Mammoths, Diatrymas and Bison latifrons

Had a lovely day with a couple of art friends, Becky and Mitsuno, sketching for fun at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. We went to a quiet spot in the Ancient Life Gallery that is inhabited by creatures of the Pleistocene, Miocene, and Eocene. Some beautiful bony beasts in there. I decided to switch from pencil to Sharpie pen today, working in a 5″x8″Moleskine sketchbook. Sometimes it’s just satisfying to play in black and white. But then Becky loaned me her waterbrush and teeny tiny watercolor box, a 2″ metal thing meant for kids. She’d dug out the cheap cake watercolor and replaced it with quality tube paint, squeezed into the little spaces and allowed to dry. I’m now determined to follow her example. The perfect pocket paint kit.

Nothing like a big, hungry,  fast running bird of prey to keep things interesting for the bird-watchers of the Eocene Era.

There is something restorative, refreshing and motivating about drawing. It’s a beautiful thing, the way it re-orders the universe and aligns the brain cells with the fingers and eyes and the heart, if I may be a little florid about it. A few hours of sketching is called for every so often. Dr. Motmot recommends it highly.

We were struck by how hand-like the forefeet of the Mammoth were. 

So Many Sketches, So Little Time

Just a quick post while I’m putting a couple of workshops together. This Thursday I’m giving a class at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, “Drawing the Worlds of the Past“. Lots of great skeleton mounts to sketch. It’s a dandy place to draw.

Pentaceratops at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History- the largest skull of any land animal ever found- certified by the Guinness Book of World Records!

Another dandy place to draw is Quartz Mountain, in western Oklahoma, a rugged and dramatic landscape. I’ll be teaching “Nature Journaling and Field Sketching” for the Oklahoma Arts Institute October 11-14. Lots to do between then and now.

In the meantime, more sketches!

Heliconia Patch

Crowned Woodnymph in a Heliconia Patch, snoozing. 

Chestnut backed Antbirds and a Panama tree squirrel.

Miocene hell, reimagined

For those of you who like your paleontology with a good set of word pictures and some well-imagined scenarios of natural devastation, this will get your blood racing. Great reconstruction writing from Chris Clarke.