Studio Tuesday Blog

This is the third animal illustration I did for the upcoming holiday season this year. A Pine Marten in a snowy evergreen forest.
Sometimes illustrations come together easily and seem to look great without a lot of effort. This was not one of those. It was a tough one to get right, with lots of sketching, revisions, color testing, and three attempts at the illustration. But... I'm finally happy with this end result of one of my favorite animals.


I've had a soft spot for weasels and their kin, since writing a report on them in second grade (Pine Martens are a member of this family). Eventually I will probably end up illustrating all of them. So far I also have a Sea Otter, and a White Weasel.
2016 UPDATE: Now have a Mink and a River Otter as well.

Cards are now available - as a single card or sets of 10.
In the shop here: Pine Marten Holiday Cards

I also have prints available in the shop here:
Pine Marten Art Print

A new illustration for this year's holiday season. A Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus, meaning Sea Bear) swimming in an Arctic Sea with icebergs and falling snow. Drawn with ink and watercolors.
I love thinking up and drawing these little Winter scenes for my cards every year. This was a fun one, something little more nautical and remote than the typical Christmas card.

Holiday Cards now in the shop! Nice, sturdy card stock, and available as a single card or boxed sets of 10 cards.
Link here: Polar Bear Cards

 

Finally finished up a whale shark illustration, one that I've had in my mind for a while now. In Madagascar whale sharks are named Marokintana, which translates to "many stars". This name was the inspiration for this painting. A star covered ocean giant swimming under a star filled sky.
I spent a little more time on the stars in this piece since they were a focus. I used masking fluid to keep the stars white and painted in a little band of the Milky Way (painted in watercolor).

Above, a 13x19" Print of the illustration. You can find this and other sizes in my shop with the link below!
Whale Shark Art Print

Just back from a trip to Maine, where we stayed on Hog Island and helped get the Audubon Camp ready for summer. It was a fun week, filled with lots of rain and fog.
We made one boat trip out to Eastern Egg Rock to see the puffins and drop off supplies and such for the research interns. It was a pretty cold and rainy boat trip, but very beautiful driving past the foggy islands and coast. Above, on the way out to Eastern Egg Rock we passed this lobster boat fishing on the bay. 



Arriving at Eastern Egg Rock, a puffin in the water. Happy I got to see puffins in the wild again. They are much cuter in person and I'm continually surprised how small they are.



Idling on the boat while others row supplies and research interns over to the island in choppy water and rain. A puffin on the rocks and two guillemots over to the right. Eastern Egg Rock is a small island and this is pretty much all there is to it. Rocks and grass and nesting seabirds.


Below a few snaps from around Hog Island.








On a hike around the island, we found these little hermit crabs in periwinkle shells.

A new illustrated alphabet! This one is Arctic themed and features lot of my favorite animals, including a weasel, snowy owl, arctic fox, snowshoe hare, polar bear, and a few
different whales.


Prints available in the shop!
Arctic Alphabet Print

Sketching for my next project. A few doodles of some Arctic animals: Polar Bear, Snowshoe Hare, Weasel, and a Beluga Whale.