Throwback Scientific Illustration

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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:

Etsy

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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

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!

Neat!!!

🌿 Who is the Central American Tigrina? This tiny wild cat (Leopardus tigrinus centralis) might be a subspecies… or a full species of its own. Some studies even link it closer to ocelots than to its supposed cousins. Mysterious, elusive, and stunningly spotted, it prowls the forests of Central America — quietly vanishing before we’ve even figured out exactly who it is. 🐾✨

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.”

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.

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.

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.” :)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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. >.>

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!

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!

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!

Social Media

I love social media. I want to have a presence in many. Below is my plan, but I’ve already noticed it changing a bit. For example, Instagram is becoming random pictures about art and flowers :P and ...I still have trouble with Twitter.

Still, I am on all of these and I try to keep everything varied a bit, so you don't see the exact same thing each time:

Facebook and Google Plus - You will see my finished work with some step by step photos and brief descriptions

Twitter - Random happenings an animal artist might encounter

Instagram - Finished pieces with pretty filters. Also animal (flower) inspiration pics.

Tumblr - In depth description with step by step pictures of the whole process. The best social media...amirite?

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.