Friday, January 06, 2006

Illustration Friday: SEA

Day or Night... Day or Night... mmmm, Day.


LICORNE DES CARAIBES
the caribbean unicorn

colored pencil (berol prismacolor)
approx. 12" x 18"
on 180lb. Arches hot press watercolor paper

Back to basics. Another oldie. This was officially the first unicorn of my small series. I was working on turning them into a book, but I can't write... so, yeah... it went no where. I did come up with plenty of theories though:

This guy is amphibian, he never actually leaves the water (unless absolutely necessary - life threatened - blah, blah, blah), but spends most of his lifetime wading through it. Unicorns are usual solitary animals, but the Caribbean variety are very social. They have strong family bonds and mate for life. Babies are born looking like sea horses (usually in twins or triplets) and spend the first several years clinging to the long tail hairs of the parents (both parents raise the fawnlings).

I'm sure I have more, but this is all I could remember at the moment. I had favorite foods, life spans, and personality traits all worked out at one time.

It was tough selecting this illo. I actually had several I could use for this theme - and I couldn't decide. But I hadn't presented a unicorn in quite a while, so in the end I had to go back... enjoy!!

19 comments:

Doug said...

Well, I'd say you definately have the colored pencil unicorn in the sea nailed down. Really nice job!

valerie walsh said...

this is so great!love the story and your art! you are so funny (blah,blah blah)I know what you mean but it is funny to see someone put it in writing.

Anonymous said...

I like the image you chose. Can imagine the seahorse like babies clinging to her tail!

Tony Sarrecchia said...

Beautiful piece.

giles said...

Wow, that's amazing coloured pencil work. Love the stripes. Excellent image!

http://choble.blogspot.com/

Stephen said...

great work! graceful and melodic!

Katili said...

Awh it's so beautiful and the turquoise is delicious ! Great work.

carla said...

I truly admire your masterful work with colored pencils...each piece you've shared has really wowed me! This is gorgeous...you've captured that wonderful blue of the Caribbean...makes me long to be there right now. Your unicorn is a perfect creature of fantasy...colord like a tropical zebrafish!

Regina said...

So beautiful, so magical!

Spinning Girl said...

I love all your unicorns.

Spinning Girl said...

p.s. You could team up with a writer to do a book, just like writers hire illustrators. Your stuff needs to be seen by the world!

Twisselman said...

Wonderful striped unicorn wading about the sea! Especially like the tail as it spreads underwater. Very cool.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! Really well done.

jody king camarra said...

as usual, I love this, melinda! happy new year. jody

constanthing said...

This is done with colored pencils?! Wow, I'm awestruck. It's really beautiful, both creature and colors.

FRIZZ said...

Jaw-dropping beautiful!! Very unique! Love you hybrids too!! I'll be back!

Jaimie said...

wow. this is absolutely stunning. the graceful fanciful creature is lovely.

wonil said...

so graceful and sexy, energetic and fragile. the story's awesome. does the water temperature affect whether the babies are triplets or twins? i'm sure it does. ;)

Anonymous said...

that's... amazing. I can never create creatures as well as you.

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