Finished Work - Black & White

For Akira Shima by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:01:33 -0000

This is for the wonderful, kind, talented, and patient Akira Shima. I based all ornamentation etc. off of his gorgeous drawing here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/142519/ I do love drawing the male figure, but I hadn't drawn any somewhat-accurate (as in, not fangy monstrous) ones in a while. To brush up, I bought some strength-training and anatomy books and pored over them (though the actual pose is my own idea). Fun! Also, I know I am pretty terrible at drawing wings, and even though I wanted these to be stylized and symbolic, I still tried to push myself in regards to wing anatomy, so I re-drew them several times before transferring the final to a large piece of Strathmore Bristol (it's approx. 11" x 14"). I hope to add some shading or a light watercolor wash to this sometime; I'm feeling a bit rusty at painting for the moment, so rather than ruin this, I stopped and tinted it a bit in Photoshop.

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, Strathmore Bristol, Photoshop
Tags: feline wings nekomata winged angelic

Sketch Card - Uniboar for Louve by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:18:24 -0000

Here is Louve's wonderful Uniboar, drawn on one of my sketch cards; the cards are pretty small, under 5" tall, but they have a surface that takes pencil very nicely, and at such a small size, they fit in my Pen Sketchbook and are easy to carry and draw on in the car. ;) I absolutely love boars (I even have a big boar ring, LOL!), but I haven't drawn any in years, so I apologize for any proportional errors. Louve's work is amazing and lovely, and it was hard to decide what to draw, but the Uniboar won out. :) The background was fun as well; i love detailed borders!

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, embossed card stock
Tags: boar border unibooar

Sketch Card - Anubis x 2 for Heather Bruton by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:16:36 -0000

Here are two versions of Anubis, drawn on my sketch cards; the cards are pretty small, under 5" tall, but they have a surface that takes pencil very nicely, and at such a small size, they fit in my Pen Sketchbook and are easy to carry and draw on in the car. ;) Heather Bruton is (of course!) not only extremely talented and kind, but also INCREDIBLY knowledgeable about all things Egyptian; so I chose to draw Anubis for her. I drew one, didn't like it, drew another one, didn't like THAT, then went back to the first and got it to look better, then finished the second. Yes, I am slow (but I love every minute of it)! I was leafing through a (bunny-nibbled) coffee table book I have about Tutankhamun, and was inspired by a jackal/Anubis statue (rather like this one: http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com.....ges/anubis.jpg ); it's very famous, you most probably have seen it. I did my own interpretation of it, more serious in the right drawing than in the left, where he's sort of grinning.

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, embossed card stock
Tags: egyptian statue anubis diety

Sketch Card - Genevieve by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:15:05 -0000

Here is Genevieve, drawn on one of my sketch cards; the cards are pretty small, under 5" tall, but they have a surface that takes pencil very nicely, and at such a small size, they fit in my Pen Sketchbook and are easy to carry and draw on in the car. ;) She is not any particular kind of big cat, not a hybrid or anything, more - just a feline creature of my own imagination. I find long curly hair fascinating (I find long straight hair fascinating too - mine is wavy), and I wanted to try drawing it,. Plus, I'd just seen The Illusionist; the costuming in that movie, and the "Horseless Carriage" costuming I'd researched, had inspired me to try more rather demure clothing. I hope to add some Photoshop color eventually; we'll see. In the meantime, I did enjoy drawing this.

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, embossed card stock
Tags: cat big feline costuming

Horseless Carriages are More Fun - For Will A. Sanborn by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:09:03 -0000

For Will A. Sanborn's wonderful anthology of his general-interest stories, New Technicolor Dreams. This image and the other three I did were to be small, without too much detail (which would clog up at a reduced size). This one is actually my favorite of the four I did. The clothes and "horseless carriage" were a lot of fun to draw, and a good challenge, too. I liked that the female border collie has a shorter beagle husband (per Will's story). The male border collie is my homage to Richard Scarry's animal people (and his Cars and Trucks and Things that Go. :) The book is available at Lulu.com here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1319314 and at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/New-Technicol...../dp/1434821838 An "art-only" collection of the book's images (in a larger size format) is also available here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1316897

Medium: Mechanical pencil, Bristol, Photoshop
Tags: steam engine dog collie costume border beagle period

Mice Election - For Will A. Sanborn by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 20:02:47 -0000

For Will A. Sanborn's wonderful anthology of his general-interest stories, New Technicolor Dreams, which features illustrations by Heather Bruton, Bernard Doove, Scott Fabianek ("K-9"), Tim Johnson ("Ravenwolf"), "Melskunk", Cara Mitten, Kacey Miyagami, and Sara "Caribou" Palmer. This image and the other three I did were to be small, without too much detail (which would clog up at a reduced size); I did it mostly in pencil on Strathmore bristol board, with a bit more shading added in Photoshop. I had a lot of fun with this one! I kept the animals mostly realistic, while still bending the rules a bit to show expression. The book is available at Lulu.com here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1319314 and at Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/New-Technicol...../dp/1434821838 An "art-only" collection of the book's images (in a larger size format) is also available here: http://www.lulu.com/content/1316897

