Risks in pen & ink

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is suspense. Mating can be a pretty suspenseful thing if you're a male orb weaver spider. For one thing, she's going to be a lot bigger than you. For another, she's probably hungry. And if you need a third... well, depending on what species you are you might find that you have a few less body parts after you're done...

It's amazing, really, the things a male spider has to go through just to make sure he passes on his genes. Some species have elaborate mating dances where the rhythm of the male's vibrations on the web tell the female that he's not supposed to be food (at least, not right away). Some have to be able to sneak up from behind (and it's not easy to sneak on a spiderweb) in order to get the job finished. Some have detachable copulatory organs that continue to function even if the female eats the male a bit too quickly, believe it or not.

And you thought the human dating scene was tricky?

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I often say that these are quick doodles, but it's pretty obvious that this week's effort was the quickest of the quick. It's the only chance I have to get something in before Monday, though, and if I wait until after the weekend I rarely bother to get anything done. Better to keep the rhythm going, so to speak, since a skipped week too easily becomes a skipped month.

Spring Forward in pen & ink and inktense

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is forward.

It just occurred to me... is "spring forward, fall back" only a North American thing for remembering what to do with the clocks in regards to daylight savings? If so, this won't make sense to a few people. Sorry about that.

My flowers and leaves are pretty much out of fiction today and the scanner has (as usual) decided that things are supposed to be yellower than I meant them to be, but that's ok with me.

Back in my lettering days I would have taken far more time setting things out (shame on me -- not even a ruler at hand this time). Considering that I was mostly just doodling this afternoon, though, I don't think it turned out too badly overall.

And still more... well, you probably know at this point.

Today we're (me 'n' alllll the voices) featuring Red-osier Dogwood, which I learned as Cornus stolonifera but which is now C. sericea because plant taxonomy is apparently no fun if you're not confusing someone.

Or maybe that's just me.



Yeah, that's right. You heard me. I'm no fun if I'm not confusing someone.

And more work stuff...

Today? Bunchberry (Cornus canadensis). Tomorrow? Well, I suppose you'll see.

Hey, look. It's work stuff

Finally getting some more work done on a much-delayed berry bush display. This particular specimen is Buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis).

Slightly dangerous of me to post link photos of the actual plant that I was attempting, maybe, but what the heck. You may as well have at least some reference, right?

Silly things to do when you're shut in

Shut-in by the weather, in my case. Last week? Nasty cold. So what does a person do with a week where it's not a great idea to be outside? Well, in my case some sketching and other things for work (I'll post a couple of the sketches after this, but I'm going to schedule them. No sense in having everything appear at once, after all).

Oh, and playing around with masking fluid.

You know what? Masking fluid's kind of fun.

I'm not going to bother posting any of my other "creations" since they're so obviously just me playing, but still. Masking fluid's kind of fun all right.

I'm so easily amused...

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On a totally different note, I have a brand new, still-blank pack of ATCs in my possession at the moment. Suggestions on what to do with them? They're kind of hard to make paper airplanes out of...

Pear Flower in graphite

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is prepare. And this, done very quickly out of necessity because I'm just on a break here at work, is a pear flower and buds.

It's pre-pear.





Yeah... I know. Sorry about that. I couldn't think of anything else off the top of my head.