The second of my alternate frog series, based on the American goldfinch, we have--the frogfinch! What really makes this painting work for me is the top frog's expression. I could repaint the rest any number of ways, but the happy, not-terribly-bright smile on that frog would have to stay the same.
altfrog2.jpg - 2002-03-30
Somehow from frogs with bird markings to frogs with wings wasn't a big jump. This painting started as a watercolor, but after several days of frustration over the bristlecone pine roots, I just scanned the good bits and reworked it digitally, much to the betterment of the whole.
altfrog3.jpg - 2002-03-30
Glory be, it's an acrylic, not digital. 18 x 36, another winged frog based on, of all things, the African buffalo weaver, and a whole slew of orchids.
altfrog4.jpg - 2002-03-30
More alternate frogs. Normal people probably don't immediately rush out to photograph pond scum the minute they get a new digital camera, but I'm weird. Mmm...scummy. These little guys are based on male woodducks.
altfrog6.jpg - 2002-05-09
Ambulocetus, the walking whale, meets his long-lost cousin, the cow. (Okay, they split off millions of years before anything resembling the modern cow, but compared to the gulf between me and some of MY relatives...) Needless to say, the dodo is still infuriated by it all.
ambulo2.jpg - 2004-11-08
Ambulocetus--the "walking whale" is one of those great transitional forms, having a whale head AND feet. It presumably moved rather like a sea lion, and doesn't get nearly enough love, so I did a cuddly version. The dodo, for some reason, appears infuriated by this, despite the fact that it wouldn't REALLY be a contemporary of the walking whale.
ambulocuteus.jpg - 2004-11-07
Dragons are highly sexually dimorphic. Males become large lizards obsessed with gathering hoards to attract a mate, while females resemble humans for much of their lifespan and take classes in gem appraisal, currency trading and flea-market antiquing, the better to determine the value of a male's hoard down to the last penny, prior to undergoing chyrsalis and emerging as a more classical reptile. (Okay, okay, I just wanted to paint an anime dragongirl...)
animedragongirl.jpg - 2002-12-30
Nobody seems to like the "anime catgirl" subgenre of furry, so in my ongoing effort to find and fiddle with every cliche known to man, I decided to see if the anime ratgirl got any warmer reception. This particular style of coloring was one that I'd always vaguely admired (mostly on wallpaper at Deviantart) so I thought I'd give it a try, but I don't know who originated it, if anyone.
animeratgirl.jpg - 2002-12-28
Further experiments with exaggeration and foreshortening, and since it's been pointed out that the only lemurs anyone draws are the ringtails, I decided to draw an aye-aye. It's not pretty--aye-ayes are not what you'd call classically beautiful--but it's got a weird prosimian charm.
ayeayehand.jpg - 2002-12-15
Most eggs are good, but sometimes they go bad. And Mortimer was a very bad egg indeed...(Been rediscovering the weird figures of James Christensen recently. And as a child, I always found Humpty-Dumpty to be creepy as hell. Die, wicked egg!)
badegg.jpg - 2003-09-26
Painting good fur texture with watercolor takes far too much advance planning for my lackadaisical self, so I was delighted to discover that I could just glaze white casein over a base coat and get a good strand effect. This guy is wearing an approximation of the Hopi dance costume of the Honan, or Badger Kachina, (sans mask, of course.) I love kachinas.
badgerkachina.jpg - 2003-02-15
This actually started out as a texture study--I'd be inspired by the really cool oil-pastel work of a guy named Oscar Chichoni, and I wanted to see if I could get any kind of good metal textures digitally. So I drew up a sort've mechanical badger (almost more of an iron golem than a robot) and played with textures for about three days, and here we are.
badgermech.jpg - 2002-09-21
Since the textures are far and away t'cool bit, and since this image is originally something like 7000 pixels wide, I thought I'd put up a detail that actually shows the nifty cracked ceramic bits and iron bits.
badgermechdetail.jpg - 2002-09-21
Ever have one of those nights when you're kinda punchy and you want to draw something, but you just got nothin'? You know you should go read or sleep or something, but instead you lift the pencil one more time and somehow, out comes a badger with a yo-yo. Yes, this is how I amuse myself in the evenings. It's not deathless art, but it kept me amused for an hour or two.
badgeryoyo.jpg - 2003-01-14
Yet more B&W Painter doodles! This time a rather Zen badger. I keep doing these in these sort've mad, rapid spasms. That'll teach me to eat chocolate espresso beans for breakfast.
