So this is what happens when you don't really listen to your art director all that closely. He says that he needs a simple line drawing of a Chinese dragon. I hear "Chinese dragon, line drawing". It's hard to hold back on something like this. But I thought I was holding back - it's just lines, right? But he said that it was great and would look good in one of my drawing books, but that it isn't what he needed. So I had to do it again. I made a time lapse of the smaller drawing that he actually wanted (below). By the way, go ahead and print out the big dragon as a coloring page - it'll be fun.

Here's a better look at the watercolor that I did in the time lapse that I posted yesterday.

This, by the way, is in a "new" drawing book (that I started 6 months ago).

Dragon

Just because I like monsters and dinosaurs and dragons so much. This one, like a lot of my color stuff these days is in Photoshop. There are things I like very much about working digitally and things that I like not so much. It seems like I am almost getting it when it comes to Photoshop, but there is just something that I can't quite put my finger on. Oh well, I'll keep trying.

Monsters

These are drawings that I have been doing with my grammar school kids since I started teaching art. I usually do them as an ice breaker or when I have no idea what else to do! I didn't come up with the idea; a friend of mine said he remembered an old local show from when he grew up in Mississippi (?) and a guy named Uncle Bunky would do these crazy drawings. The gag is I write "head, body, arms, legs, tail, wings, horns" on the overhead and then get the kids to start listing animals. Then we draw whatever they have come up with. Sometimes it gets a little goofy, like when they said "goldfish" for arms; instead of drawing fins for the arms, I decided to make the arms out of goldfish. The kids absolutely love it and I get requests throughout the year to do more drawings like these.

Keep in mind that these aren't super complicated drawings because I only have about 45 minutes to get 3rd - 6th graders to draw these. I am always surprised at how hard the kids work on these - they are usually very successful drawings!

Polyphemus

This is the scene in the Oddyssey just as good ol' Polyphemus is sitting down to warm his bones beside the fire and he hears some unscrupulous Greeks in the back of his cave.

Cyclopes aren't typically known for their sunny disposition, but as I made this bottom piece I imagined Polyphemus saying something in a husky voice like, "Hey guys, it's my birthday! Hey, hey, hey!" I enjoyed making this piece immensely. I think I achieved something with my Photoshop work that I have not been able to do to this point. Well, ever onward and upward, I suppose.

Leviathan

The leviathan is mentioned in the book of Job as some sort of a giant terrifying sea creature - probably a crocodile. I did this for Hobbes' book of the same name. I made mine part crocodile, part prehistoric whale and part mosasaur. Photoshop.

Frilled Shark

Frilled Shark. Watercolor on paper. Again, a weird Japanese shark that normally makes its living deep down but found its way to the surface for some reason. And, like the Chimaera, it's based on a photo.

Chimaera

Chimaera. Watercolor on paper. Maybe you've seen the photo this is based on. I think this beastie washed up on the beach after a tsunami.