Earling

It's been forever since I did a painting for Illustration Friday, & I almost didn't make it this week. The prompt was "whisper."  I started thinking about the kind of creature that would be adept at hearing whispers... hence this little fellow. Can you see the hidden message? It's kind of a giveaway. ;-)

Acrylic on text scanned from The Reason Why, a natural history book of questions & answers from 1860. It features a quote from Shakespeare: "Give every man thine ears, but few thy voice." Also an engraved diagram of the human ear that turned into a form of vegetation.

Nunatak

N points to the frozen North, which is well out of my comfort zone, both physically & artistically! But I felt I'd been neglecting geology with my Curiotype words & besides, Nunatak is fun to say.

Photoshop with text from The Practical Standard Dictionary, 1943.

p.s. Speaking of fun-sounding words, an old family favorite: http://www.wepsite.de/bulbous%20bouffant.mp3

Labiate

A sea creature influenced by lippy flowers may seem odd, but I ask you, is it (or anything) really any odder than the Sarcastic Fringehead!?

(Thanks to comic creator/arcane animal sleuth Isaac for introducing me to that one!)

This Curiotype is brought to you by the letter L.

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

Perennial Curiosity

I loved the quotation in this week's IF prompt:

“A good scientist is a person in whom the childhood quality of perennial curiosity lingers on. Once he gets an answer, he has other questions.” ~ Frederick Seitz

I think artists tend to be the same way, don't you?

This curious specimen grew out of the painting I'm working on (with a few changes).

Photoshop, text & acrylic textures. Please click to see details.

Legally Odd

And now for something completely different! Here's a whole parade of oddments, marching in a highly disorganized fashion. Or maybe it's a page of legal notes in an alien language?

Either way, I worry that this document could someday be used against me in a court of law.

Click on the image if you want a closer view of the oddments. Which of these do you think should grow into bigger oddments?

Crow-quill pen & ink on legal pad. As I was drawing this, my husband kept walking by & shaking his head. :-D

Woodland Oddment

I found this oddment lumbering through the forest.

I invited him into my painting but he doesn't look too happy about it.

Photoshop, text, & acrylic