Monday, December 8, 2008

From the Drawing Desk



The completed water oak



A tobacco bud, Nicotiana rustica L.



Ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, a now well-known plant that is found wild in woods in North America and China.



A sampling of mushroom specimen



Acer palmatum



Cannabis sativa



Acer palmatum



The Deadly Amanita



Cotton



An acorn

Thursday, December 4, 2008

The Water Oak

Recently I've taken to illustrating some botany. Although much of it has been native wildlife, I have also been working on some drawings of plants that aren't necessarily local specimen. But here is one I've been working on lately, a native pride of more coastal Virginia, the Water Oak. A hefty deciduous hardwood, the water oak is common to the outskirts of southeastern American swamps, streams, and bottomlands. Living an average of 60-80 years, which is short for most oaks, it can grow up to 100 ft tall and 3 ft in diameter. If your want to know more about it, don't take my word for it, visit the wikipedia entry here. But all otters should practice their drawing from wildlife as it helps develop a greater knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of their natural surroundings.



Merit Badges



I wanted to show an example of one otter's exemplary efforts. But any otter interested in attaining these or other merit badges should talk to me and also let me know about any merit badge they would like to see invented (not including the inventing badge, because that's already been invented).