Lunamal: Lesari, Sky Glider

For those of you wondering who the cute Lunamal was in my last post, it was a Lesari, also known as a sky glider. The Lesari is small, and is only about 8 inches long (about the size of a squirrel). While they prefer mountain and forest areas the Lesari is an excellent hunter and can adapt to almost any environment. It's short legs and long tail also give it excellent balance when scaling trees and rocks. The Lesari even has a thumb like finger on its hands giving it extra grip, and help it while searching for food.

They have an interesting ability that is perfect for quick escapes, their ears! When on the ground or perched in a tree, the Lesari rolls it large ears up. If it is frightened or needs to make a quick get away it releases its ears and parachutes away to safety. While its ears are mainly for gliding it can get some lift using air currents when traveling long distances. Each ear is about a foot long giving it a little over 2 foot "ear span." 

It has long eyelashes to keep dust out as it flies. And its short dense coat protects it from the elements. When it is to hot, the Lesari can also use its large ears to stay cool. It will send it hot blood flowing through its ears to be released. And when it is cold it will wrap in its ears and use its tail to stay warm. 

It will avoid water at all cost since its ears and thick coat will weigh it down. It prefers to get it's liquid from the fruits and vegetation it eats or lick the moisture off of leaves and grass. As I mentioned before, Lesari is an excellent hunter and while plant life is important to its survival, it prefers to eat bugs and smaller mammals and birds. The Lesari is an opportunist and will even hunt and kill animals much larger than itself if the animal is weak. 

The Lesari is a very common Lunamal and can be seen on all parts of the planet throughout all 7 seasons. Because of its ability to adapt to different environments, the Lesari breeds year round, but, like many Lunamal, will have its largest litter (between 8-12 pups) during the moon of the Plains. 

Lunamal

With Graduation right around the corner, I cannot help but think about the future and where my art will go from here. This is becoming a very hazardous idea because I also have my senior show to prepare for and I am not sure if this work will fit in with the rest of my work in my show. Thanks to my ADD I cannot focus on one body of work for very long before I get distracted with a new idea. So, I am letting this distraction last until I need to really sit down and create more work for my show in December.

As some of you know, I have been working on a project called "Sketching Daily Challenge" (read all about it in the previous posts). These self and peer assigned challenges were meant to get me sketching again, and not just sketches for the next project. The fact that they sparked a new idea for my body of work was simply chance and I am so glad for it.

I have had the idea for a while that I would create an illustrated series after graduation. I wanted to create a new world and creatures to inhabit that world. I already had the idea of a planet with 6 moons and 7 seasons but more on that later. But what appeared in my Sketching Daily Challenge was something I did not expect. The creatures appeared at random at first including my little turtle-squid (still thinking of a good name for him) who appeared in Scribbly Drawings. The fun part of the scribbly drawings exercise was that you don't know what you are going to get until you see it, and he was a very pleasant surprise.

Then I was given a challenge by a friend of mine to combine my two favorite animals into one "Ani-Morph" and I created Cheeratah, who is my first official creature. He is a Rat-Cheetah hybrid who can run long distances without much effort because of his skeletal and muscular system. And with the creation of Cheeratah, my mind started going. More creatures began appearing in my mind and I had to call these strange anomalies something, but what.

That got me thinking of the world I had already created. The planet (not yet named) is a unstable wasteland of rock that is subject to its moons. Each moon holds an abundance of potential, but the season that plagues each of the six moons is to chaotic for life to be sustained. Something magical happens when a moon gets to its closest orbit to the planet. The moon's environment is reflected on the planets surface and turns the wasteland into a lush environment. The rotation of the moons creates the seven seasons seen on the planet. While each change is very chaotic it is a lot more stable than each moon's surface. This strange union allows life to thrive on the planet.

The seven seasons begin with a form of winter when the ice moon is visible, and is followed by a rainy season which leads to global flooding when the ice melts and the water moon is visible. After the water moon leaves orbit the windy moon. Despite the harsh winds the ground is rich after the mass flood and as the water soaks back into the ground, plant life begins to grow and a time of harvest begins. After the wind moon, there is a brief period where no moon is present in the atmosphere. During this time the planet begins to revert back to it's wasteland core and the planet dries out and is baked by the sun. This ends when the jungle moon eclipses the sun and a darkness falls on the planet and once again life can return to the planet's surface. With the arrival of life, the presence of bio-luminescence appears to give light to the darkness. After this a magnetic moon comes into orbit and the geography of the planet is drastically changed and cliffs and mountains begin to form across the planet. Following this moon as the mountains come crashing down, life in caves begins to flourish as a crater moon appears in the sky. These caves become havens for the ice moon that follows.

