sketchbook: late summer

Hazelnuts, a sketch in watercolor, colored pencil and graphite

The squirrels are cleaning up under a hazelnut tree. Just a few left–

KA

making “Giant Pacific Octopus”

Giant Pacific Octopus, KAnandakuttan

The other day I was asked about my process for “Giant Pacific Octopus,” a printed digital painting hanging in an exhibit. It has been in several shows over the past few years (Illustrating Nature, Santa Cruz; “A Closer Look at Wild Things,” Santa Cruz; 2011 GNSI Annual Exhibit in Olympia, WA; and this month at the Finley Center, Santa Rosa).

sketchbook, Giant Pacific Octopus

One day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I stood with my nose to the glass looking at the octopus’ tentacles, as it rested on the other side of the glass. I sketched. After an hour passed, she let go of the glass, (looked at me, I think) and I kept sketching. I scanned a black ink sketch, done from these studies, to form the base “layer” of my digital painting. Many hours and Photoshop layers later, using a pressure sensitive “brush” at different opacities, the octopus was finished.

Prints are available at Saatchi’s online gallery:

http://www.saatchionline.com/art/Digital-Painting-Giant-Pacific-Octopus

Out Sketching: What’s under the woodpile

Mud, salamanders & invertebrates…tiny eggs and sprouting seeds, decomposing plants.

An orange centipede, ruby red ladybug beetle, slugs, snails, and one bright blue “roly-poly”– April 2012

Out Sketching: North Bay Horizons

Bodega Head, graphite and colored pencilSan Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, looking towards Mt. Tamalpais, watercolor

San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, watercolor