L is for Longma

This week's entry for AlphaBeasts made it in just under the wire. I couldn't find any Japanese beasts that began with L so I went for a Chinese dragon-horse. It took just a wee bit longer to paint than I'd planned!

I do love painting highlights, & golden scales call for lots of 'em! If you'd like to see a couple of process scans, here's my Longma post on Curious Art Lab.

Acrylic on text scanned from Young People's Natural History, 1901

By the way, 2012 will be the year of the Dragon, although the new year won't officially happen until the 23rd.

Edit: Prints of this painting are now available in my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/90845784/longma-signed-archival-art-print-year-of

The Girl with the Oddment Tattoo

Some people look little & cute, but inside they're ferocious. A touch of ink can help bring the inside outside. ;-)

Acrylic on found doll, with bead & pin for belly-button piercing, about 3½" tall.

p.s. Anyone recognize this doll? My sister found it on the street & kindly gave it to me, knowing I'd do something odd with it. If it's yours, I apologize.

Her Odd Materials No. 4

Wavelength

It's a rare & beautiful thing when two individuals transcend the boundaries of self & begin to move through life on precisely the same wavelength. These synchronous swimmers were loosely inspired by the astonishingly graceful & romantic waltzing weedy sea dragons.

(Many thanks to Isaac for introducing me to these real-life oddments!)

By the way, you may note that this curiotype is a departure from the more arcane vocabulary of previous entries. That is because there was no W in classical Latin, the base language of most scientific terms. I'm rather glad since it gave me the perfect opportunity to celebrate sea dragons!

Photoshop with text from Steele's Fourteen Weeks of Physics, 1878.

Ventricose

This curiotype is something of a gourmand... & he wears his indulgences proudly.

Photoshop with text from Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Muricate

M marks the midpoint in the Curiotype alphabet!

Apologies for the late post-- I had two deadlines today that had to be done first, & boy do all those points take time to draw!

Photoshop with text from good ol' Gray's Introduction to Structural & Systemic Botany, 1876

Wanderers

Characters from The Painting, again... where do you think they're going?

Photoshop with paint textures