Back in the 1990s I spent a lot of time illustrating, sometimes for journals, articles or books. The above Kirtland’s Warbler was for the cover of Michigan Birds and Natural History. It was done from a photo that I took, but I should have figured out how to include the second leg.
The Brown Creeper was done for an article that I wrote on creepers nesting in Washtenaw County. The tree and nest materials were sketched from the actual nest. The creeper I added inwhen I did the illustration.
The above two sketches of the snapping turtle at the Belle Isle Aquarium were used to produce the illustration that I did for Along the Huron, which included 32 illustrations that I did, including the snapping turtle seen below and the catfish.
That particular project illustrations of everything from birds, insects, plants, mammals, the river and more. It was a fun, albeit stressful project.
While doing both a lot of drawing and writing I also taught some courses for the Matthaei Botanical Gardens including one called “The art of the journal.” I’ll write something about that another time.
It’s interesting to look back at the years when I was writing for The Ann Arbor News, wondering why I never included an illustration that I had done.
Enough for now, tomorrow I’ll
Michael's Place 