Artwork by Elissa Johnson

This little lizard is the first subject of my new line of hand-made greeting cards and gift blocks. More details to come!

Yellow-Shafted Flicker My most recently sold painting. It felt good to get what this painting was worth, but it was sad to see it go. Prints of him will be available in my store soon.

I've finally returned to social media! I turned in my senior honor's thesis yesterday and I'm feeling good. Only a month and a half until I'm done with college forever (well...maybe not forever). More details about what the future holds to come, but for now it's time to give my art a little love again. Anyways, I recently had some prints made of my new work (and more of my old work) and they are listed on my etsy store. I'll be adding more soon and hopefully making more soon.

Hmmm...I thought those were little hemlock pinecones but I could be wrong - I didn’t know much about local plants when I painted it. Now that I know what hemlock pinecones look like I realize they are not hemlock pine cones (but similarly sized) and they do look a lot like sequoia cones. I honestly don't know what they are. I found them on be east coast though.I actually go to Brown University in Rhode Island and my certificate program is through RISD CE

Work in progress iris from the botanical illustration portion of the 'Local Flora of Rhode Island' course I'm taking. I was reprimanded for spending too much time on the background.

Thank you for your kind words and interest in my artwork! I never really considered selling them...but I've been asked by many people, so I may be releasing some prints in the future, or maybe even a book!

It's Frisket Friday, so here's an old painting I made for my boyfriend in 2011

Burrowing owls nest in the underground burrows made by prarie dogs, ground squirrels, gophers, skunks, and tortoises. They forage both during the night and day and are most active at dawn and dusk. Burrowing owls collect mammal dung and place it around their burrows to attract beetles, which they consume. Owlets can scare away predators by hiding in the burrow and mimicking the sound of a rattlesnake.

The bats are back! The Noctilionidae family consists of only two species: the greater and lesser bulldog bats. These bats are sometimes called "fisherman bats". While the lesser bulldog bat is mainly insectivorous (feeding on aquatic insects such as water striders and water beetles), the greater bulldog bat mainly eats fish. It uses echolocation to detect ripples on the waters surface and scoops up fish using the pouch between its legs.

For Muscle Monday (which is really 'Anatomy Monday', but that doesn't have the same satisfying alliterative ring to it) we have the bones of the arm: the humerus, radius, and ulna. The colorful stuff in the detail of the radius and ulna is the "interosseous membrane" that serves as an attachment site for the forearm muscles

Sorry I missed #wingwednesday last week, I was back in Boise visiting my parents. I made this pair of wood duck cards for them. I am thinking of selling cards like these ones on Etsy. Each one consists of a border of 2-3 handmade papers (cut and glued by yours truly) and an original stippled artwork that will not be reproduced - making the card truly one-of-a-kind. Because these are essentially original artworks they will be priced between $100-200 and are meant for very special occasions such as weddings, college graduations, special anniversaries or birthdays, etc... Custom orders would be availble of course and I will also try to carry at least a few in stock at all times. Interest?

Another little handmade card of a Bateleur Eagle. It's a bit of a shame that the drawing doesn't capture the amazing color of the face and beak which are bright red and yellow - contrasting beautifully with the eagle's dark black feathers. "Bateleur" is French for 'street performer'

Handmade barn swallow card. Barn swallows make little cup-shaped nests out of mud, almost exclusively on man-made structures such as eaves and bridges. The killing of barn swallows for the hat-making industry led to the establishment of the first Audobon Society. A group of barn swallows is called a “kettle” of swallows.

Tbt in honor of Cecil the lion. I drew this in 2013 for my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day

Today’s bat family is Molossidae. These bats are characterized by their high aspect ratio wings and have been clocked at almost 7 m/s, making them the fastest flying vertebrates (we’re talking powered flight here, diving is cheating). These bats are kind of considered the outliers in our lab: they flap their wings more like birds than other bats and their plagiopatagiales proprii (the muscles show in red) are so small and dense they are more like a ‘muscle sheet’ than individual fibers like we see in other bats.