So then what do we call these strange creatures that inhabit the planet? I have decided to call them Lunamals (Loo-nuh-muh) because the moons are the link to their survival, and it sounds really cool. The Lunamal have all adapted to living on this ever changing environment and have adapted in very different ways from the animals on earth.  These creatures are survivors in a hostile world.

So while creating the Lunamals, another idea came to me. AJ thought of a way to push this planet beyond an idea. What if I created work that could be housed in a museum setting? What if we were to discover this world what artifacts would we bring back? Why not create a gallery that resembles a museum where these creatures and this planet are the exhibit? Can you imagine the possibilities?!? This completely blows my current body of work out of the water and my mind is itching to create the art work behind this idea! I don't know how it would fit in with my senior show in December so I am probably going to have to put this idea on hold until I graduate, but can you imagine the possibilities?

More than ever before I am ready to graduate and ready to see where life takes me. It is funny how a great idea, a spark of creativity, creates and easiness in our hearts and minds. I don't fear what is before me anymore as I look into the future. Now I strive forward towards the light at the end of the tunnel ready to fly across the canyon in my way.

Sketching Daily: Day 13 "Ani-Morphs, Part 3"

And Without further a due, the Abstract part of my Ani-Morphs Challenge! Okay so for those of you who haven't been following along for the past few days, I was given a challenge from a friend to take my two favorite animals and morph them together and then paint them in abstract. In part 1 of this series, I went a little overboard with my creature and created the complex Cheeratah. This Rat-Cheetah hybrid completely absorb my focus to the point where I completely forgot about the second part of my assignment to make an abstract version. Well my ADD continued in part 2 when I explained how exactly this super long legged animal moves. 

So now that I have completely gone the opposite direction from the original assignment, it is time to take a few steps back and present my abstract Cheeratah!

Thank you once again to Richard for this awesome idea! I am please to announce that I am going to continue Ani-Morphs! So along with my Sketching Daily Challenge, I am going to create new creatures! There is a reason for this mission but more on that later. If you have an animal combo you would like to see draw out let me know and we can see what I can come up with.  Thank you to everyone who has given suggestions and ideas. I will still get to your ideas, but because there are a lot of them it may take me a while. I will finish them as soon as I can, so keep them coming!

Sketching Daily: Day 12 "Ani-Morphs, Part 2'

Yesterday, I did a challenge that involved taking two animals and morphing them together. I created Cheeratah (a rat-cheetah hybrid). I was trying to explain how it's skeletal and muscular system worked and well I didn't do a very good job explaining it. So I decided that for today's challenge, I would show you how Cheeratah moves. On the right, is a picture of Cheeratah's Skeletal System while he is sitting down. I had way to much fun with this drawing! I modeled the body off of the skeleton of a cat and the head is similar to a rats head but more elongated. I never realized that the vertebra on a cat was so spiky! It gave the skeleton a very wicked look.You can also see how Cheeratah's back legs are slightly longer than its forearms while sitting. However when it stands not only does its shoulder blades roll forward but the weight keeping its forearms compressed relaxes and we see the long legged Cheeratah we saw in my very first drawing of him. 

The major difference in the skeleton is the legs and feet of the creature. You can see how (as I was explaining yesterday) the bone structure in its front forearm looks very similar to a shock absorber (image below) you would see on a car. The metal part of the absorber is the bone system and spring (orange) wrapping around it is similar to how the muscle system will look. 

Now, on to how Cheeratah moves. Take off is the most strenuous task for the Cheeratah, and this is one of the few times it's back legs actually come into play. It launches itself into the air using its back legs for take of then lands on its front legs. The force used to jump as well as gravity compress the spring like muscle in its forelegs. Once set, the Cheeratah simply rocks forward and relaxes its legs which release the spring shooting it forward. Each step is almost effortless because of the design of its bones. Once at full speed it can soar great distances from the built up energy. The only real effort is when it has to clench its arms and legs while soaring. The sketch below will give you a better idea of how it moves. From here it can change direction using his rear legs or its tail. It is also really good at flipping in the air which allows it to jump great heights. If it needs to stop it simply redirects its momentum using the springs in its forearms or flipping and landing on its back legs. I will have to say I would love to see a baby Cheeratah learn how to walk and run. Can you imagine how many times it will spring onto its face before it masters the technique?!?! 

