I saved the most colorful of my little house-gryphons for last. I think these are my favorites from the set. If you missed the previous installments, they’re here and here. I hope to make some little notecards with these after the holiday, but I’m not sure whether to leave them with the watercolor pencils or recolor digitally… I have the scans of the uncolored ink drawings just waiting on my computer. What do you think?
Here are a couple more of my little sketch critters, dubbed “house gryphons” by a friend. These were so much fun to make! Check out the first batch if you haven’t already. I’ve also been getting some great sketches from the other artists in the trade.
There’s just one more set left to go…
Where did the summer go? Oh, that’s right… between client work, an illustration-heavy project at my day job, and general craziness all the way around, I’ve had very little time for “just for fun” drawing. That’s one of the reasons I like the Doodle Swap Project, a little club of artists and designers who all make tiny trading-card-sized artworks for each other. It gives me an excuse to do some quick, small, simple drawings that I don’t have any time to overthink because they have to get out the door fast.
This time around the theme was “hybrid animals” — chimera, creatures made up of two or more different unrelated animals. Perfect timing for me, since:
a) the idea for little gryphons that are a cross between songbirds and housecats (instead of the more traditional eagles and lions) has been kicking around in my head for a while, and
b) “Backyard” and household fantasy creatures are the theme of my Sketchbook project book. More about that one later…
So, this was a little bit of two birds with one stone. Or something like that. Here are the first few of the cards, I’ll be posting the rest soon. They’re all 2.5 x 3.5 inches, drawn with ink and watercolor pencils on bristol paper.
Anyone else think that these will make nice little notecards? 
Just when you thought I’d given up on drawing anything but flowers, it’s time for something a little different.
I’ve had the fun of participating a few times in the Doodle Swap Project, a group of artists and designers and other creative folks who create tiny works of art and send them to each other. The “Doodles” are in the form of Artist Trading Cards, where the only limitation is that the finished size is relatively flat and 3.5 x 2.5 inches. The theme for this round was “Under the Sea” and I’ve been getting some lovely interpretations in my mail the last week or so from the other artists involved.
Mine are all ink sketches made with Micron pens on bristol paper, based on photographs I’ve taken over the years… most at aquariums, but a few are from a trip to the Caribbean we took a few years ago. Fish are so alien compared to the animals we see all the time, so many interesting shapes, colors, and patterns. I don’t even have some of the more exotic varieties in my collection here.
Quick little projects like this are a refreshing break from larger, lengthier projects. Plus, they’re a source of ideas for other things. I may do something more with these scans before I put them aside completely. In the meantime, enjoy the whole set!
