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An ACEO for my friend Christine, who wanted bioluminescent deep sea animals w/ big teeth.

Jellyfish are so much fun to draw!

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An ACEO request for my friend Cheryl, who wanted "two Notonectidae with spears fighting a Belostomatid (giant water bug)". She wins Best ACEO Request.

I'm still taking ACEO commissions! $30-$45 depending on the subject/complexity! Note me if you're interested.

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Two Lateral Views of a Cow Skull - 11 x 17" - pen&ink

A couple years ago, my ex gave me this grimy cow skull w/ 2 bullet holes in the forehead. In a fit of curiosity, I decided to cut in half. With a handsaw. At one point during the bisection, my downstairs neighbours banged on their ceiling to politely let me know that I was making too much noise. Oh, if only they had actually come to my door to inquire what all the sawing noise was about...

And then I thought it might be cool to do a stippled drawing of the interior. The end. ;)

Edit: This piece has been selected for inclusion at the Guild of Natural Science Illustrator's member show at the Colorado University Museum of Natural History in Boulder, from April 25 - Sept 19! :D

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Cow Skull - Lateral View (Exterior) - 8.5" x 11" - ink

Part 1 of a 2-part project. Next illustration: the interior...

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Coloured pencil ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") for my good buddy Kim, of the adorable bat species she is studying for her MSc.

I'm currently taking ACEO commissions! Prices are $35-$45, depending on the complexity and my familiarity with the subject matter. Drop me an Ask if you're interested!

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Hibiscus blossoms

Coloured pencil practice

<3

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Arctic Unicorn - each 8 x 10" - coloured pencil & acrylic

No love to the scanner!! >:(

Design based on pronghorn, cheetah, caribou, greyhound & horse anatomy. The skeleton and muscular system have a number of subtle non-ungulate adjustments that lend it an alien quality without compromising the familiar silhouette.

Cursorial tundra mammal; no sexual dimorphism; horn grows continuously throughout life; gathers in large breeding/wintering herds but sexes segregate during spring & summer; omnivorous; crepuscular; poor jumper but excellent swimmer; hooves lengthen during late summer/early fall & act as snowshoes; circumpolar distribution; extremely wary of humans.

I want to do a fake taxonomic monograph. Head-canon says they were originally classified as Antilocaprids due to the characteristics of their feet until a complete skull was found...

<3

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Midnight is the perfect time to figure out how to piece a large image back together in a new graphics editing program. :/

Dragonfruit 10" x 14" coloured pencil & acrylic 2013

For my portfolio.

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Don't get me wrong: birds are fascinating, reptiles are spectacular, fish are nifty, & inverts rule the planet; biochemistry, cell biology, genetics & microbiology are all vastly interesting and indispensable, but in the Bio Sci 'hood, mammalogy is my home turf. :)

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Pronghorns (Antilocapra americana) 8" x 10" - Part 1 of a series featuring ungulate species where both the male and female have cranial ornamentation.

Trying out acrylic & coloured pencil together. I like how you can layer colour and get some fine details but I can't get it to scan well.

Pronghorns are my favourite ungulate, hands down. They aren't deer or antelope; they're the lone surviving species from a genus that populated North America before the last Ice Age. They out-lived their cheetah-like predators too, and are now the second fastest terrestrial animal on the planet. Their horns are unique as well: they shed the outer sheath once a year like antlers but retain a bony core year-round.

Next up: caribou!

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A male Markhor doodle in ball-point pen.

I love how goats always have this smug, sassy set to their jaw.

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Naked mole-rat skull, all stippled up for use on business cards & other professional heraldry.

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Finished!! The 9 nominate species in the genus Poicephalus as ACEOs, for the upcoming Guild of Natural Science Illustrators conference in Savannah, Gerogia.

L - R, top to bottom: Senegal, Meyer's, Red-bellied, Brown-headed, Jardine's, Yellow-fronted, Niam Niam, Ruppell's, & Cape parrots.

They are all 2.5" x 3.5", slightly smaller in life than on screen, and done in a combination of coloured pencil and marker, with some Micron details. I'm really proud of them!

I chose this genus because a) I love Poicephalus species, and b) they demonstrate an interesting mix of plumage morphology, containing both monomorphic species and sexually dimorphic species. Colouration from images on Google (except the Niam Niam parrot, whose colours I adapted from the description on the World Parrot Trust website). Poses courtesy of Roslin, my Grey-headed parrot (a Cape sub-species).

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The first 4 of an eventual 9 ACEOs depicting the species in Psittacidae genus Poicephalus!

Colours & markings referenced from photos; poses referenced from my Grey-headed parrot (Poicephalus fuscicollis suahelicus), Roslin, which is why they all ended up looking like darling goofballs.

These are slightly smaller on the screen than in real life and I'm not completely happy with how they scanned. :/ Used the scanner at work rather than at school; think I'll re-scan them all at school when the series is complete.

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Two rodents & one shrew.

God I love shrew teeth, especially the ones with bright red iron deposits. <3

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Rock ptarmigan skull. Fall 2010. 

I wrote a paper on the effects of increasing temperatures in the Arctic on ptarmigan life history, called 'Ptarmigeddon' until the TA's put their foot down. This sketch was going to go on the final page of the Works Cited but I decided not to try their patience with further unprofessional behaviour...

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White-tail deer vertebrae, C6 & C7. Spring 2010. From an articulated skeleton in the University of Alberta mammalogy collection.