Sketching Daily: Day 11 "Ani-Morphs, Part 1"

I had someone give me a really fun challenge the other day and I had to do it. While I did not technically finish the challenge (I will don't worry), I had so much fun with this. You  could say I got to carried away in the inventive part to actually complete the assignment. Anyways, so the challenge was to take your two favorite animals and morph them together (completed that part) then make an abstract drawing of them (this is the part I still need to work on.) I will do a part 2 to this challenge to finish the abstract part but here is what I have so far. 

The creature I created is part rat part cheetah. While drawing him running I discovered that his forearms are much longer than his hind legs which is not normal in the animal kingdom. The gorilla is one of the only animals who walks like this. With his chest being horizontal to the ground instead of vertical like a gorilla or human, physics wouldn't allow him to run with face planting every time he took a step. Thanks to AJ for the four hour long conversation on physics, we discovered (I argued my idea) a way to allow him to run. He won't be sprinter like a cheetah is but will have more of a sustained long distance run. The reason for this is because the bone and muscle structure in his front legs works like a shock absorber/spring. When he sits you can start to see how his skin bunches up around his arms, yet as he runs the legs retract giving him effortless forward momentum and prevents strain on his joints. I hope that makes sense. I should get some pictures up of his anatomy once I get it drawn. Basically, replace the forearm with a shock absorber from a car with the metal being bone and the spring being muscle. That should make more sense. (Update! If you would like to see Ceeratah's bone structure click here!)

Well here is my Cheeratah. Hope you enjoy him! 

Keep the submission ideas coming. While I haven't had a ton of time to draw the past week or so I will still try to get to everyone before the summer is out. Thank you for all your great ideas!!

Sketching Daily: Day 10 "Day at the park"

Finally, a beautiful day! While I love the rain, there is something about Texas summers that just make me happy. I decided to take my sketching skills out to a "secret" location, right here in Wichita Falls. I discovered this little creek back a year or so ago and even when we are in the middle of a drought it still looks beautiful. There are tons of ducks and cranes that hang out here at the end of the day but they were all off hunting when I arrived. I did manage to get some sketches of a few young ducks who were hiding in the shade eating bugs in the duck weed that was growing on the edge of the water. I spent a few lazy hours sketching and got some decent sketches, but it felt good to get out in the sun after a long week of drizzle.

Today, I restricted my sketches to small boxes I drew on my paper. Sometimes we get to overwhelmed with a large piece that we stress to much when we draw. Sketching is suppose to be a fun relaxing opportunity to draw something we might not normally sketch. It is also a chance to gain some much needed skills so why constrict your learning to one large piece when you can draw a multitude of small sketches. The more we draw the more our skill grows.

Here are some of the sketches. I hope you are enjoying my daily sketches. It has been fun testing my skills and doing some out of studio work. A change of pace is sometimes needed as we develop as artists. If the weather holds up I should have some more outdoor activities for you in the coming week. Until then. 

The pond

Young ducks playing in the water

Twisted roots

Value sketch of a tree

Since the ants were wanting my attention
so bad I decided to sketch them as well

Sketching Daily: Day 9 "Landscapes"

I had a little bit of time to kill today while running around town. I was smart enough to remember to bring my sketch book with me today and thought of an idea on of my Facebook followers had about doing some landscape nature sketches. 

There is a park near where I live that I stop and eat lunch at every now and again. The main feature of the park is a small pond where (when it isn't raining) people go to fish. I stopped by there for a few minutes today and did a quick sketch of one of the old trees overlooking a bridge. I didn't have time to finish the sketch but this is what I managed to get down before having to leave.

If you have any suggestions for a Sketching Daily Challenge you can post your ideas in the comments below or follow me on Facebook at Teresa's Mind. Keep a look out for more sketches over the next few weeks until school begins again in the fall. 

Teacher for a Day

I had the fun opportunity to help teach at the Wichita Falls Country Club this week during their kids camp. I had two really fun groups. The boys were probably my favorite, they were between the ages of 8-12 and had so much fun with the projects I set up for them. They 5-7 year olds were chaos, but had such huge imaginations it was hard to contain them. The program seemed to be a huge success and the kids were having fun all day long.

