random sketches from the week.

If a bear sighs in the woods, does anyone hear?

I have started trying to bike part of my daily commute. Fun!

The one sketch I managed during a fun day out with my brother & his wife in Muir Woods. For a monochrome sketch I feel I did okay capturing the trees. Must go back for more practice.

I am not fond of grocery shopping.

The Bear Bones

Posted this image over at the From the Stacks blog for the latest Illustration Smackdown. This fuzzy wuzzy smackdown I took on (unbeknownst to me until yesterday) the great Tracy Irwin Storer, founder of the UCDavis Zoology Department, author of California Grizzly, and the man who did the sketches of Monarch. Monarch was the last of the California Grizzlies whose image adorns the California state flag.

today's bear sketch..

Camouflage is a wonderful thing....

Ursine surprise

I got a new journal/sketchbook thingy. Most of the pages have pre-printed patterns on them, which I usually avoid. Drawing on plain white paper is usually my preference. But I think one or two of these pages might just work out fine. For now, I'll grin and bear it!

caught bear handed

Another image from my vault -

probably meant to illustrate Goldilocks & the Three Bears. Though what the bears are doing living in a fabric warehouse, I no longer know... Done in gouache, or possibly watercolor.

It's funny how one image leads you to another.... 

This next sketch is from a trip I took to Yellowstone in 2001. 

ballpoint bears

For all of the fancy pens I own, I still like drawing with a ballpoint pen. If I haven't used one for a while I get surprised all over by the range of grays possible. 

I just like the way these two different sketches seem to work together.

I come Bear-ing sketches...

When I got the latest scientific name for the Illustration Smackdown, I spent some time staring at the ceiling trying to remember a class I took nearly two years ago. The class was on wildlife illustration, and while I knew we had covered bears, I couldn't remember for a while if I had previously drawn Ursus arctos, the American Brown Bear. Once I got home from work, I was able to go through...