Reptiles... Mostly

As the title indicates, this week features three pictures of reptiles... sort of.  I really like drawing reptilian skin and scales. There's something about the details of the skin and scale textures that puts me into an almost Zen state. Drawing plain old lizards and snakes over and over and over again gets a little monotonous, though. To  combat the tedium, I improvise.

First up this week is an amalgamation of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a chimpanzee. Whether it's deserved or not is up for debate, but the T. Rex has the reputation of being one of the baddest of the big-bads in the dinosaur world. Then I thought about a chimp (Don't even bother trying to figure out how my train of thought reached that station) Chimps, as entertaining as they are, also have a mean streak at least a mile wide.  Since the eyes and hands, in my opinion, are the most expressive aspects of any primate, I combined the Rex and the chimp into the roaring beast you see here.

 And here's Ossie.  He's unlike the other two creatures in today's post in that he is entirely reptile. The inspiration behind this drawing is actually found in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible. According to the Genesis account, prior to tempting man to commit the original sin, the serpent got around in Eden by walking. After the fall of man, he was cursed to slither around on his belly. This is my idea of how he might have gotten around before the curse. The name is an acronym for Original Sin Serpent In Eden.

Finally is another student inspired creation. I'm not exactly sure where he got the idea, but somehow the idea of a bull/alligator hybrid seemed to click with me. A short while later the bulligator came into being. I took an alternate approach to the combination of these animals than I did with the chimp and t. rex, opting for a blend of their aspects throughout the body this time. Regardless of those differences, I can safely say that I wouldn't want to run afoul of either of them (or Ossie for that matter).

Thus ends another post. My mid-week Wired Wednesday series continues this week, so check back then for more of my three-dimensional art. Before I sign off, here are a couple of reminders.

REMINDER #1) As an artist I thrive on feedback from my audience, so questions, requests, ideas, or comments about this or any other post are both welcomed and strongly encouraged. That's what the comment section below and my email are there for.

REMINDER #2) There's still an artistic challenge waiting for your response here. It's not too late to take up the challenge.

Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Stay creative,

AH!

Meet Stan and Spite

As I've mentioned before, the inside of my head can be a scary place to the casual observer. I'm quite comfortable there, but again it is MY head. Taking that into account, here are a couple of the creatures to crawl out of the recesses of my imagination.

First up is Stan Fauntleroy. He's a lizard-man, plain and simple. I do feel the need to point out that while he does possess a phenotype similar to that of a certain insurance peddling gecko, they are in no way related. Stan is not the kind of guy you want to run into in a dark alley. He may look fairly innocuous on first inspection, but would you really want to cross a six foot tall, surly lizard man?
Artistically speaking, I find drawing fine details very relaxing, thus the multitude of individual scales. He was also one of my first attempts at a portrait from (almost full) profile.

Next we meet Spite. Not a lot to say about this one other than that he is the personification of the concept of spite. I guess if you insist on defining what type of creature he is, I'd probably call it a hobgoblin. In any case, I suspect I wouldn't trust him with children, small animals, or anything else defenseless. I mean, look at those teeth.
Putting his personality flaws aside and taking an artistic standpoint, Spite's face is intended to be both compelling and disturbing to look at, with greatly enlarged eyes (as I've mentioned being fond of) and a nice, big smile full of really sharp teeth.

These guys are just the tip of the "what the heck?!" iceberg. So check back (at least) every Sunday and Wednesday.
-AH!