I was able to put some of my sketching exercises to the test with these kids and while the 5-7 year old group had a hard time getting the hang of it the boys really took to it quickly. The first activity we did was the "Scribbly Drawings" I did back on Day 4 of my Sketching Daily Challenge. After coming back from swimming and Zumba, it was good to be able to let out some of their energy on the paper. Almost all of the kids found shapes in their work and a few found pictures as well.

The second project I only did with the boys since the younger kids took longer to get the scribbles down. I had them attempt to draw their hand using the blind contour method I did two days ago in my Sketching Daily. It was interesting to see that the boys who did great at the Scribbly Drawings had a hard time at blind contour, but the ones who couldn't see anything in the scribbles were very patient and precise with their hand drawings. These two activities definitely worked both sides of the brain.

Then I let them lose with a fun activity called One Eyed Monsters. Both groups preformed this activity. They glued an cut outs of eyeballs on their paper and drew a monster that went along with the eye. They were so creative with their monsters and did a really good job with them. Everyone enjoyed this project whether you were good at Scribbles or good at Blind Contour. I think it was a big hit because of the Pixar movie "Monster's University" that just came out a few weeks ago.
 
It was all around a fun day, and I really enjoyed the chaotic nature of the kids. Here are some of the monsters the boys created. They even came up with names and jobs for some of the monsters.

Sketching Daily: Day 8 "Blind Contour"

Today we continue to work on our hand eye coordination with a fun activity, blind contour drawings. One of my Facebook followers suggested that I try drawing without looking at my paper and immediately I thought of a blind contour exercise I love doing.

First you need to find a fun subject, dogs, bicycles, cars, elephants, monkeys, teddy bears, giraffes... Pick something that you like and find a couple of fun images of your subject. Then without looking at your picture try drawing your figure. With every new image you begin try to slow down, look at the details that make your subject unique, and try to capture them. Don't get discouraged if your drawings look ridiculous, that is part of the fun!

Here are some of my images...

If you really want to take this project to the next level, here is another fun project. Draw one subject 5 or 6 times. Then layer each image on top of each other trying to match up the parts and pieces as best you can. Then take a marker and outline the best version of the subject you can. I choose a giraffe because they are such fun subjects for this project. What makes them really fun is you can actually find spots from where some of the lines cross each other. Add some well placed eyes and you have a goofy fun image!

Have an idea that would make a fun Sketching Daily Challenge? Leave your idea in a comment below or go to my facebook page and leave a comment on my page, Teresa's Mind. Thank you to everyone who has given me suggestions. Keep an eye out for your ideas to appear in my Sketching Daily Challenge.

Sketching Daily: Day 7 "One Liners"

Week 2 of my Sketching Daily begins with some simple yet fun sketches. One Liners are more challenging than they look but you can come up with some fun designs if you work long enough at it. The idea is to draw a picture using one continuous line. This is different from just scribbling on a page because you want to hide that you are using one line but at the same time make it easy for the viewer to follow your progression across the page. It is a really good way to learn hand eye coordination and it helps you to slow down and really think about your subject. My beginning sketches were of flowers in a vase and fish bowls. You can also begin with bicycles, elephants, chairs and even peoples faces. The sky is the limit with these drawings.

Just have fun with them and enjoy laughing at your pathetic looking drawings. Here are my sketches!

 

This week, my sketching daily challenges will be decided by you!! You can message me in the comments below or follow me on facebook to keep up with everyone's suggestions! Search for Teresa's Mind and like the page to comment!

Sketching Daily: Day 6 "Exploring Literature"

There is something about spending an afternoon in a library or bookstore that seems to both relax and inspire you. While now a days we look up most of our reference on google, You would be surprised what kinds of images you can find in books. When you google "puppies" everyone around the world will come up with the same 50 images almost every time, but every book you pick up has different images and different stories. Believe it or not our teachers were right when they said to find some of your references in books. They will be different than what you find online and when you need references for a sketch you are doing, the first 50 images on google have already been used so unless you are a wiz at computers (which I am not) try looking in a book.

Today's exercise is about just that. Go to your local library or bookstore and just start browsing. Pick books off the shelf at random or take whatever catches your eye and start sketching what you find. You will be surprised what you find. I just spent an hour reading a book by Joe Hutto called "Illumination in the Flatwoods"  and it is the most fascinating book about wild turkeys. Yes, you hear me correctly, wild turkeys. It is really well written and the illustrations are beautiful. I also picked up "Fifty Animals that Changed the Course of History" written by Eric Chaline.