Medium: Mechanical pencil, Bristol, Photoshop
Tags: cat mouse mice election

Hikage for Black Atolm by Synnabar

Thu, 08 May 2008 19:59:38 -0000

For the Anthro Sketch Exchange community ( http://community.livejournal.com/anthrosketchxch/ ), my person for January was Black_Atolm. I spent a lot of time researching because I am not great with canines, stealth weaponry, or Splinter Cell (= yay! I love researching, yum! :D), so this was a good challenge for me (also yay :D, challenges = good). Then I kept re-drawing it, scanning it in, touching it up, printing it out, and re-drawing it... so it took longer than you might think. I loved B_A's art of Hikage and his description too, especially: "He is cocky, confident, shows lack of respect to any authority and likes to show off."- that's what I went with (eep, I think I left out his forelock/bangs, sorry :/). The throwing knives are just to show off; he has the handles between his knuckles, kinda. I know that's not a good position for throwing.

Medium: RSVP pen on parchment-patterned cardstock.
Tags: parchment chimaera

Wild Cat Cards - "Golden" Leopard B&W by Synnabar

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:25:12 -0000

((I know black & white pieces aren't usually as interesting to many, but I feel my graphite pieces are better before I color them, so here is the piece pre-Photoshop.)) "Golden" leopard - Panthera pardus pardus: There's been so much gorgeous art for the Wild Cats of the World Card Deck posted already; still, I wanted to hold off on mine until they were available for sale (NOW THEY ARE! Check the link below). So, here is the first of the two cards I did; this is a muscular, male tawny leopard (from Africa, with a Masai-type shield), to contrast with the sleeker, female melanistic leopard (from India, with a temple-like sculpture piece). Yes, there's sort of a yin-yang thing going on. Please don't expect complete anatomical accuracy in my pieces; the art director encouraged us to draw in our own style and stylize things, so I most certainly did (that's always more fun for me). Decks available for order HERE: http://rozgibson.huzzah.com/Deck/

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, bristol
Tags: leopard Panthera pardus

Wild Cat Cards - Black Leopard B&W by Synnabar

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:43:30 -0000

((I know black & white pieces aren't usually as interesting to many, but I feel my graphite pieces are better before I color them, so here is the piece pre-Photoshop.)) Black/melanistic leopard - Panthera pardus fusca: There's been so much gorgeous art for the Wild Cats of the World Card Deck posted already; still, I wanted to hold off on mine until they were available for sale (NOW THEY ARE! Check the link below). So, here is the second of the two cards I did; this is a female melanistic leopard (from India, with a temple-like sculpture piece), to contrast with the more muscular, male tawny leopard (from Africa, with a Masai-type shield). Yes, there's sort of a yin-yang thing going on. Please don't expect complete anatomical accuracy in my pieces; the art director encouraged us to draw in our own style and stylize things, so I most certainly did (that's always more fun for me). Decks available for order HERE: http://rozgibson.huzzah.com/Deck/

Medium: Mechanical Pencil, Bristol
Tags: leopard leopard black Panthera pardus fusca

Delano for Sekhmet by Synnabar

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:41:13 -0000

Delano for the awesome and generous mel666/Sekhmet. All details and ornamentation per description. Done in my scribbly-style with an RSVP pen on cardstock, 8-1/2" x 11". I wet the ink a little with water, and blended it a bit with a small brush. Sepia tint added via Photoshop.

Medium: RSVP Pen, Photoshop
Tags:

Soho the Salamander by Synnabar

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:41:19 -0000

A while back I did some illustrations for Roz Gibson's Monster, which "Tells the story of Jack Salem’s life from birth up until the beginning of .357." It was reprinted from the earlier Unforgiven, with even more illustrations by fantastic artists, including the author herself; it's available for purchase at http://rozgibson.huzzah.com/. This is Soho, Jack's roommate and a salamander who sleeps on water-drenched sheets and eats worms by the bucketful (after reading his description, I couldn't resist). He has a long body, so I gave him a long bed.

Medium: Micron Pen
Tags: salamander earthworm

Arch'Teryx Commission by Synnabar

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:19:01 -0000

A little piece that Arch asked for, specifically. Many times I worry so much about drawing gryphons the "right" way that I end up not drawing them at all. Finally, for this piece, I just pushed those thoughts aside and drew what was fun for me, in my own (admittedly inaccurate, I know) way. Synnabar looks a lot smaller and fluffier than her usual!

Medium: Graphite on cardstock
Tags:

Frannie Forever - For Leona by Synnabar

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:02:07 -0000

Just a little drawing for Leona, with her Frannie. :) I tried to make Leona look like, well, Leona (they way she draws herself).

Medium: Graphite on card
Tags:

Mediavallia by Synnabar

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 19:41:21 -0000

Mediavallia: vaguely based on an old mermaid character of mine; she was an exploration of fantasy clichés, and an excercise in detail (and patience).

Medium: Pencil
Tags: feline gryphon balcony terrace