Ol' devil

I don't know why but January is always a tough month for me.  Maybe it's because it's after the holidays and I'm broke from buying presents.  Or maybe it's the dreary weather and early evenings.  Whatever the reason I'm never very productive in January.  Last night I got the watercolors out and made this laughing devil.  It's an image that is more appropriate for Halloween, and yet it's kind of how I feel right now.  I have mounting responsibilities and tons of work to get done.  And like a devil I'm laughing in the face of it all.  The devil may care.  

Bobcat in the Morning

This drawing was inspired by all the time I've been spending in the San Bernardino mountains.  I've been going up almost every weekend lately.  It's a nice change from the hustle of the city.
Projects have been going very well in my classroom and I find myself working with the students.  Whenever I'm not giving instruction I'm able to sneak over to my desk and methodically draw the vegetation from memory.  With only little pockets of time to work in it takes me days to complete a drawing like the one below.
I had only planned to draw a small doodle but it happily became a scrawling landscape of scrub trees and rocks.  For the bobcat I had to look up reference, and the rabbit I added at the last second.  I wanted to add color but unfortunately the paper I used is not robust enough to take media.  Instead I've scanned the drawing into the computer and I plan on painting it with photoshop.

Dino-mite!

I haven't posted in a long time but it's a new year and I am in the mood to start posting more work.  Below are some dino monster drawings I made as examples for my students to follow on their Dragon/Dino/Monster project.  Basically, I had my students take on the role of a movie studio concept artist and design a dragon monster.  It was a lot of fun and I got some great results.  I was inspired by watching the behind the scenes featurettes from the Hobbit films.

I hope 2014 is starting off right for everyone out there.  I had a great 2013, and I'm hoping 2014 will be even better.