats, frogs, storks, giraffes, donkeys, dragons. But no seals.
caroseal.gif - 1999-11-01
Cindy Cabrera likes Castor and Pollux. A lot. She thinks they're rather cute, apparently; so what came immediately to mind is Castor attempting to put the moves on her lioness character, Kilimala, while Pollux looks bored. I should probably note about now, if you haven't already, that my handwriting is ungodly.
caskili.gif - 1999-03-06
Castor and Pollux, this time done just after I got my hands on a book that showed how to draw more realistic animals. You can never have too many chimera pictures, methinks.
caspol.gif - 1999-01-10
I haven't drawn this pair since my style shifted two years ago, so it was well past due. Castor and Pollux revamped, carrying one of their cubs across a Grecian terra-cotta background. Based on a photo of Elsa the Lioness.
caspolcub.jpg - 2003-03-01
A cockatrice chick of indefinable gender, looking at you. Love iiIIT. Experimentation with heavy outlining, which looks good on small pictures like this.
cchick.jpg - 2000-08-08
I'm making a new character, God help me. It was a tossup between this species (_Centrosaurus apertus_) and the _Maiasaura_ from earlier, but I think I like the latter better. Here, _Centrosaurus_ bluffs off a predator or a percieved threat. And look! Shading!
centro.gif - 2000-04-29
I doubt this pair'll make the Yerf logo, but I personally think they're adorable. They're. . . well, they're mostly rats. Definitely some squid or cuttlefish in there as well, and probably cockroach, given the voracity of the little sods. I'm not really sure what to call them, although I've toyed with the idea of plague rats, sucker rats, and cuttlerats. Chaos-altered rodents, generally.
chaorat.gif - 1999-10-25
This world - is made - of love and - aw, to heck with it. Anyway, I found a tutorial for that horribly cute 'chibi' style a while ago, and after some fiddling figured out how to make it work. (I suspect I don't stylize as much as I'm supposed to, though). Be afraid.
chibipine.jpg - 2002-08-23
Castor and Pollux greet Jag in their usual fashion - high velocity! Jag is © her player, of course.
chimjag.gif - 1998-07-03
Gong he xin xi and welcome to the Year of the Horse. I'm not Chinese myself, but San Francisco has one of the biggest Chinese new years around, and hereabouts it's reaaallly hard not to notice. It's more fun than Valentine's day, anyway. . . no lion dancers in the latter. Krishva courtesy of Kristin Jacques.
cnewyear.jpg - 2002-02-10
The original cockatrice is a nonsentient monster that kills by its glare or touch; this version of mine is an intelligent race with a strict caste system and a great deal of inherent magic. Depicted are the three magical types: Mage (elemental magics, center), druid (natural/life magics, left), and necromancer (death magics, right).
cockatri.gif - 1998-07-06
This is the entire picture that naomi.gif was taken from (finally got around to scanning it). It was done last year before I'd really gotten a grasp on the line of action or the forced perspective, and it shows. . . but I still like this picture. A scene from the Oregon country fair, with the mossy trees that were everywhere. . . and yes, people actually dressed like this.
country.gif - 1998-07-13
"There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot-and-a-half in length. The base of the horn is pure white; the upper part is sharp and a vivid crimson; and the remainder, or middle portion, is black" - Ctesias, Greek physician, 416 B.C. The first and foremost unicorn. Accept no substitutes.
ctesias.gif - 1999-04-12
"If, after you look into your own heart, you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about. What is there to fear?" - Kung Fu-tzu. (_Cynognathus sp._)
cynog.jpg - 2000-05-13
You know, when Cindy put up that image, I realized I'd never put up the image that *explained* the whole mess. Apparently, the answer to Castor's question in caskili.gif was 'yes'. . . Kilimala is © Cindy Cabrera, and the entire confusion of chimera is © me.
dadimera.jpg - 1999-04-12
Calypso's a blackdragon - a long, almost eel-like resident of the deep oceans. What must she think of the surface world, all unimaginable heat and agonizingly bright lights, without the comforting grip of three tons of pressure per square inch wrapping around her?
deepdwel.gif - 1999-03-11
You know, it occurred to a Cindy Cabrera that if horses were going to have wings, why would they have feathers? Bat wings would be more logical. And aren't horses really big and heavy and ungainly for the air anyway? It ended up boiling down to this - a Kirk's dik-dik with bat wings, drawn in Cindy's sketchbook last summer. Repencilling by her, if that makes any sense.
dkdkwing.jpg - 1999-10-10
Omadon (the red drake) showed up as a doodle in my Chem notes, and looked so much like Seth I decided they would probably be brothers. Both are young dragons, only about 50-100 years old. Seth and Omadon are © me.
drakes.gif - 1998-11-14