Big, Bad, Beautiful Wolf

Drawing a Gray Wolf

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

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Gray Wolf. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

The source of both fear and respect, the iconic gray wolf is an animal of legend. From characters in fairly tales, to mythology, to spiritual being, we have always had a fascination with the wolf. When I decided to draw a portrait of a wolf I wanted to show an animal that expressed wisdom, strength, and beauty. An animal that stands strong and is a survivor.   

The gray wolf's story is one of the most compelling tales of American wildlife. Once, the wolf was widespread across most of North America numbering in the millions, but it was hunted ruthlessly and extirpated over most of its range. Today, the wolf is making a successful comeback in some of its former habitat due to strong conservation efforts. There are now close to 200,000 worldwide. Gray wolves are the largest of all canines. They are also one of the most widespread land mammals, inhabiting various ecosystems throughout North America, Europe, Asia and portions of Africa.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt

Scale by Dragon Scale

Drawing a Komodo Dragon

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

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Komodo Dragon. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

It's really hard to believe that the Komodo Dragon (the largest living lizard) was only discovered by humans about 100 years ago. Really? Yup, I'm not joking. They have lived on Indonesia's Lesser Sunda Islands for millions of years and amazingly their existence was unknown to us until they were discovered in 1910. It's basically a living dinosaur. Reaching 10 feet in length, weighting over 350 pounds, Komodos can still reach speeds up to 11 mph in bursts. And they have a life span of more than 30 years. There are around 5,000 of them left, and sadly they have been driven onto the endangered species list. 

Besides being such a interesting animal to draw, the details of their scaly skin just pulled me in. I'm a sucker for repetitive textures, and just love when patterns are woven over a shape. Doing a drawing like this is like knitting a sweater for me. It becomes a form of meditation. As you can see from my progress pictures below I basically crocheted the scales on, while drawing from head to toe.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt

The Bear Necessities

Drawing a American Black Bear

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

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Black Bear. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

I've lived on the East Coast of North America all my life, and only once have I seen an American Black Bear in the wild. And unbelievably it was just last month. While driving my daughter back up to college in upstate New York we saw a black bear, sitting on a hill next to the highway, eating and watching the cars go by. In New Jersey, where I live, there are thousands of them, but amazingly they are hard to see. They range across North America, Canada and Mexico and their population is close to 600,000. Two subspecies, the Louisiana black bear and the Florida black bear are threatened. The Florida black bear's population dropped to 300-500 in the 1950's and was just removed for Florida's endangered species list due to land management and a serious recovery effort. Their population has recovered to almost 3,000.

So why draw a bear? Well, two words "Nature" and "Fur". They are such a beautiful animal that lives among us here in America, and to me the image of them just says "Nature". For me, they conjure up an image of leaving urban city life and going into the wilderness. And then there is the other word "Fur". Fur is still a struggle for me to draw, and again I wanted to challenge myself by attempting to draw an animal completely covered in a thick coat of it.

Harrison and Jane hiking in Maine. Notice Jane's shirt

Also, bears have been a popular and humorous topic in our house because my wife has a fear of bears and we constantly poke fun at her about this fear. Whenever a bear appears on TV we all scream, "It's a bear!" We buy her bear t-shirts to wear, bear coffee cups to drink from and advised her to read "A walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. Whenever we go hiking (in Bear Mountain) or mountain climbing everyone asks if she has her bear repellent with her. And after all these years, the only bear she has ever seen was from the comfort of our car last month driving on the highway to Binghamton NY. Her perfect vantage point.

Other family bear shots

Little Bear Restaurant, Bearsville, NY

 Adirondacks, Keen, NY

 Hiking on Vinalhaven Island, Maine

 Little Bear Restaurant, Bearsville, NY

Bear Mountain, NY

Natural History Museum, Washington DC 

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt

A True Miracle of Survival

Drawing a Green Sea Turtle

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

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Green Sea Turtle. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

Green sea turtles are reptiles whose ancestors evolved on land and took to the sea to live about 150 million years ago. They are one of the few species so ancient that they watched the dinosaurs evolve and become extinct. Now threaten and endangered, sea turtles are a true miracle of evolutionary survival. If they do survive to adulthood they can live up to 80 years and grow up to 5 feet in length. But here's what a sea turtle is up against to make it from birth to Adulthood:

of a 1000 eggs that are laid
800 hatch
400 make it to the sea
200 make it to become juveniles
20 make it to breeding age without human interference
2 make it to breeding age with human interference

NOW THAT IS A TRUE MIRACLE!! If you get a chance watch this amazing TED video about the Miracle of Sea Turtles Survival. http://laughingsquid.com/the-survival-of-the-sea-turtle-an-educational-animation-by-ted-ed/ Weighing up to 700 pounds green sea turtles are among the largest in the world. Green sea turtles are listed as endangered throughout the world, but despite this they are still killed for their meat and eggs.

This drawing was inspired from a photograph taken by an incredible underwater photographer and friend of mine Terence Zahner. He and his wife Doris are avid scuba divers who travel the world diving and photographing underwater sea life. Terence was nice enough to let me study his photos and use one as reference for this drawing. You can see and purchase his majestic photographs on his easy site, Terence Zahner Photography: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ZahnerPhoto Thanks so much Terence for allowing me to share your work.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt

Constricting Lines

Drawing a Boa Constrictor

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt

Boa Constrictor. 11x17" Ballpoint Pen and Ink wash

I've always been fascinated by snakes. Behind the house that I grew up in as a child, in Maryland, was a large area of woods that my brother Tony and I would go searching for snakes to catch and keep as pets. Garter snakes, Rat snakes, Ringneck snakes, and Black snakes were some of the species we would find. We would rarely come across a copperhead, a poisonous snake, but would keep our distance knowing how dangerous it was. We would then bring our catches home and raise them in terrariums and add them to our large collection of found pets. I still can't believe our mother let us do this. Teenagers with a room full of turtles, snakes and fish. A friend of ours had a Boa Constrictor as a pet, and I'll never forget handling it for the first time. Watching its movements as it wrapped around my arm. Studying it complicated patterns and coloring.

The detail and complex patterns of snakes scales and coloring has always intrigued me, and drawing them has always been something I've enjoyed. But this time I wanted to challenge myself even more by not only drawing all of the intricate scales, but doing it on a subject that was twisted and wrapped. What amazed me as I drew it was the complex geometric patterns that a snakes scales create. Below are pictures I took as I drew the Boa. You can see that I literally skinned the snake from head to tail in a grid of lines. And my drawing doesn't come close to the detail of a snakes true skin. Mine is merely a representation. As always, Thank you so much for visiting my blog.

Here are some photos taken during my drawing process

Prints, posters and signed fine art reproductions are available 

for purchase in my Etys shop at: 

 www.etsy.com/shop/TimJeffsArt