Well I never!

This started out as a light pencil sketch that I was doing as a way for me to loosen up with the pencil some, since I get so bogged down with solid lines. Unfortunately, my scanner and I are currently fighting, so the scanned image turned out so terribly I inked it digitally... which I never do. Honestly, the biggest challenge with this for me was "simplifying" the dolphins, which is why they kind of suck. All I want to do is give them as much detail as possible and make them as photo-realistic as I can, so I literally had to take the tablet pen away from myself after a short while so I wasn't too tempted. I need to find a midway point. Anyway!

tursiops truncatus

I'd been working on this on and off for a couple of weeks now but wanted to get it finished before Dragon*Con -- I've been seeing dolphins in my dreams every night for the past few days. That's not a bad thing because dolphins are awesome. I'm actually really excited about finally getting a print store online soon, something I've been wanting to do for ages, and am hoping to donate a portion of the cost of each print to a marine organization (not decided which one yet) provided it all goes well. I'm also ecstatic to finally have a new set of acrylics and a bunch of canvases so I can get some traditional painting done - it's been so long!

Here's a detail shot of the closest dolphin, who was incredibly fun to do:

"The happiness of the bee and the dolphin is to exist. For man it is to know that and to wonder at it." Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Happy Earth Day! Have a dolphin.

I started this back in February - not that it took that long, it's because I got so frustrated with my ancient little tablet that I had given up - but I guess it's fitting that I finished it in time for Earth Day. I woke up this morning to Animal Planet showing one of my favourite BBC nature series of all time, The Blue Planet, and tonight Kevin and I are off to see Oceans. Disneynature are distributing it in the US, and if you see it during its first week of release, they'll donate a portion of each ticket price to help establish new marine protected areas in the Bahamas. It's all good stuff. Get to it!


Pacific white-sided dolphins are one of my favourite species. I've never seen them in person though, so I used a photo by the lovely Remedy as reference. Thank you!