River Otter

This image is doing double duty. It’s #2 for the 30 day drawing challenge, my favorite animal, the North American river otter. I love drawing animals, especially animals with hair. Hair makes the best lines.

But I decided on a river otter because they seem to do such a good job at enjoying life. Whenever I’ve seen one, it’s either playing at high speed or sleeping. If I have to be reincarnated, and I’ve been very good in this life, I’m hoping for a gig on a nice broad forested river as an otter. A swamp locale would be okay too.

I worked hard to get a watery look to the background so I thought this would fit Illustration Friday’s “water” topic too.

IF Mirror

 

The Illustration Friday prompt for last week was “mirror.” I figured it’s hard to fix or even know when you are having a bad hair day when you can’t see your reflection. Poor Vampires.

I drew this while watching the VP debate. I think Mitt Romney’s hair snuck into the picture. His hair is always perfect so while he might be a lot of things, I don’t think he’s a vampire.

Fail IF Book

Last week’s Illustration Friday’s topic was “book.” I love books and I’ve had this young Catherine the Great picture I’ve really wanted to have an excuse to make. I thought getting it done would be no problem. I was wrong. Other stuff crowded it out, and this is as far as I got. Boooo.

From what I read, she had thick rich brown hair, fair skin, long features, and piercing eyes. I did get her head finished.

Here’s a contemporary portrait.

I’ve wanted to make this image since I read Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie. I loved that Catherine was a self taught student of the enlightenment. In her late teens Catherine was politically isolated, neglected, manipulated, trapped in an abusive marriage, and miserable. To escape she turned to reading, first light romance novels but her tastes and ability led her to the philosophers of her time. She struck up a correspondence and friendship with Voltaire and eventually became a great patron of the movement. The biography was a great read. It did make me want to drink coffee. Catherine drank a lot of coffee to help her keep a grueling schedule.