HOME | DD
Heliocyan — Snake field guide / Rhadinea pulveriventris
Published: 2013-10-25 13:26:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 6368; Favourites: 176; Downloads: 0
Redirect to original
Description
I am currently working on illustrations for a field guide on 'Snakes of Costa Rica' for an international publisher of science books.
Update for today: Half a snake.
These scales drive me crazy. Yes, I find drawing the scales rather difficult myself. But this might just be because I am not really familiar with snakes.... as you can see in the pencil part, they are nowhere near perfect. I might have to erase most of the sketched part and start afresh, before I colour it. Can't leave them like this.
Mixed media: 300g Bockingford hot press paper, acrylic and colour pencil. And a bit of digital, as I cleaned it up after I scanned it and added a few highlights in Photoshop. All tricks available will be used!
Related content
Comments: 24
I love the way the painted portion makes the pencil drawing appear to be coming to life before my very eyes!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Hi! I`m from Costa Rica n_n great job with this elegant reptile, I can feel the skin with those highlights your drawing in PS. Keep it up!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
You have captured that delicious snaky curve perfectly.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Again.. I was convinced that the Mother Ship had returned and you were presently on your way to the Pleiades.
I'm no expert on snakes, either. I used to like catching them, when I was younger - until the time, when I was like 20, I grabbed a rattler from underneath a shed, thinking it was.. well, NOT a rattler. Scared the shit out of the dude I was with and, to be honest, probably cost me a year or two of growth.
En-eee-weigh...
Again, no expert, but I think your drawing is excellent and I'm fairly sure the publisher will be happy with it.
Glad to see you're still around.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hehe, I have just updated my journal to explain my absence. Plus, not mentioned, that I did jobs like wedding or gig photography, but most of it is not worth sharing here. Most of that stuff is purely for making a living.
Argh, I know the feeling when one grabs the wrong species! Only, we don't have rattlers here. I used to catch slow worms when I was very little, but one was a European viper. I did know the difference, but it was dark under that stone and I wanted to grab it before it got away... which it didn't, it was rather attached to my hand. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
What, he asked, perplexedly, is a slow worm?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh, haha! I didn't realise there are none in your corner of the world! I just assumed they were everywhere. 
They look like snakes, but are not. They are basically lizards which lost their limbs during evolution. These guys: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguis_f…
They are not really worms, and they are not slow either, so I'm not sure who gave them this silly name in the English language....
They are very beautiful. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Aren't they wonderful?!
My sister and I had at some point collected about 20 of them, secretly hidden in our room, as we were not allowed to bring animals in the house... We thought they would surely like it in the LEGO houses we built for them. When we came back from school, they were gone! All of them! Too scared to tell our parents, we thought they surely had found a way back into the garden... They didn't. All twenty were curled up under my mum's blanket, probably because it was still warm there in the morning. We found out when we heard her shrieking as if she had seen the Devil in person when she was about to take her afternoon-nap. Ui ui ui, we were in *SO* MUCH* TROUBLE*....
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You were one of those girls all the boys wanted to hang out with, weren't you? Truth be told, I don't believe I knew any girls who liked bugs, snakes or other crawlies. Back then, it would have been reason enough to ask her to marry me.
Alas.. did not meet my first tomboy until I was a grown man. Still enjoy her company, but it sure would have been a treat to know her then.
I still want one of these.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Wow, what a fantastic job you got there, congrats! I agree, painting scales is very difficult and annoying...but you're doing a very professional job, amazing
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thank you so much for your words! You are too kind!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1