#micas art
Little watercolor sketch of a gorgeous old oak on the grounds of De Cordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA.
Follow me on twitter for art mixed with polar and sci comm nonsense.
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Some bird studies from this week: Hooded crow (Corvus cornix), Greylag goose (Anser anser), Adelie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae)
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Two more sketchbook pages from Big Bend: Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer (the smallest white-tailed subspecies) and a view of Casa Grande from Lost Mine trail
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Some sketches of plants from my trip to Big Bend National Park: Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis), Cane Cholla (Cylindropuntia spinosior), Bicolor mustard (Nerisyrenia camporum), Emory Oak (Quercus emoryi), and Agave (Agave albomarginata)
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Some birbs in watercolor, graphite, and gouache. About 50% aspirational and 50% birds I’ve actually seen.
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I’ve been thinking about adding some historical illustrations to my portfolio, so I used the unfortunate Bockstenmannen as a test subject. He’s currently residing in the Halland Museum of Cultural History in Varberg, Sweden, where they’ve had a lovely reconstruction done of how he may have looked in life. I based the colors of his clothing off the information on their website, as the preserved garments have been turned yellow-brown by the bog.
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Selected sketchbook pages summer 2017-spring 2018, part 2- these are all preparatory studies for my master’s thesis, which you’ll see more of soon!
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Selected sketchbook pages summer 2017-spring 2018, part 1- these are all preparatory studies for my master’s thesis, which you’ll see more of soon!
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Something different this time- a little illustrated diagram about how to use sandbags to mitigate flood damage, for an exhibit I am helping design and install at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park - Seattle Unit. If you’re in the Seattle area after December 5th, stop by and check out our exhibit! (And if you’re curious about how this looks in layout, you can see the full version here, in my portfolio. )
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A few days shy of le 14 juillet and I’ve finally finished my painting of Joan of Arc, in a style inspired by the great 20th century illustrator N.C. Wyeth. This is the first finished painting I’ve done in Clip Studio Paint, and it’s been a delightful program to work in.
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Yesterday I met (that is, nearly tripped over) a very protective killdeer mother who did her level best to distract me, the very apologetic predator, from her eggs.
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sketchbook pages fall 2016-spring 2017, part 2: animal studies (selections). All from web references with the exception of the alligators, which are from my own photographs.
My technique for practicing animals in general, rather than over-focussing on one species: pick an animal and do an entire page of studies of that one species, then move on to a different one next time. Switch classes and families regularly; don’t get too used to just equines, or just songbirds. Don’t worry about skeletal/muscular anatomy or perfect proportions just yet- save that for when you do prep for a more formal illustration. Just try to capture quick studies of living, moving, animals.
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sketchbook pages fall 2016-spring 2017, part 1: from life. All captured in daily life, in public, at work, or in classes.
Sketching exclusively on toned paper for a year now has really improved my use of value and negative space- if you want to train yourself to think in silhouette, work on a midtone and carry a white colored pencil.
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Process work from this illustration series, showing examination of specimens, color studies, and final graphite rendering.
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Selections from a 6-image series of illustrations done for Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo exhibit signage, showing a male village weaver (Ploceus cucullatus) building a nest, and ending with the female weaver and her clutch of eggs. Graphite and digital, 2017.
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I recently had the very great privilege to create a ketubah for the wedding of two of my best friends, and now that the wedding is over I feel that I can share the finished product. Done in brush and ink (with micron pens for the border lines and a dip pen for the lettering) on arches watercolor paper, the design stylistically inspired by William Morris’s designs for Kelmscott press.
I included not only pictures taken in-progress, but also the original digital concept sketch so you can see how it changed from the first idea to the finished inks.
You can also see a very short video of me inking this with a brush on instagram.
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I realize it has beenquite a long time since I last posted, but I was a little busy graduating college! Yes. Gosh. …Anyways, this is a bighorn sheep skull (Ovis canadensis) surrounded by Canadian Thistle (Cirsium arvense), because wordplay is my favorite.
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From a project on the Azores and their historical whaling trade (two things that I’ve sort of accidentally become very well-informed about), a spread and a spot illustration. This was my first attempt at painting the ocean on any sort of large scale with watercolors, and I think it turned out not half-bad.
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Sorry about the radio silence folks, I’ve been crazy busy and haven’t had a spare moment to update my web presence! Have some little spot illustrations of mushrooms to make up for it. All edible and all found in north america- it’s an informal guess-the-species game, since I uploaded the version without captions.
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The finished piece that these doodles were studies for; my final for Watercolor for the Illustrator. This was a very emotional piece for me, as the concept deals with the mental health issues I’ve been struggling with this year. It felt good to do, though.
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Working on my atlantic blue crab life cycle illustration- here you have my palette, my color comp, the in-progress final piece, and all of my research on what other people have done with the same concept (almost universally badly drawn, typeset, or designed, which is actually kind of heartening)
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Extra-credit assignment in Survey of Illustration, for the prompt ‘circular composition depicting a fantasy creature in their environment’. I had the most fun background painting here- the gnomes were a bit of an afterthought, to be honest.
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Part 2/3 of my Azores sketchbook: midweek, the accidental mountain climb, and botany fun.
- The bridge leading into the center of town in Povoação
- A waterfall in a gorge above the town of Faial da Terra, in a rare patch of native laurel forest
- Quick drawing of the venation on a leaflet of a Rooting Chainfern (Woodwardia radicans), and an example Solanaceae flower to use as a watercolor technique demonstration for my mother.
- And a panoramic painting of the view down from about 3/4s of the way up to the highest point on São Miguel, Pico da Vara, shortly after we spotted the (very) endangered Priolo.
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The Priolo (or Azores Bullfinch) is the second-rarest bird in Europe, and I had the extraordinary privilege of seeing a couple of them in the wild when I was on São Miguel last month. This is for the wonderful people at the Centro Ambiental do Priolo, who are doing fantastic conservation work to recover the native laurel forests and protect the remaining birds.
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Very quick little whale skeleton drawings to go in the new museum map for the New Bedford Whaling Museum. (Not to scale)
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It’s finals week here at SCAD, and my finals are consumed with botanical illustration! Stay tuned for the finished versions of all the work-in-progress shots I’ve been posting lately.
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Some work-in-progress shots of my current pieces: the final rendering of the mushrooms (in colored pencil on mylar), and some media/style tests for my edible plant book (watercolor and ink on hot-press illustration board).
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