I returned  last week from the first ever Spectrum Fantastic Art Live convention, in Kansas city, Missouri…and I think I’m just now recovering from the greatness of the show, and the continuous 27-hour drive back home.  To truncate my review, let me say that it was an amazing time spent with good friends. It was great seeing old faces again, meeting new folks, and checking out some fantastic work in person.  I will be doing a more in-depth review shortly (I promise! There was to much cool stuff to not talk about it) but for now, enjoy a couple of the pieces I brought with.

 ”King of Wyrms”

oil on board, 18×24

“Titan”

oil on board, 11×14

“War-Priest”

oil on board, 11×14

Sorry for the massive delay in posting, all…  I’ve been more than busy with taking care of my incredibly awesome 6-month-old son, teaching a new course at the Atelier, and getting ready for the Spectrum Fantastic Art Live convention.

..Speaking of which, here’s a little preview of a piece that I will have on display at Spectrum Art Live:

If you’re heading to the convention in May, be sure to swing by and check out the final painting.  It will be on display at booth 1221, part of a mega-booth-display-block featuring myself, Eric Velhagen, Lucas Graciano, Micheal C. Hayes, And Ryan Schutter.  Come on by, say hello, and check out all the awesome work from these great illustrators in person.

Just a little sketch of your average, ordinary house sparrow.  Drawing birds is always a fun challenge, especially when tackling one of the more “mundane” species like this guy.  Birds in general are always tough to sell in an image when compared to mammals, as they lack any discernible musculature (thank you, thick feather layers) and they’re more or less incapable of any dynamic movement (fused vertebra will do that).  When drawing something that’s not as sensational as a raptor or as bizzaire as one of the giant flightless birds, you really need to get creative on what to play up to grab the viewers’ interest.

What do I choose in these instances? Feather groupings.

Feathers are all divided into specific groups, with specific shapes, forms, functions, and insertion points in relation to each other, not terribly unlike muscles. They’re a blast to design up, and a good understanding of the feather groups and how they interact can add quite a bit to a drawing.

    If you ask someone to picture a zebra, most folks think of the Plains Zebra or the Grevy’s Zebra…Which is a shame, because the Mountain Zebra (Equus Zebra) is all kinds of neat, and deserves a bit more fame.The only Zebra with a dewlap, these stocky bodied, nimble-hoofed equines are under threat in their mountainous homes of southern Africa, where they are hunted for their skins and suffer from habitat loss. Don’t let that get you down, though..Having bounced back from near extinction in the 1930s(the wild population then was less than 100) these guys now are at a count of around 3,000 and growing, thanks to the efforts of conservation teams worldwide.

Here’s a bit of a sneak peek at some principles of animal drawing that we’ll be covering in week 2 of my class, Dynamic Animal Drawing at the Zoo.

Rhinoceros unicornis,  the Indian Rhinoceros, is the largest of the rhino species, with the males of the species weighing anywhere between 4,000lbs to 8,000lbs.  These are some of my favorite critters to draw (yeah, i know..I say that alot, about so many different things) due to the massive amount of character they carry around with that equally massive build of theirs.

The thick neck folds, the heavy horn, the upward sweep of the skull, the heavy-lidded, unamused eyes…It’s almost to easy to inject heaping spoonfuls of personality into your drawing when sketching these guys.

Just a quick sneak peek with what I’m currently pecking away at;

…Aaaaand a quick reminder… Classes start at Watts Atelier next week, which means there’s six more days to sign up for my Dynamic Animal Drawing at the Zoo class.  It’s going to be a *great* class, so be sure to sign up before time runs out. To register, please visit the Watts Atelier of the Arts webpage.

Hope to see you next week,

-tb

This fall, I’ll be teaching Dynamic Animal Sketching at the Watts Atelier of the Arts.  The class will run from Oct. 16 to Dec 18, and will be held at the San Diego Zoo.

For beginners, this will be a great class to strengthen the basics of gesture, proportion and rhythm, as well as to build confidence and decision-making skills in your drawings.  For advanced students, this is an excellent opportunity to cross-train your anatomical knowledge and to push for your own voice and calligraphy in your sketches.

A student zoo pass is included in the class fee.  For more information, head on over to the Watts Atelier website (you can register here) or feel free to contact me directly with any questions you might have.

Sign up soon, class size is limited..Hope to see you there!

No sir, Chrysocyon brachyurus, the Maned Wolf,  isn’t any of those..It’s a creature unto itself, the only member of it’s Genus.

The maned wolf (pardon the confusing misnomer..as I said before, it’s technically not a wolf) is South America’s largest canid, and one of my favorite canids, due in part to it’s very un-canid-like behaviors.  It’s a solitary hunter; it doesn’t form packs, and lives a loner lifestyle, wandering the savannas of South America on it’s stilt-like legs in search of food and, in the off chance it comes across another Maned Wolf, a mate.  To make it even more un-canid-like, the Maned Wolf’s diet is made up of nearly 50% vegetable matter..It’s rather integral to it’s ecosystem, not as a top predator, but as an important distributor of seeds from the plants it eats.

 I’m always drawn to bizarre animals, and these fellows are made all  the more bizarre by the fact they are ancient…Maned Wolf fossils have been found that date back to the Pleistocene, which means these guys used to share their habitat with the bear-sized Smilodon populator, the largest saber-toothed cat (and one of the heaviest cats ever, for that matter) ever discovered.