2020 art summary

A lot of dinosaurs this year, only a few humans, but I'm having fun with the dinos and learning more and more about how to draw them. Mostly raptors, JP/W and not, but other kinds of dinos, too, occasionally. Still not a single straight one. 👍

Several 3D dinosaurs, too, in the form of figure repaints, and even one dino figure made completely from scratch! Really proud of how that turned out, especially considering how little sculpting I'd done before making Skye. There are some things I'd do differently now, but that's valuable lessons learned, too.

Quite a few comics, some pretty elaborate at that. Collision is going to continue into next year, but I've gotten a good chunk of it done already. Didn't publish a single text-only story this year, though I have a couple I might finish eventually, maybe next year.

Most of my original art this year has been dinosaurs, too, though I did get to cast my old human OCs as main characters in a dino comic, so that's fun.

Blank template for the graphic is by yorunaka at deviantart

Collision, page 14

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

Content warning for blood continues.

Raptor shelf refurbishing

The finished JP:TG raptors, as well as that pretty box the model kit came in, have found their way to the bookless dinosaur case. They're spilling over a bit to the other half of the shelf, but I left an empty-ish spot where the double doors' frames would cover anyone standing there while they're closed. It's a spot for long tails now, got to put those somewhere. I'm glad I could fit everyone.

And the new additions, plus Dash and Dare, facing the other way where the other half of the shelf houses miscellaneous theropods (including their favorite neighbours, the Dilos, who at the moment seem more interested in cuddling than in picking a fight with the raptor pack).

More and better photos of the JP:TG trio can now be found here at my site, and here at deviantart.

Also I made Whirlwind this cute podium out of a chocolate box, so she's not too short to be seen. The podium is barely visible back there so it didn't really need to be pretty, but, why not.

Collision, page 13

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

That warning for visible blood that I gave at the beginning of the comic is now in effect.

This is another of the pages that I thumbnailed really early on, though the details kept changing, mostly because I kept changing the order of the scenes as the story developed.

I... don't actually have much to say about this page, I'll let it speak for itself.

Incoming raptor photoshoot

The raptor trio figures are finished!

I ended up finishing the painting on Swiftdive and Treeclimber's tails sooner than expected, so they were already done by the time I started attaching them to the bases. Probably for the best.

Collision, page 12

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

New egg in the SWFL eagle nest

Harriet laid the first egg of her and M15's new clutch yesterday afternoon, with both parents at the nest tree for the occasion! (link to nestcam)

New egg cradled on mom's strong talons.

M hopped down to the nest from the attic branch to see the egg and give Harriet some gentle beakies.

Looking forward to fluffy eaglets hatching in about a month now! I'm glad they picked the old nest after all, so we can watch what they're up to.

Cat-caught tongues

The cat is actually innocent of all she is accused of here, such false advertizing.

Anyway, I made tongues for the model kit raptors out of polymer clay.

Eye pictures and eye thoughts

The raptor figures have eyes!

Stripes, eyes, and claws

Collision, page 11

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

Racing stripes

Swiftdive has the first coat of paint on her patterns. Except on the tail, which is still mostly unpainted, but we'll get to that later.

Painting everything but the nails

Leader has the first coat of paint on her stripes. I'll go over them again after finishing her base colour to give them a purple tint and to make them neater. She also got some touch-ups to her teeth, and I started on the raw sienna base colour at her face. We'll see whether she needs one or two coats of that, but her underbelly colour will probably still need another one.

Swiftdive has her base colour done, and her mouth and underbelly colour tidied up, so she'll get stripes next.

Nothing for Treeclimber this time, it's a girls' night tonight.

Belly flop into paint

Leader is starting to look more like a JP raptor rather than a JW one.

Collision, page 10

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

Broad strokes

Progress on the raptor trio.

Valoi

 

Collision, page 9

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one), and here at deviantart (latest page).

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something Blue

Continuing the work on that JP Velociraptor model kit, as well as the third raptor joining the set.