badgerzen.jpg - 2003-02-09
Fed up with the Porcupine Shaman cruelly popping his totems, Norgle, servant of the mighty Balloon Animal spirit, summons a fearsome Battle Balloon, and wreaks a soggy vengeance.
balloonattack.jpg - 2004-05-12
The other shamans laughed when Norgle told them his totem was the mighty Balloon Animal, but he'd show 'em all.
balloontotem.jpg - 2004-05-11
I sing of the berserkers, beloved of the skalds and songsmiths, the great warriors of Thor's domain, smashers of Jotunheim, doers of deeds, wearers of weaselskins! Fearless in fighting, ruthless in raids, fleet of foot and fat of form, the brave berserk, the war-hardened servants of the war-god, the great Battle Hamsters of the North!
battlehamsters.jpg - 2004-09-08
Another watercolor and pen piece, a bit more elaborate this time. It's 12 x 16, just your typical dragony type, wrapped in beads, with a frog. (Of course there's a frog.) Pet? Lunch? Buddy? Your guess is as good as mine...
beadeddragon.jpg - 2003-03-03
A quick Susan Seddon Boulet-inspired sketch of a bear and a glowy Haida-style salmon. (It was originally gonna be a hummingbird, and then I thought, "Look, no self-respecting bear hangs around cuddling hummingirds, I don't care how totemic and spiritual you get. Give 'im a fish or something.") I always have fun with these...
bearsalmon.jpg - 2003-07-09
The majestic Bighorn pear. (I'm on this animal-fruit kick...) This super-snazzy smooth clayboard stuff, 12 x 24, acrylic.
bighornpear.jpg - 2004-07-04
My recent run-in with a bat was in the back of my mind, and I was in a graphic design sort've mood. Sometimes I think I paint just to see what happens.
bigpinkbat.jpg - 2002-09-01
"I have an itch between my shoulderblades," said Blood Gatherer even more grumpily, "and my arms are too short to reach it." (Noodling around on my Happy Little Capybara Visits the Mayan Underworld idea. I'm not sure if this is the style I want or not...)
bloodgatherer.jpg - 2004-04-09
So the little capybara climbed up on Blood Gatherer's broad and slimy back and found the itch, and scratched it with his webbed claws. Blood Gatherer glomphed and lashed and thrashed, but very carefully, so as not to shake the little capybara off. (More of "Happy Little Capybara Visits The Mayan Underworld.")
bloodscratch.jpg - 2004-04-13
A piece for the folio collaboration with the talented Cara Mitten, featuring a brontothere birdwatcher. Those little birds, which you'll eventually find if you've got some time to kill, are oxpeckers, which hang out on a lot of big grazers, so why not him?
brontothere.gif - 2003-03-28
Just a quick and silly watercolor piece for Anthrocon. Were one a husky pirate, white would probably be the worst color to wear, what with the blood and the scurvy and swashbuckling and keelhauling and salt pork and so forth, but hey! They're pin-ups, they're not required to make sense.
buccaneer.jpg - 2003-05-26
For Terzy. I deny any motive other than retaliation, and further deny that I derive an unhealthy amount of enjoyment from drawing such noxiously cuteness.
butterflybuddies.jpg - 2003-10-15
Acrylic, 18 x 24. The story goes that a prophet of Allah once fled into the desert to escape his enemies. His faithful camel carried him tirelessly to safety, and to reward the beast, the prophet whispered one of the secret names of God into its ear. The camel told the other camels, and to this day, camelkind looks down haughtily on all other creatures who don't possess such sacred knowledge. (And hey, they look neat.)
camelmeditation.jpg - 2003-03-27
This was a fun commission--they wanted my take on Cerberus, surrounded by broken musical instruments, on the premise that sooner or later, he'd figure out that people showing up with instruments meant that a few hours later, Hades smacked 'im with a newspaper. I was pleased.
cerberusmusic.jpg - 2003-03-14
Was randomly kicking through some old stuff, and was surprised I'd never uploaded this sucker. Splash art for a game that's on permanent hiatus, though I keep it watermarked for 'em just because the boss is a friend. The funniest bit is that the model for Cerberus was a dreadfully pleasant Doberman named "Squidgy" who is one of the nicest dogs I've ever known, and not at all the terror of the underworld.
cerberus_rising.jpg - 2002-12-18