Following along with Danny Gregory on Draw With Me this morning: a moose (Alces alces) in honour of Canada Day. And, coincidentally, another creature with a particularly large body part.
alces alces
Month: June 2022
hollyleaf redberry
Well how about that. It turns out that honeybees eat fruit. Amazing what you can learn when you pay attention!
pavo cristatus
Continuing the theme of avians with ridiculously outsized body parts, today I bring you the peacock, Pavo cristatus.
According to Wikipedia, “The function of the peacock’s elaborate train has been debated for over a century. In the 19th century, Charles Darwin found it a puzzle, hard to explain through ordinary natural selection. His later explanation, sexual selection, is widely but not universally accepted. In the 20th century, Amotz Zahavi argued that the train was a handicap, and that males were honestly signalling their fitness in proportion to the splendour of their trains. Despite extensive study, opinions remain divided on the mechanisms involved.”
pteroglossus torquatus
Sketching toucans with John Muir Laws. I always knew toucans had very oversized beaks, but look at that skeleton image! It’s nuts!
oak glade
I slipped into a part of the State Park I hadn’t visited before, and followed a deer trail under overhanging boughs, to discover this secluded open glade within a circle of coast live oaks. I lay down on the thick bedding of dry, prickly leaves, my sketching bag as a pillow, and watched the dappled light dance above me.
For a few minutes, I stopped thinking about what the US Supreme Court did yesterday. I just breathed.
chlorion aerarium
Tarantula hawks do it to tarantulas, mud daubers do it to other spiders. Steel-blue cricket hunters do it to crickets. Way to pack lunch for your kids.
national typewriter day
I find random national days to be pretty hilarious, but sometimes they provide good inspiration for a sketching subject.
metacyrba taeniola
This tiny (0.3 inch) lady* rappelled down from the light fixture to right above my computer. Cute!
*The males are even smaller than this.
malibu tide pools
Poking around the tide pools with Suzanne was a perfect way to spend the first morning of summer.
cafe sketch
Thank you, random customer with magenta hair, for being my unwitting model.
hashiworks 