All three have now started getting painted. I decided to seal the hip seams on the model kit raptors before attaching them to the bases after all, as I think painting them first will be easier than trying to fit the brush between plants. I also removed the Battle Damage feature from the Battle Damage Blue. There are probably different ways to do it, too, but this way worked for me:

Lady Masu of the Masu Dynasty

Her Masuness.

Collision, page 8

Comic can be found here at my site (all pages in one) and here at deviantart (latest page).

Eagles of many ages

There were several young visitors to Harriet and M15's nest at SWFL eagle cam yesterday, which makes for a nice opportunity to observe the different plumages Bald Eagles go through as they mature.

A subadult Bald Eagle lands on the "outer attic" branch in the afternoon.

Collision, pages 6&7

Comic can be found here at my site, and here at deviantart (link to the gallery folder rather than latest page, as this is a two-page update).

Very red

Droplets

A clone! (Aren't we all)

"What? Who's this impostor?"
"Never mind that, just help me out of this thing!"

Don't worry, she won't stay a Blue for long. It seems that even though my "actual" Blue barely had any paint on her when she arrived, any Blue figure with more detailed paint on it that I acquire just gets repainted beyond recognition. I'm sure she won't miss that badly placed eye paint, though.

I like the Battle Damage raptor sculpt, but I liked the Attack Pack one's lack of a giant wound better, so I got that Blue originally instead of this one (also her face is cute, and most importantly, the Attack Pack figure was easier and cheaper to get, lol). But we know what happens to character doubles in this house! Except to Skye, because I made two of her, but she started out as a Blue double, too.

Unlike with Meripihka/Tree-stain paws, whose base colour I wanted to leave as it was and who got a bit of a backstory for her injury, with this one I want to try customizing the Battle Damage feature - ideally making it look like it was never there, because the character this will be does have a scar, but not on her side. And, because I think it will be an interesting challenge to figure out.

Cool lichen

Reflecting on an eagle nesting season

M15 looking pretty in the sunset light over at SWFL eagle cam. It seems it's just Harriet and him at the nest now, with E15 having finally left home.

Out of the nest cameras I've been watching this year, theirs is the nest I've paid the most attention to (as the nestcam tag on this blog probably shows). They're probably also the first nest I got introduced to the pastime of observing bird nesting with, making good use of especially Lady Hawk's video archive from previous seasons, and their eventful season this year has been interesting to follow.

Collision, page 5 and additional content warnings

tl;dr: for just the content warnings for the comic (at my site, at deviantart):

• Mostly non-spoilery warnings
• Warnings that do spoil the plot but are more specific

I guess we'll see whether by the end of this stop Ev's mom, idk, probably wanting everyone to read her Supernatural fanfic will still be the worst part of the day. Also, a spot colour. I'm sure it being red will be implemented in exclusively wholesome ways.

Many birb

 A big flock of birds circling over the city last night.

I hope they had fun whatever it is they were up to.

Bases for the raptors

The two raptors from the JP model kit now have something to stand on, and the little plants I made do, too.

Here's how I made them [cw: brief descriptions of (sewing) needles]:

Collision, page 4

Comic can be found here: at my site (all pages in one), deviantart (latest page).

A closer look at Sam, whom I decided to draw in a more realistic style, on account of that he's not anthropomorphized and the humans are the POV characters.

Cars may not be my drawing comfort zone, but I really enjoy the atmosphere created by the lighting in a car at night. Dogs aren't either, but I think I did okay.

Collision, page 3

New page for the dinosaur comic that so far is telling but not showing any dinosaurs. Comic can be found here: at my site (all pages in one), deviantart (latest page).

Dino bookcase (bookless dinocase)

I keep mentioning the dinosaur shelf the figures I acquire or make go to, so, want to actually see it? In seasonally spooky lighting.

They scream the year round, but it looks pretty apropriate for the theme now.

Squirrel!

A little squirrel balancing on the branches of the tree right in front of my balcony. Of course I could only catch a photo of its butt.

Masu was very entertained watching it, though.

What are you even doing now? Hanging upside down?