joyful defiance

ALT: ink drawing of two flowers standing under a yellow sun. The flowers have spiky radiating petals around central clusters of little circles. The sun has a red spiral on it, and also radiates spiky lines. The whole thing is in primary colors )red, yellow and blue) with a bit of green for one of the flower’s stem and a few extra leaves.

owlets all in a row

ALT: ink painting showing five fuzzy, yellow-eyed baby owls lined up on a branch. I had fun letting the ink blur on wet paper for the fuzzy down, in contrast to sharper lines for the eyes and beaks. From another old National Geographic photo.

foreshadow

ALT: ink drawing. There’s a horizon line about 2/3 of the way up the page. Above, a stylized sun sits on the left side, just above the horizon, with blue and yellow rays extending out through the sky. Below, there’s a large circle on the right side, as if facing off against the sun. This one also has rays that are alternating purplish and blue, which extend all the way to the horizon. The circle has a red network of strands in it, with the intersections marked. Sort of like a drunken web, or bad dream catcher. The sun reflects yellow into the water. Over the whole drawing there’s a loose tracery of black ink scribbly lines. And maybe a couple of flying birds.

so we did sing, and it was a good howl

ALT: ink drawing of four assorted personages, mouths open and faces uplifted in song. from left to right, there’s something that has ears that remind me of a koala, then a bluish bat-like(?) creature, then something like a purple aardvark, perched on a stool, and on the far right an orange humanoid with flame-like hair holding a glass in one hand and the other draped around the aardvark. They all have squiggly streams of imaginary writing coming from their open mouths and sailing up into the sky.

plant people coming alive

ALT: ink drawing that is a rather chaotic mess of red and yellow splotches on a blue and green sort of background. Black lines define the red and yellows as something like flowers or really big pollen. Really it’s just a mind-wandering doodle of spring.

incoming

ALT: ink sketch of an owl, close approach on the wing. Purple background, yellow eyes, wings furling toward landing or striking. Yes, I am mining my old National Geographics for animal photos to sketch, and yes, it is highly enjoyable.

cool chameleon

ALT: ink sketch in teal with black lines, showing a chameleon gripping a twig, with one front leg upraised. It has a tail curled in a tight spiral, and stripes on body and tail. What an amazing looking beast! (another National Geographic photo used as a reference)

birditude

ALT: ink sketch of a parrot (reference was a National Geographic photo) perched on a stick, with a sort of thorn halo around it. Purple head, green red and yellow body, and an expression that’s a peering glare.

better a disaster than a bore

ALT: ink drawing of a very messy, disheveled crow on the ground looking maybe at some garbage. The background is a sort of plaid grid in blue and pink, with some pretty but random ornamentation. That was the original part, but it didn’t feel like anything and I didn’t want to just leave it as it was, hence the crow.