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CA49B

Bottlenose Dolphin

Down Below

Māui Dolphin

Gothfin

pacific bottlenose dolphin

CA165 Lonesome George

Artfight drawings I forgot to post (½)

in order:

• Card from @actuallypunny​
  
• Zeus from @cherideer​
  
• Fae from  ShibaKiba (deviantart)
  
• Finnean Dawn from @spookyouijapone​
  
• Quollspots from angi-christ(deviantart)
  
• Drizzle from SpoonGed(artfight)
  
• Smith from @mundanis​
  

take care! I had a lot of fun participating!!!

BLASTING OFF (SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS 2013 PHOTO DIARY)

The Boto myth in the brazilian folklore is about an enchanted pink river dolphin that shapeshifts into a handsome man dressed in white at night to seduce women at festivals, also a myth originated to justify out of marriage pregnancies.

Illustration for “Folcollab” - an art collab between friends in which we draw our versions of a figure from the Brazilian folklore each month.

waternymphlovesdante:

SUNSET YOGA and morning meditation

someone asked for young Erik holding a dolphin :’)

Some Water art

Really love the look of all these. its amazing what some people can do with a graphic pad or pen and paper.

Fraser’s dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei)

As promised, here are the full illustrations for the Fraser’s dolphin. They are such a stunning and unique looking dolphin, lots of fun to paint. Even though they look rather outlandishly different from what we’re used to, they actually showcase the very same colouration units that, say, a bottlenose dolphin wears. Just distributed differently. Most striking is the male’s bold black stripe. Females wear it in a medium grey while in young animals it is so light as to be almost invisible, making them look much more like ‘normal’ dolphins. Also, their fins are absolutely tiny. I love how silly it looks.

This species has their whole history captured in their names, which I think is beautiful. In Dutch, this species is also known as the Sarawak dolphin - the species was first described from a skull found on the island of Sarawak, Borneo, in 1895. Its Latin name ‘hosei’ honours the man who found it: Charles Hose, while its English name honours the man who examined the skull back in London: Francis Fraser. Fraser concluded the skull bore similarities to both the Delphinus andLagenorhynchusgenus and so the new genus was dubbed Lagenodelphis. It would take almost a hundred years before the species was first recorded in the flesh, in 1971. Imagine that. Just 50 years ago. It’s not a long time to get to know someone.

The Atlantic spotted dolphin - Stenella frontalis

This is without a doubt my favourite illustration for this project so far. I love Atlantic spotted dolphins, with their sociable personality, elegant faces and beautiful colouration - and these in particular. You see, while the Common bottlenose dolphin’s coastal and oceanic populations are best known, there’s more dolphins with a similar division amongst their ranks. Spotted dolphins (both the Atlantic and Pantropical) have offshore and coastal populations as well, which vary in colour. 

In case of the Atlantic, coastal animals - like those found in The Bahamas - are most heavily spotted. Adults can gain so many spots over the years that in the end, their colour pattern is reversed. White above, black below. Illustrated however, is an oceanic-type Atlantic spotted dolphin; and they hold on to their stark white bellies. The amount of spots varies between individuals, some are quite heavily spotted, others snowy white below the sides - but never is the belly covered. The white spots are also finer than those in coastal animals, and while I painted my animal with quite a lot, some have no more than a fine dusting of white.

Exquisitely beautiful animals if you ask me, and I am immensely happy that the spotting finally turned out to my liking (painting spots is harder than it seems).

Hey everyone, sorry for being so quiet in the art department. I see my last post was from august(!!) and that wasn’t even a recent piece then :0 Thing is I’ve been very busy with commissions: one was a loooong standing painting of a steam loco, which I’m very happy to have finished after more than a year of on-and-off work. However it’s a gift so I’ll have to double check if/when I can share it online. And right now there’s two big project happening simultaneously which sadly I can’t talk about yet - but know they both involve a lot of cetacean illustrations. So I’m more than pleased ♥ Luckily I can show the illustrations for one of the projects so I’ll do my best to share some WIPS and finished pieces as I work on them!

Most recently I finished two illustrations of the Fraser’s dolphin, and frankly, I may have fallen in love a little bit. LOOK at those gorgeous markings! I just love how even within the male’s black mask you can find delicate eyestripes, and the females just have this beautiful subtle dark grey version. I hope you’ll love them too. 

A little Peale’s dolphin sketch before bed. Because why not.

Just two little sketches from my - then new - sketchbook. Sadly haven’t drawn much in it since! It’s a nice little booklet. They’re three years old by now (oof), but I do quite like the killer whale one. The other one is two Atlantic-spotted dolphins ‘holding pectoral fins’, which is an adorable thing some species sometimes do.