Co-opting the Coop - First Published Piece!

I've been waiting to post about this for a while! A few months ago I was contacted by one of my former professors, Kristin Rogers-Brown, about doing some illustrations for the winter issue of BITCH magazine. And finally it is now published! I present to you, the hipster chicken!

This was for an article called "Co-opting the Coop". You can read it online HERE. This is really exciting for me as an artist because it is my first published work! And the project was super fun and interesting to work on. I also did some of the smaller spots around the page, which you can see if you buy the issue. Which you should. 

Six Months and Counting

ANNOUNCEMENT

It has been almost 6 months exactly since I graduated from college. And this blog, which was started while I was in the process of completing my senior thesis hasn't gotten much love since the end of school. But now that my mind is pretty much decompressed from school and all the stresses involved with thesis I feel I'm ready to get back on the proverbial horse.

Symbiotic Planet will now act as my art blog, as well as fulfilling its original purpose of being a record for the Animal Saints Project. As I work on various projects and pieces I will being posting photos and sketches of my work. As of right now there will be no specific schedule for my postings, but I'm going to be shooting for twice a month at minimum.

Another addition will be small written posts to be used for research, musings and reflections on art, human relations with the planet and my place within the world. I am no writer, but sometimes it just helps to get things down in front of you.
Until the next post, thank you for watching!

Heath Hen

So I've been doing lots of research and sketching of this little bird. At the start of colonial times the heath hen was very abundant. In fact some speculate that it wasn't the turkey that was on the first Thanksgiving table but the heath hen.

The heath hen was a bird closely related to the Greater Prairie Chicken, with many of the same attributes and mannerisms. And unfortunately for the heath hen that meant that they were a prime food source amongst early inhabitants of Eastern coastal North America. By the late 1870s the heath hen was eradicated from the mainland and only a small population remained on Martha's Vineyard. The population slowly declined from the 200 or so birds on the island to around 70 by the end of the 1800s.

In 1908 the Heath Hen Reserve was established to protect these struggling birds and by some stroke of luck the heath hens rebounded. In 1910 their number was holding at around 2000, however the success was not to last. In 1916 a large wildfire during the nesting season destroyed much of the population. Afterwords a series of unfortunate events were to ring the death nell for the heath hen. Influx of predators,  disease, inbreeding and an excess number of males lead to the final decline.

The last heath hen, named Booming Ben, died in 1932.

The bright point in this unfortunate story of decline is that the heath hen was one of the first bird species that Americans tried to save. Even though effort to protect the heath hen were eventually a failure the effort started to open the gates to future conservation initiatives.

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More sketches and research to come next week!

Animal Saints Project Phase One & Two

Welcome to Symbiotic Planet!
Happy Summer!
Now that Hiatus is over, it is time to get back to work. My thesis year is over and I'm now the proud holder of a BFA in Illustration. Along with graduating the first phase of the Animal Saints Project is completed! All six animals were completed on time and they all look beautiful!

Gastric Brooding Frog

Thylacine

Dodo

Lesser Mascarene Flying Fox

Japanese Wolves

Portuguese Ibex

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The next phase of the Animal Saints Project will focus on specific regions and countries. First up is the North American continent. During the original phase of this project I wasn't able to include any animals from the Western Hemisphere and now it's time to focus on the new world. 

First up: 

The Heath Hen

 

The Passenger Pidgon

Next week info, sketches and studies of these two birds and their habitats will be up. Thank you for looking!

Animal Saints: Thesis Update

Well I know it has been only a few days since I posted last but I figured I would update you all on my thesis work. Right now I'm in the "Preparing to Paint" phase. All the images are mounted on the wooden panels and I'm in the process of sanding them.

 

Here's a shot of all of them. Sorry about the messy work space.

 

Closeup of the Thylacine, Gastric Brooding Frog, and the Portuguese Ibex. These are all sanded and ready for the painting phase. 

 

Honshu and Hokkaido wolves and the Thylacine again. Oops, looks like the Thylacine is a camera hog. 

More soon. :)

Ogallala

Recently there has been a lot in the news about the Keystone Pipeline. In my opinion this pipeline is wrong. It wont help the economy as much as the oil companies say it will. It wont lower gas prices, like the oil companies say it will. And it wont be as safe as the oil company says it will be.
I think the biggest problem with the Keystone Pipeline is that it runs over one of the biggest aquafirs in the world. The Ogallala Aquifer covers most of the central plains of North America, and provides water to something like 30% of the United States. Imagine if a spill were to happen over some of this very sensitive habitat. I wont even touch where the oil is coming from in this post. I will just ask the simple question:

what is sacred?

Thesis Update

School is chugging along so here is a screenshot of 5 of my -almost- completed thesis images.

The First Three of Six

Hey everyone! As many of you know I'm deep in the process of my Senior Thesis. Lots and lots of work!  So since there isn't much time for blog posts here is a screenshot of three of the almost completed digital pieces for my project.

Dodo, Portuguese Ibex, and the Japanese Wolves

More works in progress to come! 

Conservation Inspirations

I decided that it would be interesting to explore some of the conservationists that have inspired me over the years. For a few class projects the assignments were to do portraits of people. The catch for this first one is not actually using the image of the person. Can you guess who is it?

Crocodile Hunter Coat of Arms

Crikey Mate! Stever Irwin was one of my favorite people growing up. It was a horrible day when I found out he had passed away. But for this project I wanted to focus on his life, rather than his death. I used symbols that he is most known for.

Detail of the Salt-Water Crocodile 

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This next project was along the same lines as the one above, but I wanted to focus on likeness.

Jane Goodall

Gastric Brooding Frog & Lesser Mascarene Flying Fox

Southern Gastric Brooding Frog

Lesser Mascarene Flying Fox

Two more WIP sketches for my thesis work. 

Japanese Wolves

Honshu & Hokkaido Wolves

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As an introduction to my thesis these sketches are examples of studies of extinct animals that I'm including in the project. The Honshu and Hokkaido wolves were the only endemic large canines on the Japanese islands. The last sighting of any native wolf in Japan was in 1905.

The reasons for their extinctions range from habitat destruction to bounties placed during the Meiji restoration period. In the top illustration those pressures are represented by the tree held by one wolf and the bounty notice in the other's mouth. 

Red-Eyed Tree Frog

First post! Welcome to my weekly blog exploring nature and the creatures that inhabit it. This blog will be used in conjunction with my Senior Thesis Project and PNCA in Oregon. 

Each week I will be posting sketches, work in progresses (WIPs) or finished pieces revolving around a different animal or plant each week. 

My thesis WIP posts will contain various species that are now considered extinct.

Thanks for visiting! Keep checking back!