Here are some of the sketches from the two books.

See you tomorrow for more exciting sketches!

Sketching Daily: Day 5 "Bug Me!"

Bugs come in all shapes sizes and colors. Everything from a pesky flea to the atlas moth. While they may drive us crazy there is something beautiful about them. In today's sketching daily challenge, we take a closer look at bugs by making our own bug collection. Just google bug collection and a world of colorful possibilities opens up to us. Pick a few that you like and draw a contour drawing (outline) of the but you have choosen. Then go to town. Thicken the line work, add some color, layer puff paint on top of colored pencils, the choices are endless. Once you are done, number each bug and give them their very own name. You could spend hours finding a new appreciation for our fascinating little friends.

Here is a look at my collection.

 

The most important thing is to have fun with it! There are no rules and the possibilities are endless. Tune in tomorrow for more exciting drawings!

Sketching Daily: Day 4 "Scribbly Drawings"

Day 4 of my Sketching Daily Challenge has arrived and we stumbled on an exercise that I am very excited to work on. Today we jump into the category, Inspired by Children. I love kids. Their imaginations fascinate me, so I was very excited to begin, Scribbly Drawings. Its plays on the simple concept that Scribbling is just FUN! Think about it, when you have a pen in your hand and a piece of paper in front of you, you begin to make marks across the paper. Even if we do not make anything recognizable, the art of making marks on a paper is just fun. We could do this before we could even talk!

So today we dive in to that ability. I kind of went out on my own limb with this one, but I believe you will learn something ether way. You just gab a piece of paper and a pen and start moving your hand around and see what you come up with. Begin with simple lines and swirls and let your body relax. Then when you have loosened up, look at the marks that you have made. Do you see anything? Well show us what you see! If you are having a hard time seeing anything, spin your paper around and really look. If you still can't find anything ether keep scribbling on top of your previous marks or begin a new one or you can try looking for something in this scribbly!

Here are some of my scribbles and what I saw within my craziness.

If you are having trouble with my spin of the lesson here is Carla's lesson. She begins with some loose scribbles then asks you to find an image you want to draw and begin scribbling that image into life. Like a cup or a plant or the old man who fell asleep in the coffee shop. This is not suppose to be a contour drawing (DO NOT out line your figure!). Just begin in the middle and work your way out. You will be surprised how accurately you will draw like this. Add more lines to make the shadows and let the white of the paper show for the highlights.
















Whether you do my lesson or Carla's, the idea is to have fun and let the little kid in you come out! Good luck, and see you tomorrow for Day 5!

Sketching Daily: Day 3 "Tracing Famous Artists"

Well, its Day 3 of my Sketching Daily Challenge, and today's exercise is inspired by famous artists. Today's exercise was to grab some tracing paper and a pencil and trace a famous artist's sketch. You want to get the line work as close as you can to the original piece. Most people look down on tracing, but many of the famous artists learned how to be great by copying the work of their masters. It is a great way to learn technique and is very good practice, especially if you are just learning how to draw.

In the book "Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists," Carla Sonheim instructs you to trace a picture by Leonardo Da Vinci to learn his method of hatching and creating sketches that look as if they are being pulled off the page.While I love Leonardo and admire his work, he was also left handed and after yesterday's exercise I was done drawing with my left hand! While I probably could have done a decent job sketching his work his strokes are created by the left hand and would be difficult to copy. If you would like to take this challenge and use one of Leonardo's sketches then I suggest flipping the image on a computer then printing it out so you can have a better grasp of his line work.

So because I am computer illiterate, and didn't feel like heading up to the school to find a printer, I choose one of Vincent Van Gogh's sketches instead. I will have to say I really enjoyed working with Van Gogh's piece. That is until I got so absorbed in the line work that I had to remind myself to slow down and focus on the lines. Even in a simple sketch Vincent still manages to bring you into his chaotic mind with quick tense line work. I will definitely have to tackle this piece again with ink instead of charcoal. I feel like it would flow better across the paper than mechanical pencil can.

Here is my attempt to capture Vincent Van Gogh's sketch. I eventually just had to tell myself to stop working because my strokes were to tense and I got lost within the chaos of them. Like I said this is one lesson I will need to try again in the future when I can spend more time on it.

Keep and eye out for my next Sketching Daily Challenge where I will get to be inspired by the creative genius that is children! Wait...Don't I do that on a daily bases anyways?!?!