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!

Mid-Week #4: Wired Wednesday, Part the Second

It's time for the next installment of the Wired Wednesday series!  Okay, so it isn't exactly Wednesday anymore (well, on the west coast it is), but Wired Thursday doesn't exactly have the same ring to it.  Anyway, these are a few of my wire animals. These are all a lot more precise and less chaotically wired than Zeke-37. In fact, that chaotic style is almost exclusive to the wire man and his descendants now. So away we go...

First, I submit for your consideration a bat.  A lot like my drawing of the owl, this one isn't so much a specific type of bat as it is the Platonic ideal of Bat.  To give you an idea of overall size, he's about 16 inches from wingtip to wingtip He's currently hanging on my wall, so I obviously like how it turned out.  

This next one shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody who knows me or has seen my posts up to this point.  It's another monkey! Also not surprisingly it's one of my all-time favorites. I tried to get as much of that "Monkey-ness" into it that I could without overworking it.  The only thing it lacks is a name. Any suggestions would be thoughtfully considered.

Again for an idea of the size, it's about 13 inches to the top of the arch of his tail and about 10 inches from nose to back foot.

My rattlesnake is one of the more simple wire animals I've made.  The head is the most complex portion of it (at least as far as shape goes) and from there back it's mostly circles connected in such a way to give it the sense of movement.  The scale of this scaly slithering serpent is about 20 inches in it's current posture.  If it were able to extend to a straight line it would probably be around 26 inches.

The final animal offering for this post is my tiny giraffe. Standing a whopping 9 and a half inches tall, she's not exactly suited for grabbing the leaves at the top of the wire trees, but is a great height for hanging out on top of a shelf or chest of drawers.  She took just under two hours to construct, so given the level of complexity to her, she's one of my fasted wire-works so far. 

Next Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest) will bring more wire-works for your enjoyment, and of course the beginning of the week will bring more drawings (Sketched Sunday?). Until then, my friends, keep the arts alive.

Stay creative,

-AH!