Sketchy Sunday: Ravens

Late Sketchy Sunday (I had family over this weekend. I can never get ANYTHING done with family around.) Have a bunch of ravens! From the same batch as these other raptors, all sketched at a raptor rescue center...

And now the question of the day: Why is a raven like a writing desk? (Ponder that as you drag through Monday and everything else will seem simple.)

Sketchy Sunday: Turkey Vultures

More raptor sketches from the same batch as these guys... Turkey vultures! These guys are reeeeeeally weird looking. They have these big holes in their heads, I'm not sure what they're for - the better to smell you with, I guess?

Sketchy Sunday: Falcon and Goshawk

Quick (late) update... More raptor sketches from the same batch as last week, this time a bunch of tiny doodles of a northern goshawk and a peregrine falcon. (Sketched at a raptor rescue center quite a while ago.) Personally I think falcons are among the coolest birds ever.

Sketchy Sunday: Golden Eagle

Delayed Sunday post due to IlluXCon... I almost missed it this year due to lack of planning, missed the bus on Saturday, but managed to get there just in time on the last day (Sunday.) I blasted through on a whirlwind tour, bought way too many books and prints, chatted with a bunch of Really Cool Artists, including Donato Giancola, Michael Whelan, Julie Bell, Roger Dean, Mark Zug - who needs to make an art book dammit, Tom Kidd, Kinuko Craft, lots of other amazing people too numerous to mention, including some ConceptArt.org homies who I'd never met in person, so that was fun... I was running around on no food and an incipient migraine, though, so I was probably pretty dazed and incoherent. I'm not even sure what I said to Roger Dean, I was fangirl-spazzing and talking too quietly as usual and he was hard-of-hearing, so it was a strange conversation. But still, OMG Roger Dean!

One thing I noticed was that a lot of people paint super-smooth, with thin paint, and get some sweet results. Now I'm wondering if maybe I should try painting smoother. Except I like straight-out-of-the-tube paint and paintings that look like paint, too. So I'm torn. Maybe I should try it just to see how it goes…

Awesome show overall. I wish I'd had a chance to catch some of the talks and other events, though. (I also wish I'd brought a portfolio along - some people asked what I do, and of course when you try to describe that it involves a lot of hand-waving and sounds silly.) Next year I want to try maybe doing the full five days. Definitely needed more time.

Aaaaanyway. Yes. Blog. Delayed Sketchy Sunday post featuring some oldie-but-goody sketches of golden eagles, from a raptor rescue center (from the same batch as these guys here.)

Sketchy Sunday: Restarting With More Doggies

I'm back. The big deadlines and heat waves of Summer are cleared away, so I guess I'll try reviving this blog... Of course there are now Autumn deadlines to contend with (and, apparently, another heat wave, what the hell?) so I think I'll try for twice-a-week updates for now to keep it manageable. Sundays and Wednesdays, approximately. Let's kick it off with more dog doodles, shall we? I've got a ton of those, accumulated over many Summer days of hanging out in the park. See cute doggie, sketch cute doggie, that's me!

Sketchy Sunday: More Doggies!

Pff, I keep taking work out to the park thinking I'll get some sun and be productive at the same time, and then I end up sketching cute doggies instead... It must be Summer. (Sooooo many cute doggies in my park, though.) (I hope you all like dogs because I'm rapidly accumulating dog sketches...)

Sketchy Sunday: Doggies!

Tis the season to sketch dogs in the park again... So, here's an assortment of random doggies!

Sketchy Sunday - iPhone Critters

So, this Saturday it was raining, so I thought I'd go to the Brooklyn Museum and check out the Sargent watercolors (excellent exhibit, by the way - check it out if you're in the area! Several rooms of watercolors that make you say "how does he DO that!?") Anyway, afterwards it had stopped raining, and was rather balmy out, so I thought I'd walk through the park. Since it was a museum day, I had no sketching gear with me. So OF COURSE all the critters were out in full force. There was a night heron posing and catching fish right under a footbridge, and a raccoon crossed the sidewalk right in front of me and then paused halfway up a tree to stare - AND ME WITH NO SKETCHBOOK, ARGH!!

So I attempted to sketch on my phone. These are the results. I have to say phone-sketching is one of the most painfully slow and awkward mediums I have ever attempted, so I don't think this will become a regular thing. But hey, whatever works.

(I really need to find a tiny sketchbook to keep in my purse for these occasions, sheesh.)

Sketchy Sunday: Sharp-shinned hawk and red-shouldered hawk

More hawk sketches, from the same batch as these guys. This batch includes a sharp-shinned hawk and a red-shouldered hawk (the red-shouldered hawk is the one with the long gangly legs.) Sketched at a raptor center a while ago...

Sketchy Sunday: Rough-Legged Hawk

Okay, quickie (late) post and then I gotta send out my taxes (why do I always get my taxes out at the extreme last minute...) And with taxes out of the way hopefully I can scan some more stuff and get back to regular posts. Now that the weather's warming up I've got a mess of hanging-out-in-the-park sketches accumulating...

Meanwhile, some doodles from the archives: this is a rough-legged hawk sketched at a raptor rescue center.

Sketchy Easter Sunday: Ducklings and Mamma Duck

Happy belated Easter! (Or April-Fools-Easter-Passover...) Have some seasonally appropriate duckling doodles! With mamma duck, too. Extra sketchy because the ducklings were being hyperactive and would NOT hold still at all.

Sketchy Sunday: Coots

Tiny little doodles of park birds... I think these are coots? Anyway, they show up in the pond now and then, cute little waterfowl, black, with white bills, and they make a noise like a creaky hinge.

Sketchy Sunday: Samurai Silliness

Super quick live-action doodles from a performance of the "Samurai Sword Soul" improv group at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (Yes, I have a ton of sketches of that troupe. They're incredibly goofy but also incredibly sketchable.) Here's a bunch of samurai doing their samurai thing... (More sketches from the same performance here.)

Sketchy Sunday: Samurai Sword Soul Goofiness

Doodles from a performance by the exceedingly silly improv troupe "Samurai Sword Soul" at one of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sakura Matsuri events... I have no idea what this guy thinks he's doing. General cavorting, soon cut off by a sword-wielding samurai, by the looks of it.

Sketchy Sunday: Snowy Owl

Whee, it's snowing in time for Christmas! So sketches of snowy owls might be appropriate, no? This guy was stalking around on big fuzzy feet on a log at a raptor rescue center. I think he was somewhat outside the usual range for snowy owls. (These were done in the same session as the owl series I posted earlier... So yeah, sketched several years ago. Still cute, though.)