bestiary: anglerfish

national geographic says that these are possibly the ugliest animals on earth. poor guys. they need love too, right? you might remember one such fish from a certain disney movie about a certain clownfish (link to appear when they're drawn...if i remember). the largest of these fish (of which there are hundreds of different of types apparently) are over three feet long. that's over a hundred pounds of ugly-fish! not my words, national geographic's i swear. what's crazier is that their mouths are flexible enough for them to be able to eat prey that is double their size. so if you are one such fish, don't call them ugly and don't look at their fishing rods dorsal protrusions. anglerish in moleskine.

a fish out of water is.....

just a quick little ditty for illustration friday this week. the theme is soaked. i thought i'd take a different perspective on the meaning.

bestiary: andean condor

these birds are so massive that they prefer to inhabit moutainous or ocean regions with strong winds so that they can glide more easily. i'm talking thirty pounds with a near eleven foot wing span. huge. they're actually vultures (strange nomenclature in my mind) and as such feed on dead stuff, sorry, carrion. males have these offshoots from their snouts/beak called a caruncle - another interesting word. both males and females are bald and have white collars though these are more prevalent in males. i didn't know that these birds are the national symbols for argentina, bolivia, chile, colombia, ecuador and peru. it's interesting to me that these birds feed on the dead yet in andean mythology the birds are associated with a sun deity, essentially as ruler of the upper world, and are a symbol of health and power. andean condors in moleskine.

matt berninger

i played around with all manner of colouring for this after i brought it into photoshop and while i found certain results interesting, i opted for the most minimal. here were a few of those experiments.

decent contrast here but the details of the original drawing kind of got lost.

another alternative:

i tried to let the background provide some contrast and restore some of the detail.

overall, i actually liked the process that went into achieving the two draft versions but i didn't like that i lost the detail that i feel needs to be seen. finding that process was a happy accident, just not one that jives with this portrait i think. i guess the lesson for me was that i can't always be calling an audible on the final output. i should work on planning more...maybe. matt berninger of the national.

canada votes

considering the saturation of canadian politics in and around this popsicle stand, i decided to draw the (major?) candidates for our nation's captain's chair. i'm not overly political usually so rather than try and get exact likenesses, i just tried to let go. i guess if i were pro-any-party, i probably would've focused on getting the leader's portrait right. if i'm not mistaken, a similar situation almost caused an election not to long again, which prompted this little doodle. we shall see what happens. stephen harper, jack layton, gilles duceppe, and michael ignatieff in moleskine.