The Year of the Tiger! Rawr!

I'm planning on creating a Tiger character.  I don't have much experience with animal anatomy so I'm pouring over photographs and videos to learn how these great beasts are put together. It's amazing how close the big cats are in construction to their domestic counterparts.  The end result I hope to achieve is somewhere between the Lion King degree of abstraction and the more simplified animals that Nico Marlet designs for Dreamworks.

There are 3,200 tigers left in the wild....in the world.  That was a startling fact to be confronted with.  Tigers have been my favorite animal since I was five and wrote a story in kindergarten about a tiger who lived in a trashcan and mauled those that came too close (no joke).  I read Calvin and Hobbes, ate my Frosted Flakes, etc.  All this time I've marveled at these creatures, in zoos, national geographic, or in abstractions like Master Tigress in Kung Fu Panda. Tigers were always there. 

Now we are coming to a period of time that might not have tigers.  In this, the year of the Tiger, we should really be aware of their shrinking populations and find a way to help rebuild.  

Incidentally, the UN has declared 2010 the year of Biodiversity.  Not just tigers but other species are disappearing from our planet due to habitat loss, climate change, and man's intervention.   

The World Wildlife Fund site for Tigers:

http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/tigers/year-of-tiger.html

The UN site for 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity:

http://www.cbd.int/2010/welcome/

and finally, back to the WWF for a resource about things we can do, whether it be writing a letter to Congress or donating time/money.

http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/site/PageServer?pagename=can_home&linklocation=topnavdropdownmenu

What to Do with Politicans who Don't Move on Climate Change

Here's an editorial I'm working on for a Newsweek article about (paraphrasing) the need for citizens to take action to fight climate change on their own. In that way, they're not waiting on politicians who have special interest groups holding them back. The article was also a call to arms to vote out politicians who don't make climate change one of their top priorities.

The final will be in color and will be integrated into the existing article (maybe adjusting the original's type).

My Sister's Doll in a Slightly Larger than Doll-Sized Chair

I started this painting in late December but the holidays delayed it. This is by no means a finished painting, but a demo (took about four-five hours). I try to paint things that I'll be utilizing in future illustrations. In this case, it was the doll's hair. I had to really try not to paint every hair, instead opting for shapes or clumps of hair. Painting this was a nice, calming exercise in the middle of a stressful week.

P.S.- I think there was a time in which I could sit in this chair. That's pretty incredible considering a doll is almost big enough for it.

Improved Sarah from the Labyrinth

Hey there, Labyrinth fans! Thought I was done with those drawings, eh? I talked to my girlfriend Jen and then got to looking at the Sarah drawing and wasn't satisfied by it. I noticed the previous drawing made her look a bit like a snot nosed little kid. She's 15 in the movie, so I wanted a character that reflected the transitional age. I also like in this drawing that the hair is noticeably disheveled by the orb, which was pretty understated in the original. Finally, I wanted to give a hint that the dress is threatening to swallow her up from being so big and puffy.

Thank you Jen for staying up with me to work on this (she was super tired). <3

It's a Crystal, Nothing More.

...but if you turn it this way, it makes two drawings (had to be done). I think I have a pretty strong foundation here with the drawing and the values. Sarah was definitely the hardest to develop into a drawing, partly because I had trouble getting a likeness that was still in my style. Jareth came naturally because David Bowie is always around me, haha.

I'm imaging a melange of pinks, yellows, and navy blues for the color scheme on both. I think the palette will be the unifying element.

Daily Paintings- Giraffe Plush

After being bogged down in my teaching job, I decided to start painting on a daily basis. I made a list of 40 objects around my house with different textures, shapes, and colors. I'm going to try to paint at least 2-3 of these a week. I'm not spending a whole lot of time of them, about an hour for drawing and blocking in color and then an hour for more in depth painting.

Observations on this first painting after my hiatus: I rely on line a lot to define form and I need to kick the habit. I'm pretty good at spotting vibrant colors but have some trouble with subtle variations and more neutral tones. Overall I'm pleased with this two hour painting and look forward to getting better.

Add: these paintings will be done in Photoshop CS4 to begin with, though I'm open to exploring Corel Painter.

This is a Pika.

Last year I watched 'Kung Fu Panda' and found that the sensei, Shifu, was a red panda. Red pandas are relatively rare, but my theory is that this animated film sparked interest in the conservation of the animal. All of a sudden I saw red pandas at zoos and my natural science center. Not a coincidence, in my opinion.

So my idea is to read up on animals that are threatened with extinction and create a cartoon version of them. I found this little guy, a relative of the rabbit, called the Pika. The pika thermo-regulates quite well so he doesn't hibernate in the winter. Pikas live in the Rockies on the highest elevations, necessary because they are so warm internally. Global warming is causing them to seek higher elevations to find the cold. The pika really is the canary in the coal mine that is our environment.

I don't have the clout of Dreamworks Animation, but I do think it's good practice to find an animal, do reference sketches of it (see above), and start the design process. My favorite sketches are the ones that abstract enough so you're left with a few basic shapes. I chose my favorite and gave it the color treatment. This painting took about an hour, maybe a bit more.

I plan on finding new animals and going through this process each week, kind of a break from projects I'm working on.