Menagerie of Creativity » Illustration

Snails

Alicia — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:18:29 +0000

This is the Christmas painting I did for my other sister. It is 5″x7″ watercolor on paper.

Before I painted this, I drew it in black ink.

close ups

April Bear

Alicia — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 03:26:18 +0000

This is a bear in the month of April. It was a Christmas present for my littlest sister April. She said to paint her something purple, so this is what I did. It was painted on a 9″x12″ piece of watercolor paper and was matted at 8″x10.”

close ups

Here is the butterfly.

I like how friendly the bear looks. You can see the fur is purple and gold.

I was a bit worried about the grass, but I think it turned out okay in the end. You can also see some of the fur tones in this close up too.

Orchid Snakes

Alicia — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:08:03 +0000

I haven’t been able to think of a good name for this yet. It’s a 7″x5″ watercolor and ink painting.

Close Ups

Idea Progression

Sometimes my ideas start with a quick sketch like this. Sometimes they don’t.

When Crisin was here visiting over the weekend, I painted this 3.5″x2.5″ watercolor based on the sketch. When I was done she suggested I put a top hat on the worm thing. I liked that so much I decided to explore the idea with snakes.

Bird Bath

Alicia — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 01:05:27 +0000

Birds like bubble baths.

This is 7″x5″ watercolor and ink. I may look at this again in a couple days and add some very minor finishing touches. I can’t look at it any more today though.

Book Snails

Alicia — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 01:09:04 +0000

It is not only worms who read, snails read too.

Here are a couple close ups.

Lemurs

Alicia — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:06:15 +0000

On Saturday morning I went to the Duke Lemur Center and did their Walking with the Lemurs tour. It was pretty neat. I got to hang out with some ring tailed lemurs while they ate for probably 30mns or so, but it felt like 5mns. I am considering doing the tour again with a different type of lemur.

I painted this lemur after the tour. There are also some photos below.

I only took about 90 photos while I was there because I wanted to just watch for some of the time. I got a few good ones.

I had to take most of them using manual focus which is still sort of new to me, so I am impressed with how well the focus was on some of them. The reason for this is that while cameras are pretty good at knowing what to focus on when you are taking a photo of a person relatively close up, they don’t really understand what you want to focus on with wildlife. If you wait for the camera to figure it out, the animal will often be gone.

I think this is my favorite photo.

Ladybugs on Daisies

Alicia — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:28:53 +0000

I have had a thing for ladybugs lately. Not sure why. I used my brush pens for this one. I haven’t used them in a while, but I was in the mood to do something fast and loose.

This is 7×5″ watercolor and ink on paper.

Here is a close up.

Here is another one I did with the brush pens a while ago.

Mushrooms Usually Sleep at Night

Alicia — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:35:46 +0000

There have been a lot of mushrooms in the woods lately. I like this one because the colors are nice from far away, but then there are some small critters so you have to get close to see what is going on.

It’s 7×5″ watercolor, ink and colored pencil on paper.

Here is a close up of all the commotion.

Chickadee on a Crooked Wine Glass

Alicia — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 13:12:40 +0000

This is a 5×7″ watercolor, ink and colored pencil painting.

Here are a couple close ups.

Mouse in the Rain

Alicia — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 15:54:01 +0000

It has been raining a lot in Durham lately. I love the rain. This mouse is 7×5″ watercolor, ink and colored pencil.

Here is a close up of the mouse’s face.