Weekend Zoo Sketches

Sketches from September 5th at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. It was hot, so a lot of the animals were sleeping or hiding, but there were still plenty of good drawing opportunities.

Rocks on the beach

Here is a contour drawing of the rocks and cliffs at the Menemsha Hills beach, done in my Moleskine sketchbook. There's something so relaxing about doing contour drawings.

Menemsha Hills watercolor

Here is a watercolor painting of the beach at Menemsha Hills, done in my watercolor sketchbook (approximately 4 1/2" by 6").

Back Porch watercolor

A watercolor sketch of the back porch of my neighbors house on the island. It was an experiment in painting shadows, done in my watercolor sketchbook (approximately 4 1/2" by 6").

Two Cormorants

Here is a pen sketch of some cormorants on a rock at Menemsha Hills. It was great to get a chance to draw and paint in my sketchbooks while I was on Martha's Vineyard last week.

Commission: Map

This is a commission that I recently finished for a client in France. After seeing some of the other map projects I have done, she asked me to make a Lord of the Rings style map of the world that she has created for a story that she's been writing. I used a combination of drawing on paper and painting in Photoshop. The completed map measures 11.6" x 8.2".

Interview and Recent Sketchbook Pages

I was recently asked to do an interview for a website called jitZul, and they just posted it at the end of last week. They asked me some good questions, and it was a fun experience. You can read the interview at their website.

I also scanned some pages out of my sketchbook. When I saw Coldplay in concert back in June, they had air cannons that shot hundreds of thousands of tissue paper butterflies into the air. I had grabbed a few and stuck them into my purse, thinking that they could be fun to collage into my sketchbook.

Inspirations: Vintage Flash Cards

When I was on Martha's Vineyard a couple weeks ago, I stopped in a store called Mix in Vineyard Haven that carries all sorts of fun vintage items. I bought some vintage counting flash cards and I plan to eventually frame them in a group. I love the simplicity of the designs on the cards, with the bright colors of the simple pictures against the plain white background. It makes for a very crisp design.