Enough Introductions, Let’s Do This!
Enough introductions, let’s do this!
Let's start this off with a photo completion picture. I didn't get any pictures of the process. But basically I cut a picture in half and with pencil drew the part I had removed.
I had wanted to draw the rest of the otter (it’s back legs and tail) to look like it was 3D and coming off the page and leaving water marks on the page. However I ran out of time, and I didn’t feel my skills were quite up to that level. Still, can’t get better if you don’t try, right?
Also in the real picture half that I cut, the otter had a yellow stain on his mouth making him look all frowny when converted to black and white. So I drew in a bit more of a smile. Because artist.
More Posts from Nixanimalia-blog and Others
Ugly Duckling Turns Into A Mediocre Swan
I don’t like this piece so much, but I wanted to share because I really like the concept and I’ve seen it used in amazing ways.
The idea is to take black and white paper, and cut and arrange it in any order. Then you draw black and white feathers on it. A white feather on the black paper is drawn in white chalk. A black feather on the black paper is outlined in white chalk. A black feather on the white paper is drawn in charcoal, but the white feather on the white paper is outlined in black charcoal. It gives a really cool image of feathers falling and crossing the borders between white and black.
I imagined having a white paper swan on a black background. The feathers would be falling down and on the middle of the swan a lone feather touches “water,” leaving water ripples. Neat, right? It would have been if I had actually pulled it off. Not sure what went wrong, but the feathers seem force-placed and not at all floating or falling down. Also I re-did the water ripples a bunch of times and they still don’t look as realistic as I wanted. Moar practice!
Lions and Portfolios
I was trying to get into school for Scientific Illustration (which I did! Yay!), but at the time I needed to build up my portfolio. My art teacher recommended that I draw something super eye catching. After spending quite awhile finding something that would look good in black and white, I found this. It was an incredible photo taken by National Geographic. Sadly the antelope did not make it. But if you look at this picture and imagine...it did. ;)
I never like the beginning of my drawings. I think they always look like crap. I’m a “finished art” person. Unless someone does a simplistic drawing - I love those. That takes a very special other set of skills to pull off.
I ended up flicking some white paint at it to give some water droplets. I also had fun jabbing my pencil at this a bunch for the black dots. The original image was of a lion and an antelope chance meeting at a watering hole. Mud, dirt, water flying...IT WAS A FIREFIGHT!
Haha this face. This is the face of an antelope who tells the god of death “not today.”
YakitisSacked
This was another entry into my portfolio to help me get into school (which I did! Yay again!) I took this picture at a zoo. I sadly can’t remember which one - either San Diego or Phoenix I think...
I loved all the different textures of hair this yak had. He was also pretty cute sleeping away in the sunshine. I don’t think I captured the hair texture as well as I would have liked. Practice! Practice! Practice!
Ready...set...DRAW!
“Map and Measure” which is fancy art speak for “this part looks like crap but is necessary before I can get all the details on.”
I start with the nose. Not for any strategic artistic reason. But because animals have THE CUTEST NOSES ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET.
The head has a body. A yak has a shape. A girl has a name.
All done! The white hairs against the black hairs is done with a battery operated eraser. Seriously - this eraser rotates very fast and you can make really white lines with it. :D
I now have merch!
In case you missed it, you can view all the behind the scenes of my art, inspirations, process, and struggles over at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/NixAnimalia
Also my etsy shop will close end of May due to going through a move, so get any cards and prints while you can:
Fur, Paint, and Magic
Greetings! I am an animal scientist. Well, ok, I’m an artist. Actually...
I wanted to be a magizoologist, but that only exits in the Harry Potter world, apparently. How rude. So then I wanted to be a cryptozoologist. Unfortunately, the U.S. branch went bankrupt when I was in college. Alas. I decided observing animals is ultimately my passion, and agreed that they should probably be animals that are regularly viewable in order to observe them. I then pursued bachelor degrees in Animal Science and Biology. I went on to get my Master’s Degree in Animal Science with every intention of going into Animal Behavior.
That was when I heard the sweet call of art. I had flirted with art as a fun hobby, but never thought of pursuing it professionally. Obviously I was pursuing animal science things. Like mixing sheep poop in acid and other experiments. There was no time for whimsical things involving pencils and paint! How wrong I was. Turns out art involves observing animals, drawing their widdle fuzzy noses, drawing all sorts of magical creatures, or there is even this thing called Scientific Illustration!!! :D Right?!
So, welcome to my Tumblr where there will be art. There will be pictures. There will be facts and stories. There may also be tears and smiles. But there will definitely be fuzzy noses.
