Love The Mushrooms

This will be useful in my drawing practice

How to Draw and Design Gryphons and Hippogryphs by using photo references of eagles, lions and horses?

Draw everything individually, from multiple angles.

How to draw horses || How I practice anatomy || Gesture drawing

It's like juicing up for a very tasty dream by consuming your favorite genre, characters, settings, etc and hoping your subconscious combines them.

If the final result is your target, and you see your drawing arm as a gun taking aim, then references are your bullets. Fill the chamber with reference unless you want to play roulette.

Your first step in reference gathering is to be specific. Know what you want and stick with it. I searched specifically for African Lion and Gold Eagle. Being specific helps you observe detail more accurately, and it already puts you one step ahead of generic designs.

I'm only going to tackle Lion + Eagle today for simplicity, but you can use this advice to combine two, three, or dozens of animals including horses.

Get your reference, and start practicing. Keep it simple and undetailed, only drawing the essence of the photo, rather than exact position and proportion.

Use action poses to practice! Even though they're more challenging, they will infuse your final result with action as well. Look up things like hunting, fighting, walking, running, landing, etc to get action reference.

Practice most on the creature you're having the hardest time with. That was Lions, for me. I even did a separate page where I studied the structure of their manes, since I wanted that in my griffin design.

Remember: you can trace photos as part of study! This is helpful for correcting proportions and anatomy. Make sure you are tracing mass and bones, not outlines.

Now that you're weapon is loaded with reference, you'll be able to design freehand without copying a photo. This is IDEAL because you won't be slowed down by anatomy. Now what we're here for: Design.

Creature Design Masterpost || Splice Vs Blend

This is going to be yet another visit to Splice vs. Blend technique, so strap in. Here's some guys I drew after I finished studying. No photos needed at this stage because I've eaten them all.

The most common creature design technique is something I call Splicing. You take pieces of animals and graft them onto each other with stitches. Griffins are notorious for this with their bird talons on the front legs and lion paws on the back. That's a creature that was formed through magic, not evolution. This automatically makes your griffin less believable. And probably a bit awkward in the walking department.

So here's a new challenge: Blending. Take bits of each creature and put them in a mixer, letting the ingredients land all over the place and amongst each other. What if we had a lion skull, with an extra-thick bird beak in place of the jaws? What if the lion chin was still there in the form of a tuft of fur? Maybe the tear duct from the lion, and the eyelids of bird? Let's give it lion ears with the furrowed brow so typical of raptors.

It already looks like a new life form, rather than a photoshopped amateur hour of recognizable animals. I could cover it in either feathers or fur and it would still be distinct as a new species. I want the classic lion mane in some form, so I'm taking the shape and turning it into long, fluffy feathers.

Don't stop there! Try identifying what traits make an eagle and eagle, or a lion a lion, and sticking them between each other.

Keep combining! Challenge convention! Add and omit parts and pieces to your heart's content.

Take this practice to all parts of all creatures. Throw new stuff in a blender instead of stitching it together. This especially includes color! You see a lot of spliced markings in novelty griffins, with a specific cat and bird. Artists get stuck on copy-pasting animal patterns because they're afraid the ingredients won't be recognizable, or they're just lost in the sauce of loving tigers they forget to actually have fun with it.

It's still recognizable as tiger and peacock, but much more compelling, wouldn't you say? Go for something unique rather than staying with what feels "safe." There's a million griffin artists out there, but only one You.

There’s a little grey area and that’s where you operate!

I just wanted to draw Hawks but it turned into another incorrect quote thing

This is so bittersweet and yet beautiful at the same time

(kind of) old art

Absolutely stunning

“People always say that sunflowers track the sun. So I watched the sunflowers grow and saw that they did not. 

The young plants did trace the sun from East to West, but when the blooms finally opened, they would cease to chase the sun. 

One day, I would also like to gain my independence from the sun.” - Linus 

From my work in progress illustrated novel, 1000 Words Unframed.

I’m in love with her art!

Hey everyone! I’m having a store wide sale with 10% OFF everything! :D There are wall scrolls, tote bags, prints, postcards, bookmarks and more~

Use discount code SALE21 during checkout. Valid from Sept 13 to 17th 

YuumeiArt.com/shop

This is something I need to read

Being vegan or vegetarian is not the best thing you can do for the environment and I’m fuckin sick of people saying it is

What an incredible man

Top image via Snopes, which confirmed and cited the quote. Second image online here. 

PRESIDENT TEDDY ROOSEVELT ON PATRIOTISM

By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs.

Numerous patriotic quotes are circulating on social media in the aftermath of the horrific attack on the US Capitol. Following the sage wisdom of my brilliant and inspiring AP US History teacher Terry Pollack, I sought primary sources to verify and provide context to these statements attributed to Teddy Roosevelt. 

Teddy Roosevelt quote 1: 

“Patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the President.” 

Source: President Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, May 1918 (v.47 no.6), From the HathiTrust Digital Library, essay here.

Teddy Roosevelt quote 2:

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Source: Sedition, a Free Press, and Personal Rule, editorial by Teddy Roosevelt, Kansas City Star, 5/7/1918. Online here. 

Our nation’s history is one of protest, fighting for rights, and continually striving to form a “more perfect union.” Two of our current exhibits, Records of Rights, and Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, highlight records documenting historic struggles. However, such challenges to and questioning of the government, especially of the President, are often seen as unpatriotic or even treasonous. As the highlighted quotes above show, Teddy Roosevelt responded strongly to such accusations.

Teddy Roosevelt stated that far from being unpatriotic, it is one’s patriotic duty to oppose a president whose policies put Americans in harm’s way. At the time, the US was both embroiled in World War I and dealing with a pandemic. Teddy Roosevelt adamantly supported the war, and even wanted to serve despite his age and failing health, but criticized President Woodrow Wilson for not playing a bigger role on the European war front. Wilson responded by trying to quash all criticism through Sedition Act of 1918 that criminalized any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government or military. 

See also: 

From letter to the Kansas City Star, 4/6/1918, online here. 

While the records above from President Teddy Roosevelt are not from the National Archives, we do hold records of government efforts to foster “patriotic spirit” including the original Declaration of Independence. and thousands of military recruitment posters, some more effective than others, including this one:

“Like mighty Niagara’s torrents is the strong surge of our patriotism.”

WWII poster, Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. NARA ID 515739.

See related:

Why Teddy Roosevelt Tried to Bully His Way Onto the WWI Battlefield, Smithsonian Magazine, by Erick Trickey.

The Bull Moose in Winter: Theodore Roosevelt and World War I, National Parks Service.

Patriotic Colonel Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, 1898, at the top of a hill they captured in the battle of San Juan. NARA ID 542082.

ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

“I might not understand your grief. Your rage. Everything that led you here… but I know all about solid bonds!!” | Happy birthday Jo @bohkutos​

Einstein's God is infinitely superior, but impersonal and intangible, subtle but not malicious. Art by Nicholas Moegly

This is so gorgeous!

㋡🥀

colors of the sky.