Wandering Thoughts

The month of Smaugust is upon us.

Random head design... he's got hmm scales or plates behind his ear. I dont know why I just liked how it looked...so perhaps he has really great hearing.

Not sure I'll be doing a daily drawing.

Hedgehog encounter

A leaving gift for a work colleague. I like designing these little scenes. I like how I did the leaves on this, created depth.

Badger finds a friend in the bracken.

A little thank you drawing for a friend. A badger abd mouse surrounded by primroses and ferns, or bracken. I like ferns but they so tricky to draw. I had fun with the foreground.

Year of the (fire) horse

A fire horse, seeing as the element for this year is fire. It meant I could play with my markers. Although horses are always a pain to draw...the legs...I think I've drawn the legs about 10 times...

The horns are his crown of office. I always give my zodiac animals horns. Although it linked to a different tale. One were the rooster lends his horns to the dragon so he may see the Jade Emperor, and the dragon never returns them. Hence, why they crow at the sky each dawn demanding their horns back. I liked the idea of horns being like a crown, so they are passed amongst my zodiac creatures.

Wishing all those that celebrate a happy new year.

First dragon of 2026.

Got gifted a new little notebook that has these lil dragons in the corner of the pages. It has blank pages, so little drawings can be done. So, of course, it had to be christened with a dragon. Yes, I drew all those scales....

Christmas Seven

A commission I work on in October but seeing as it was an Xmas gift I didn't post until now. Amusingly, I've drawn her before and that was more sepia toned. That might be why I went full colour on this piece.

So, I got the teeny frame in my Christmas cracker. Teeny mouse anyone?

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my followers the best for the holidays and next year.

On the Fey side

The Kealkill stone circle near Cobh in Ireland. Gift for my dad whose photo I used as reference. I added the fey castle in the background. The mischievous pixies are opening the portal. If you hear music, maybe don't enter the stone circle via its portal stones.

I just wanted to perch a dragon on that stone lol.

The last Christmas Island shrew.

Heavily inspired by the Death of rats from Discworld, but this is the Death of shrews, different skull. I learnt they got fun shaped skills with hooked teeth. Anyways, Death came personally to collect the last of a species, a proper send off.

The Christmas Island shrew or musk-shrew (Crocidura trichura) was declared extinct this month. Last confirmed individuals seen back in 1985. References are hard to come by, so I used some other artworks to help. The island itself sits NE of Australia and south of Java.

White markers, black watercolour pencils and normal pencils on brown paper.

Inktober Undyingtales Crested Ibis.

I finished other projects so had time for full drawing, plus it's a white bird!

The crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) has been found in ancient texts (The Nihon Shoki, "Chronicles of Japan", which is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history and mythological origins) and imperial tombs in Japan. It is called "toki" and the name in kanji means "peach flower bird" for the pale pink blush of the feathers, and in China, it is known as a bird of good fortune.

Brought to brink of extinction it vanished from Japan. Yet conservation projects and reintroduction breeding projects have seen the bird return. It is mostly seen on Sado island.

Inktober Ethiopian wolf

The Aberdeen Bestiary was written in the 12th century. It is an illuminated manuscript, commissioned by a rich patron. It is gilded with gold and silver and depicts all manner of creatures painted with expensive pigments. On Ethiopian wolves in particular, it says that they have manes in an array of many colors "so diversely coloured, men say, that no hue is lacking". The wolves can leap so high and far, that it is as if they have wings, and they never attack men. The author goes on to muse that the Latin genus of these creatures, "Canis" (which includes wolves, dogs, coyotes, and jackals) might be traced to "canere" which is the latin word "to sing", and might be attributed to the musical howl that a wolf engages in.

Inktober Andean wildcat.

Octopus for a friend's birthday.

Inktober olive tree and caiman

I missed a day, so two in one.

Olive tree tale: Posiedon, god of the Sea, and Athena, goddess of Wisdom and War, were at odds. Both wished to lay claim to the earthly land of the Attic Peninsula. To stake his claim, Posiedon rose up and plunged his trident deep into the Acropolis. His strike pierced through the dirt to became a deep well of salt water. This became the Sea of Erechtheis, a salt spring on the Acropolis. Athena made an olive tree spring forth beside the well. When the other gods of Olympus were called upon to judge which god would be the city's patron, it was decided that Athena's gift was the more worthy and precious one. Henceforth, the city became known as Athens, and olive trees revered as symbols of peace and prosperity throughout the Empire.

Colombian caiman tale: El Hombre Caimán ("The Alligator Man") who lives on the banks of the Magdelena River. He was once a human fisherman by the name of Montenegro. The fisherman enjoyed spying upon women bathing in the streams, and so he engaged the help of a shaman, who gave him two potions: one that shifted him into an alligator, and a second that returned him to human shape. The second potion required the assistance of a friend to apply it. After enjoying this for some time, there came a time when he returned from a jaunt to his friend, who clumsily opened the bottle. The liquid splashed across Montenegro's head and torso, which resumed man-form, but this left his lower half trapped as an alligator. Horrified at what he had become, shunned and hunted by his neighbours, he fled into the river and eventually out to the sea.

Inktober Clownface betta

Little brush pen drawing.

Tale about the creation of Lake Toba in Sumatra. A farmer lived in the shadow of a mountain in that region. From the streams, he would fish. One morning, he caught an enormous fish, and when he pulled his catch ashore, it was transformed into a beautiful maiden. She agreed to marry the farmer, on the condition that he never reveal to anyone her origins.

Inktober bleeding heart pigeon

A little ink and colour wash. 2 x 3 inches.

In a Mandaya folktale, the limokon (omen birds) once spoke like men, though they were birds. A limokon laid two eggs upon different banks of a river, and from these eggs was hatched a man and woman. Though they did not at first know of each others' existence, they eventually traversed the river and came together, and their children became the Mandaya people who lived along the river.

The limokons' cooing voice can warn of dangers or promise success, and individuals should take heed and let their actions and decisions be influenced by these signs, for to ignore is to court failure.