NOM WIRE
The Bird is the Word
Another thing I wanted to have in my portfolio is an acrylic piece. My teacher recommended that I try copying Audubon. I picked his Black-capped chickadees. I really like the red berries that offset the black and white birds.
So the thing is...I haven’t painted acrylic before this piece. Well, that’s only half true. I wasn’t too worried because I do lots of miniature painting and that uses acrylic paint. Sorry, I’m not into WarmaHordes too much (though I have a battle box. Go Circle!). I actually have a plethora of LotR miniatures. Because Mumakil. Because Felbeasts. Because Riders of Rohan and their HORSIES. :D To sum up, I painted all the animals, and none of the dudes are painted. lolz.
So I have practice using acrylic, I just never put it on a flat piece before. So here it goes!
That ever crucial step of mapping and measuring.
One of the biggest challenges I had on this was learning how to mix colors. See with miniature painting, you buy all the shades of red you need (or you can at least). So you can have Gore Red, Horde Red, Blood of My Enemies Red, The Color Your Face Turns When You Get Beaten Really Bad At Lock&Load Red, etc. I needed what I would consider “Cranberry.” My best guess would be red with a touch of blue in it. That gave me a black-maroon. Or I guess “Prune” or “Black Current” ;) The shade was actually closer to “What The Crap Am I Doing” Red. then I found that I really did have the mixture right - but then I added white and a beautiful shade of Cranberry appeared! It WAS super effective!
Aren’t they just the most beautiful shade of berry you ever did see?
There’s quite a gap in picture stages here. I blame Netflix. Probably Buffy. Suffice it to say I discovered chickadees are not “white and black birds” but rather shades of brown and grey and yellow and white and black. Also teeny tiny brushes are my friend for line work. (Thank you miniature painting!) Not the most beautiful of lines. More practice always!
Adding more “not super straight” lines. The more you add, the better they look!
Chickadees, in fact, have pale yellow chins.
This is a closeup on one part of the painting. I’m showing that I don’t like how light and dark it is. I’m about to see what happens when I dry brush pale yellow or white over the top.
Success! (at least to my eyes)
Can’t have Black-capped Chickadees without black caps.
Green leaves turned out better than I had hoped. Sadly everything looks better from far away and not so close, but I’m sure practice will help with that. I also did a lot of detail touch up. I highlighted the feathers in white and added black flecks. Lots of tiny lines that were straitened with tiny lines in other colors.
Yay! I pushed my comfort zone and it turned out ok!
Still life...so still...so sad
I did a still life with a starfish and water bucket that I’m pretty excited about.
However I’m an animal artist...and I like still life...but they don’t exactly go together if you take my meaning.
On that happy note, here is my artwork. I took a large piece of watercolor paper, mixed some blue acrylic paint with water and covered the whole paper to make it blue. Then I treated the blue as the medium tone (kind of like grey). Then I used charcoal to put in the darker-than-blue colors and white chalk added a lighter-than-blue highlights. I call it “Moisturize Me” also in reference to one of the few Dr. Who episodes I’ve seen.
Throwback Scientific Illustration
This was a super fun, 3 month project for my Sci Ill program at UW. We took a picture of a horse, then drew it 3 times after much anatomical study: skeleton , muscle, skin. Then it was compiled and blended together.
We then put together our illustrations into an informational poster. I love teaching science with art! The UW program was very worth it!
Snow Geese
This was my very first art I did for environmental and conservation statements and education. It was really fun to try a half-color and half-black-and-white piece. It was done with carbon dust and colored pencil. Read the full story on my Patreon!
I'M BACK!
I've been gone for *checks calendar*...uhhh an embarrassing 8 and a half years. Yowzer.
I've had a few changes. I got a Scientific Illustration Certification from the University of Washington. I had two kids, who are both now finally school age. I found my passion is nature conservation and education. I will be taking my art in that direction and maybe pursue employment in that field. For now, I'm loving the art business, being around for my kids, and...oh yeah...about to move! It's been busy.
However, I am back here for hopefully good! I plan to update weekly with art. It will be a new piece every month, if not twice a month. The other weeks will be filled with art you haven't seen yet that I did over the last 8 years. There, sadly, was not much art done a few years in there where I was 3D printing humans and changing diapers. But you can't stop the art. I shall rise and continue...
So let's start off with a Morpho Butterfly! I was lucky to see them at a local butterfly habitat. They are unremarkable brown and then flash a brilliant blue in flight. Truly amazing. I did this artwork digitally. It would be fun to redo it sometime with pastels or paints.
The Animal Artwork of E.E. Nix plus some random animal things. Because animals.
20 posts