Looks like it's time for another blog update! I decided on my day off to go out on a little photo expedition, it was a lot of fun and I got some pretty cool pictures. I'll be updating my Flickr tomorrow with more shots from my outing but I wanted to share this photo here first.

I was out on the Jensen Beach Causeway when this Pelican flew right overhead. Luckily my camera was in hand and I was able to snap this shot. It's kind of funny to see this thing that looks very hefty soar above you with little effort, but I suppose that's all the more reason to be impressed with its ability to fly.

Here's a close up of this guy in flight. It looks ready to scoop a fish right out of the water.

On a similar note, here's a digital painting I did a little while back as a gift to my mom for her birthday.

Kinda felt appropriate to post considering the subject matter of those photos above. Originally I had kept the background of this image blue, without the greenish-yellow color but I really think it adds some nice depth to the image. Makes it a little more realistic. I framed this and gave it to her after she got home from work, she's displaying it proudly on her desk at her job so I'm pretty sure she liked it.

Finally we come to a drawing from my toned gray sketchbook.

I really had a good time working on this piece. It allowed me to use some techniques I had really never tried before. The fins that extend from her forearms are translucent, so I got to draw what was behind them and the shadows and highlights on them. It was kinda hard but the end result was totally worth the effort. I really wanted it to seem as if she was underwater, so that's why there's a lot of movement in her fins and hair. I feel like her expression was a stroke of luck, I almost never finish anything to the point of detailing a face (I'm a serial sketcher). She looks a bit frightened and thoughtful, maybe a little sad too. My other triumph with this image was that I managed to fill up the page, I'm always drawing in the corners of things, making stuff super small, so this was a welcome change.

Well that's all I've got to share tonight. I'm gonna try to update at least three times a week because it seems to keep me working on stuff, not to mention I've gotten some great feedback from people who have been viewing this blog, so thanks for that everybody! I really appreciate it, till next time!