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Marlin Peterson's Mural in Ohio from Jonathan Jackson on Vimeo. I had a fantastical experience painting another species of harvestman on a roof for a prolific art collector in Akron, Ohio.  I did the 3D, (or anamorphic), painting so it was viewable from the incredible...

For the final 3 weeks in my illustration 1 and 2 classes the project was to transform the MAC gallery into a giant painted mural.  We chewed on all the options and decided to use a "space" theme as a starting point.  Each student contributed to a particular few areas...

I taught a class for the Leavenworth Birdfest at a crazy amazing garden lodge retreat center down the chumstick road called Tierra.  A packed class that threatened to use up every last art supply I had brought, but we made it and it was super fun.  I chose a Killdeer...

Illustration this upcoming spring quarter will focus on working big!   We have the magnificent walls of the MAC Gallery to paint murals on, in addition to other spaces we can arrange. If you have ever wanted to work huge and understand how to transform your sketches...

I have so much love for Gastornis aka Diatryma.  Not only was it scratching 7 feet tall, not only was it flightless, not only was it likely a vegetarian...now they have found a fossil bone confirming its existence on Ellesmere Island!  That means that adding to the...

For my illustration class, we created black and white (pen and ink)  images that had to meet the minimum criteria of having some kind of goat and some kind of crown.  Here is a timelapse of the process of gridding out then drawing our lines on the wall....

I led an art class about how to paint and otherwise render a realistic yet artistic "winter Steelhead".  It was fun for me, and an opportunity for the students to use media they might not have. It was touted as a "watercolor" class for beginners, but in the end we...

This is an assignment I gave my science illustration class, where the bulk of our work was to scratchboard the head and another part of the bird, then digitally create the black or dark silhouette for the body.  There were opportunities to use our artistic licenses,...

I did another scratchboard class for the Leavenworth Birdfest.  Great festival with all kinds of fascinating talks and experts and field trips.  My class was self described as less birders and more on the artistic spectrum.  They turned out awesomeness as you can...

I made some hard cider labels for an awesome new company called Wenatchee Valley Cider Company.  They have 4 main "strains" so far and each name and image was chosen for its own back story.  I can't wait to see it for sale, which should be this summer.  They were...

I was invited to give a class to a couple libraries in the greater Seattle Area, and so I took our little Pygmy Owl on the road!  This time, perhaps to make it simpler (?) I decided to have the artists work up from black.  That is probably the best way to start...

I had a great first day sweeping off, foot-skitching seagull crap, then repainting large sections of the mural.  Some of the colors had faded and become an odd purple, while others were holding up pretty well.  The second day I got rained off the roof and it was sad. ...

I have scratchboarded a few owl species in the past and thought it would make a good subject for people to get an introduction into scratchboard.  It is surprising how many artists have dabbled with scratchboard at some point, then left it behind. We are NOT doing the...

I taught a watercolor class where we painted an insect quite large.  I chose to use a little familiar looking brown insect.  We might not know what to call them, but we know them and we love them; they are gentle, they are the coreids.   Also known as a leaf-footed...

This is now mounted in the Kreilsheimer Promenade! It was quite the process of research, meetings, back and forth mockup versions, meetings in Seattle and Spokane, then formatting the huge computer-freezing file for print. Whew! The prints were done by Designer Decal...

Really the only way to believably render Coryphodons is to look closely at similar animals of today.  Their anatomical contemporaries/analogues give some suggestion, but compared to a hippopotamus, for example, their skeleton and (therefore) distribution of muscle...