Tag: landscape

Wheelbarrow rabbits

I was out running an errand one evening, and stopped at a traffic light near a very nice neighborhood, when I noticed a yard cart sitting on a lawn across from me, unattended, filled with yard clippings to the point they were spilling over the sides, and next to it was a rabbit nibbling on the overhanging greenery. The ingenuity of this enterprising rabbit made me chuckle, and my next thought was, “That would make a pretty neat illustration!” I initially drew the scene I had witnessed, with one rabbit and the yard cart, but later decided to make it into a family affair so it would be more visually interesting. I also changed the yard cart into a wheelbarrow because it is more iconic. Here is my sketch:

I inked this fine family on hot press watercolor paper using my brush pen, with the help of my light table desk:

I had recently painted a nice daytime scene, so I decided to set this painting in the evening, much like the actual encounter which inspired it. I think I probably went a little dark on the shed and trees, because the rabbits get a little lost, but it wasn’t a big enough deal to make me want to redo the whole thing. Overall, I think it turned out pretty well. I was particularly pleased with how the sky gradient from blue to pink turned out. Thanks for reading!

Meerkats playing croquet

My wife is full of good ideas. Often when I’m having trouble coming up with an idea for a new illustration I will ask her for suggestions, and this is one of her ideas. I have no idea what prompted ‘meerkats playing croquet’ in her mind, but I liked the suggestion. It took me a while to draw this group, but here is my pencil sketch:

There were a lot of details here and it was time consuming, but I carefully inked this group on hot press watercolor paper with a brush pen:

Painting was tricky because I had to try to fit the grass around a lot of strange shapes. Because I knew it was going to be difficult, I started with the grass first. Here is an in-progress shot of the painting.

Once the grass was done, I painted the rest of the background and then moved on to the meerkats and croquet equipment. My final step was to water down some white ink which I used to create the clouds. I think that overall it turned out really well. Thanks for reading!