Magical Animal Alphabet: Onikuma

It would make a lot of sense to make O as Ouroboros, which is a serpent or a dragon that eats its own tail. It's nice and round and symbolizes introspection and cyclicality. But where would the challenge be in that?

So I went with Onikuma, a Japanese bear-like creature that walks upright into villages at night and carries off livestock.

Skill Building

At my critique, one of the panel members (who is a great illustrator herself) suggested I look into what other illustrators are doing, and learn from them.
So I found this illustrator, Chris Riddell, and decided to copy a beautiful illustration of his, just so I can see what he does and how he does it. Looking is not enough for me, I need to actually do it in order to really "see" it. So after copying that illustration (you can see the copy below), I made this one:

 I call her "Unicorn Rider". Very original.

Here's my Chris Riddel fanart:

I still have ways to go, but it's a start.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Nachtkrapp

The Nachtkrapp is a giant raven-like bird. If seen by little children, it will abduct them into its nest and devour them, ripping their limbs and then picking out their hearts. Very messy!
How nice of parents to paint such a comforting picture for their children as they put them to sleep...

I don't think my Nachtkrapp is as merciless. He's more the kind that simply put children in his bag and takes them away.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Meretseger

The Egyptian goddess Meretseger is both dangerous and merciful. Her name means "she who loves silence". She defended the Valley of the Kings by spitting venom at anyone who tried to vandalize or rob the royal tombs.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Liger

Of course! Because ligers are bred for the skills in magic!

And it's not like actual ligers are any less magical. Just look at this one:

Magical Animal Alphabet: Kelpie

I mostly just wanted to do Kelpie for K because I like the way the word sounds. But it's a pretty cute version of a memaid, which I don't particularly like. Merhorses are much better.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Jaculus

Jaculus is a small serpent or dragon, that is also known somtimes as javelin snake.
In Greek mythology, it is said to spring out at its victims, like a javelin, from its hiding places in trees. This is similar to an actual little snake in Madagascar, the fandrefiala.

Jaculus is also the genus of a rodent, the jerboa! So I had to do a quick watercolor sketch for it, as well.

Watercolor Rodents: Jerboa

I was working on my Jaculus for the Magical Animal Series, when I found out that Jaculus is also a genus of rodents that look very much like Kangaroo Rats. Jaculus live in deserts of Africa and the Middle East, while Kangaroo Rats live in deserts in North America. Looks like convergent evolution to me!

Magical Animal Alphabet: Ikaroa

Ikaroa, in Maori mythology, is the magical long fish that gave birth to our galaxy!

Magical Animal Alphabet: Hippogryph

Hippogryph (can also be spelled Hippogriff) is a half eagle half horse and is the symbol of Apollo, either through his connection to the Muses or as god of the sun. In some tradition, the hippogryph is a symbol of love, because its parents, the mare and griffin, are natural enemies.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Garuda

Garuda is a large bird-like creature in Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The brahminy kite is considered as its contemporary representation. By Hindu tradition, Garuda has brought nectar to earth from heaven.

Magical Animals Alphabet: Fenrir

I started with the one on the bottom, but I wasn't sure whether I should leave his face blank or fill it in lightly. Which version do you prefer?
Anyway, Fenrir is a monstrous wolf and the son of Loki in Norse mythology.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Ennedi Tiger

This cryptid is believed to be a living Sabertooth cat that lives in the Ennedi Plateau in the east of Chad. There are two different species, and the one below is more like the one that lives in the mountains, with a stubby tail.

Not-So-Magical Animal: Donald

Of course, when I said that there aren't many options for D, I didn't take into account The Donald:

The Donald is a non-magical animal that wrecks havoc wherever it goes. It likes to build walls and dislikes political correctness, poor people, and refugees. He especially likes to grab unsuspecting women with his tiny little hands.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Dropbear

As I continue my challenge, I find that some letters are easier to find animals for than others. 
Case in point is the letter D. The most common mythical animal is a demon or a daemon, or some derivative of that. This is way too vague. Also dragon. Way too predictable. But I did find this interesting variety of "magical" animal:

Now, I've never heard of this animal until I looked for a D magical critter. Turns out it is a part of a contemporary Australian folklore designed to scare tourists. It features a large and vicious carnivorous koala that live in trees and drop on the heads of unsuspecting prey walking beneath them.

Magical Animal Alphabet: Cthulhu

Continuing with my self-imposed challenge, here's Cthulhu:

Cthluhu was invented by H. P. Lovecraft in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", and described as "A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind."

Magical Animal Alphabet: Basilisk

The basilisk, according to Wikipedia, is the legendary king of serpents. It can kill with a single glance. The reason he's considered a king is because he has a crown on his head. It is also not distinguishable from the cockatrice, which means I'll have to find another animal for C.

Blended Cat

My friend Hanna recently wrote about the importance of learning. So now that I'm on a break, I like to take the time to learn some new skills, specifically software skills that I don't have much time to dedicate to while going through a quarter full of demanding classes.

The first tutorial I followed showed me how to use the blend tool in Illustrator.

This is what I got:

Fun!

Magical Animal Alphabets

As part of the project for my Experiential Design class, Printing Is Magic, I made a couple of magical animal alphabets, only A and Z so far.

My plan is to add more animal alphabets, since they are so much fun. My goal is to get one every day. We'll see how it goes.

Half Way Through Design School

So I have hit the half-way mark, finishing the 4th quarter of my two-year program. This quarter I got to do a lot more illustration than previous ones, as you can see below.

For my Merging Media class, we had to come up with a feature and a pavilion for a public park in Atlanta. I chose Tanyard Creek Park, which is fairly small, but since it's right along a creek, it is quite lovely. It also has a large open field, which I thought would be great for a pavilion.
Below you'll find my pavilion rendering, which includes a large dog-like structure with two smaller dogs that serve as a pool and a bench.

My park feature is singing birds. I made a short animation that shows what they do.

For Experiential Design, we had to create a pop-up experience for some technology product of our choice. I went with Zuta Pocket Printer, which should come out shortly.

For this class I ended up doodling a bunch!
Here's my book cover, featuring the event logo and the model I made for a "pager" (similar to restaurant pager you get when you have to wait for your table):

Below is a gif logo animation:


via GIPHY

Here are some of the illustrations I made for the inside of the book:

The event tent at Oglethorpe University during Orientation Week

Inside the tent, you can find Zutar, the fortune-teller printer. You just place the printer on a sheet of paper, ask Zutar a question, and the answer would be printed out for you.

You can also relax in the lounge area and enjoy a toast with no-paper jam, because there's no paper jams with Zuta

If you take a selfie with your magical graduation props and post it on Instagram, you can win a printer or (for a higher chance) a T-shirt. It was very nice of Jenn to model the graduation cap for me.

You can print your name on a free magical notebook!

For Information Design and Data Visualization, we had to design a currency system:

This system honors the working class and heroes, to remind everyone on whom our economy is based.

We also had to design a manifesto poster that can be grounded by making a connection to an actual organization that work toward the same purpose.
My manifesto is to use my generalist propensities to make people see that there's enough in this world to go around if we don't hoard it all to ourselves. Basically, to show that the people on the top should not take more than they need, cause that hurts everybody, which is exactly what the organization United for a Fair Economy does.

Instead of a poster, I made an animation (special thank you to all the people who gave me a hand):