h e x INK s t u d i o

Blue ballpoint on sketch pad. I was thinking about some of the odder-looking gargoyles I’ve seen around, and the really spectacular gargoyles of European architecture. Then I got to thinking about the camelopard – an archaic European representation of a giraffe.

And here we are.

Cue ten-minute guitar solo.

Friday night I was out late looking at apartments preparatory to moving, and then drove overnight to Missouri, so this one’s kinda phoned in – as in, sketching in the middle of the night while taking a break at a rest stop.

Apparently under enough stress I begin to make surreal little decisions about my art. I was initially thinking about sock puppets when I started this one. That may explain the gape-mouthed lack of real expression on his face. Or it could be the late hour and fatigue talking through my pencil.

I’ll be orchestrating a move over the next couple of weeks. Wish me luck. I’ll need it!

This wraps up my second month of a dragon a day, every day!

That also means that there’s a second Daily Dragons gallery up for your perusal, featuring the dragons from the month of June, 2010. Go have a look!

On that note, it’s time for all good little artists to hit the hay. Goodnight, and thanks for looking. I’ll see you for another one tomorrow!

-WesT

This one was completed at tonight’s Drink & Draw, using basically the same media as yesterday’s. However, I tried to focus more on the lines and less on the shading to carry the rendering. The result is…well, see for yourself. Similar, but different.

I’d like to do a color rendering of this critter, because I was thinking of deep-sea predators like viperfish and anglerfish, and what traits of theirs might appear in a vaguely serpentine, multi-legged swamp dragon filling the same niche in mangrove swamps as crocodilians and other large vertebrate predators do in the real world.

In other words, I’d like to see this thing in a glossy purple-black, with glowy chartreuse eyes and little bioluminescent spots and eye crests and whatnot.

The name, Coatlus duodecapteryx, simply means “coatl with twelve wings” in almost-but-not-quite-scientific latin. Eight eyes, twelve wings, a masklike face…this was quite a bit of fun to draw, and I deliberately worked to keep it loose and gestural whenever possible.

Religion and spirituality were on my mind when working on this. Coatl is a reference to Quetzalcoatl the Feathered Serpent, a deity worshiped across much of mesoamerica; snakes and birds are important religious symbols in cultures the world over; and the number 12 is significant in multiple religions and also in the field of numerology. The masked face also plays conceptually to the idea of elaborate costumes common in Aztec and Mayan worship and religious life.

The linework is all Micron and Copic pens, and the shading was accomplished using three different Copic mid-range grey markers, mainly chisel and/or brush tip work rather than the finer tips. I’m most partial to Copic sketch markers as they feature both brush and chisel tips, and when I want to lay color or shading down I usually prefer to cover the page quickly – thus the preference for larger marker tips.

I’d almost forgotten how much fun sketching feathers is.

In other news, I’ve been having kind of a rough week, and I apologize for the every-other-day update schedule I’ve fallen into. I’ve been drawing these daily, but part of the exercise is to post them promptly to enforce that deadline. I’m feeling better for now, though, so I should be on track hereafter.

Not a true hydra, the so-called bog hydra is actually a highly developed archaeomollusc more closely related to krakens and mangrove haunts than to any sort of hydra – despite the primitive and peculiar biology of some hydrae.

Like its cephalopod relatives, the bog hydra’s body is supported by powerful hydraulic muscular action, making it distressingly strong for its small stature; most bog hydrae weigh less than a grown man but can easily uproot small trees and leap great distances. The four highly developed limbs are supported by segments of tough, ribbed cartilaginous mantle jointed to the main mantle plate which protects the torso’s upper surface like a turtle shell. The “toes” are boneless, tough tentacular appendages, as is the prehensile “tail.” The leech-like mouth is capped by a bony beak, below which two antenna pits serve as olfactory sensors.

The creature’s muscular eyestalks are perhaps its most striking feature. Each stalk ends in an eye surrounded by a bony, jagged structure that resembles a mouth and is used for grasping and holding objects and prey. A mass of barbed suckers runs along the bottom of each eyestalk, but these are often concealed beneath flaps of skin when not in use.

The bog hydra is particularly hazardous not just because of its strength, but because it can precisely control the color and texture of its skin membranes to mimic its surroundings, making the creature a deadly ambush predator.