2013 Holiday Cards

Here's this year's holiday greeting card from yours truly and Julie Davis. We hope you had a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a kickin' Kwanzaa, a spectacular Solstice, and/or a satisfying Saturnalia... and most of all, that you'll have a great New Year!

Why yes, that is indeed a carrot-eared snow pony to commemorate the upcoming Year of the Horse. You're welcome.

I also did custom cards for a couple of relatives. This is for the brother- and sister-in-law...

And one for my parents-in-law, featuring the ever-adorable Tucker.

Zoocember

Today was a crisp December morning at the San Francisco Zoo, and the public debut of little Kabibe!

Your local media arrived bright and early for the naming announcement. The gorilla enclosure was still being prepped...

Some quick sketches of five-month-old Kabibe ("little lady") and granny Bawang. Patriarch Oscar Jonesy manfully stood watch.

Unlike us freezing humans, the gorillas staked out nice sunny spots. Five-year-old Hasani clambered up a tree to mug for us, too.

Onward to the big cats!

I was pleased to see that some of the animals aren't exactly morning people, either.

The peccary pups are getting bigger, some more dramatically than others.

As the day warmed up, the little peccaries became really hyperactive!

A reminder: The Big Bugs exhibit closes January 12. See them while you can!

  

And, of course, Merry Christmas to everyone.

Trolls and Goblins and...

First and foremost: Logan Garner of "Nerd Out With Me" just wrote up Alive, Alive, Alive! as his webcomic of the week. How excellent and flattering!

More Hobbit- and Tolkein-inspired sketchbook nonsense.

This one's crying out for a caption.

A Great Goblin, if he does say so himself.

I can't possibly be the first person in Internet history to think of this.

Hobbitses

So I finally read Tolkein's The Hobbit, and I thought I'd try my hand at visualizing some of the creatures and characters for myself. I'm trying to approach this with no reference to previous interpretations...

I like the idea of hobbits as fauns - it's not just their feet that are hairy! Also featuring Gollum, Smaug, and a sample elf. The elves in the Rankin-Bass Hobbit movie are pretty weird, but their green skin is cool, so I straight-up stole that idea.

Lots of possibilities for dwarf proportions. I like the idea of big heads and torsos with small limbs, like real-life dwarves, simply because you seldom see this in fantasy illustration.

Gollum and goblin ideas. Really, all these guys should be roughly dwarf- and hobbit-scale. The Great Goblin, as per Tolkein, is distinguished by his exceptionally large head.

ThanksGreetings!

Since three of my favorite people in the whole world have birthdays in October and November, this is the time of year when I get to do custom paintings for them. Here's this year's batch!

 For dad, his beloved bunny rabbits in a Baja California cave-painting style.

 My nephew requested a bat-like eagle, an eagle-like bat, and the aurora borealis. And there's those bunnies again!

In his capacity as art director, Kendric also commissioned this for his sister (my niece).

And while I had the watercolor paints out, I doodled a silly something for myself...