YakitisSacked

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!

YakitisSacked

“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.”

YakitisSacked

I start with the nose. Not for any strategic artistic reason. But because animals have THE CUTEST NOSES ON THE FACE OF THIS PLANET.

YakitisSacked
YakitisSacked

The head has a body. A yak has a shape. A girl has a name.

YakitisSacked

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

YakitisSacked

More Posts from Nixanimalia-blog and Others

8 years ago
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?
Want A Free Print Of My Watercolor Art?

Want a free print of my watercolor art?

I feel it is very important to exercise our right to vote. I am not going to make any statement on who you should vote for, but if you vote, I will give you a print for FREE of my watercolor animals. What do you need to do?

1. Vote

2. Take a picture or update your social media or whatever with your "I Voted!" sticker OR hold the ballot stub, hold a sign, whatever you need to do. :) Just something to show you voted.

3. PM or email (NixAnimalia@gmail.com) your photo or link me to your social media update along with your 1 choice of print and your mailing address. (I will delete your photo and not use it for anything outside of proof you voted). Please pick only from these pictures on this post.

4. Get your print in the mail!

Feel free to share this. If I give free prints out to the entire nation because everyone voted, that will make me a very happy person. :)


Tags
8 years ago

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!

Ugly Duckling Turns Into A Mediocre Swan

Tags
8 years ago

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.

Fur, Paint, And Magic

NOM WIRE


Tags
8 years ago

Introductions

It would be remiss of me to not include introductions of my four-legged co-workers, as they will feature heavily I’m sure. :)

The newest (and smelliest) additions to the menagerie are the 4 female mice. The black one is “Kimmy” named for random reasons. The brown one with the torn ear is “Queen Bee.” She is a sweetheart and an older lady. I adopted her off someone who had given her the name and already a wonderful home, but was happy to have Queen Bee join the other girls. The “fancy mouse” grey one is named Riza from the anime: Full Metal Alchemist. Following that naming scheme is the white one “Winry.” :)

Introductions

Next we have the gerbil brothers. The greyish one is Alphonse and the “blond” one (haha) is Edward. Yup, still with the FMA theme.

Introductions

This is Puddleglum. She is a common house gecko. When I got her I knew nothing about the care and keeping of geckos. I only know she was supposed to live 5+ years. She just celebrated her 11th birthday with some tasty crickets this spring. I’m pretty convinced she’s an animagus. “CURIOUSLY LONG LIFE FOR A COMMON GARDEN RAT” Siriusly.

Introductions

For the main players, we have our two kitties. The black fluffy one who is totally just big boned and fluffy and is not a tubby whatsoever is Missy. ;) The photogenic orange tabby who thinks everything is boring and needs to make his own fun is Scratch Fury: Destroyer of Worlds. We just refer to him as “Scratch.” Usually loudly and in a manner only exasperated cat owners can muster. We picked his name from the online comic PvP by Scott Kurtz. Good stuff you should check out. I love these cats to itty bitty pieces and I have learned SO MUCH about cat behavior that I will be sharing liberally here.

Introductions
Introductions

The last, but not forgotten, player is Patriot. She won’t be featured here for awhile as she lives in another state. I hope to change that soon. Turns out boarding horses locally costs much more dollars than where she currently lives. Alas. She is a registered quarter horse and has lived up to her breed title. Growing to only the quarter size of a real horse. lolz. She reaches just at or barely over pony height (14.2 hands). What’s that in real measurements? It’s a comfortable height to fall from. Her registered name is “Wind In My Sails” as her damn fine dam was named “Scirocco” and her studly sire was/is? named “Sailor Sam Silver.” Very piratey. What I yell across the pasture to get her attention and whisper sweet nothings in her fuzzy ear is “Patriot.” This is also known as a barn name. I picked apparently from American Girl: Felicity story. Because of course I did.

Introductions

Thanks for making it this far! (even if you just skimmed by looking at the pretty pictures of animals).


Tags
8 years ago

Pencil and Watercolor

I found out that an art style you can do is drawing a pencil drawing...and then use watercolor to give it a splash of color. How fun! :D It is pretty neat. I’m not as practiced with watercolor as I am with colored pencil, but the color does go on faster. I made these for my co-workers as I left my mouse handling job to do art instead.

I gave this one to my vet friends who taught me SO MUCH. I got to trim little mouse toes when they got itchy skin to keep them from scratching it. I also learned how to trim mouse teeth!! Mouse teeth grow constantly and if they have malocclusion (where their teeth don’t line up right), they can grow out of control and be deadly to the mice. So we trim the bad ones to keep them healthy and happy. :) I also learned how to put ointment and eyedrops in their eyes. Basically what vets to with other animals...only on a teeny tiny scale. Between the mouse’s legs in the picture is the BASE OF THE TAIL. >.>

Pencil And Watercolor

This was for my supervisor. He loooooved skulls. I thought having a scene out of “Hamlet” I mean “Hamouse” would be good. ;) ‘Alas poor Yorick, I ate him well.’ To a mouse, your buddy’s death is an excellent source of protein sometimes. Because mouse. We don’t talk about that side of their behavior. Instead, did I tell you mice have cute widdle noses? Cause they do!

Pencil And Watercolor

This was for my project coordinator. She was so sweet, she was basically the mom to all of us. She is all about love, friendship, and positive thinking. :) The world definitely needs more people like her!

Pencil And Watercolor

This was for a couple of people I worked with and we got pretty close. When I gave this to them, one said “Ha! We got the CUTE one of baby mice. Not the ugly ones with needles and skulls.” ;D They made me laugh so much! I will miss them all!

Pencil And Watercolor

Tags
8 years ago

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. ;)

Lions And Portfolios

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.

Lions And Portfolios
Lions And Portfolios

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!

Lions And Portfolios

Haha this face. This is the face of an antelope who tells the god of death “not today.”

Lions And Portfolios

Tags
8 years ago

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.

Enough Introductions, Let’s Do This!
Enough Introductions, Let’s Do This!

Tags
8 years ago

Still life...so still...so sad

I did a still life with a starfish and water bucket that I’m pretty excited about.

Still Life...so Still...so Sad

 However I’m an animal artist...and I like still life...but they don’t exactly go together if you take my meaning.

Still Life...so Still...so Sad

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.

Still Life...so Still...so Sad

Tags
1 week ago

May Reminder...

I'll be posting a reminder weekly through May just in case anyone follows me half way through. :) As a reminder, there is one month left to buy anything off my store at Etsy before I close it down for moving.

NixAnimalia - Etsy
Etsy
Shop The animal artwork by E.E.Nix by NixAnimalia located in Seattle, Washington. Top shop for gifts. A buyer bought a gift from this shop a
8 years ago

Sumi Ink

I loooooove sumi ink drawings. I love the simplistic style the oriental paintings have. Then I thought - simple must be easy to do, right? Oh honey.

After taking a workshop I learned quickly it is not easy. Of course it takes people years to master it. This picture is one of my latest after a workshop, a class, and a few practices. It still could be loads better, but finally getting happy with the results instead of “let’s speak of this to no one” status.

The goal of this piece was to dilute the ink to give it atmospheric shading.

Sumi Ink

Tags
Loading...
End of content
No more pages to load
  • 5grandautoland-blog
    5grandautoland-blog liked this · 8 years ago
  • aliakbar925
    aliakbar925 liked this · 8 years ago
  • nixanimalia-blog
    nixanimalia-blog reblogged this · 8 years ago
nixanimalia-blog - Nix's Animalia
Nix's Animalia

The Animal Artwork of E.E. Nix plus some random animal things. Because animals.

20 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags