Cartoon Ermines

Here are some cartoon Ermines that I drew based on the life drawings that I drew earlier in this blog.

Pot Belly Pig Sketch Animation

Pot Belly Pig Pose Sketches & Reference

Gerbils, Hamsters and Degu Pose Sketches

Chicken Pose Sketches

I enjoy drawing chickens, they do some interesting things even if you might think they don't. They are also an interesting shape and enjoyable to draw.

Meerkats, Marmosets and Rabbit Pose Sketches

Here are more of my sketches from Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm.
I found Meerkats difficult as they rarely stay still so each drawing had to be drawn quickly. The Marmoset was a bit easier as it was more interested in me so it stayed a bit more still and the rabbits weren't moving much either so I got plenty of time to do the life drawing on the left. Sorry that the photo isn't very clear, I will try and find the sketch and take another one.

Lizards Quick Life Drawings

Here are some life drawings of some lizards that I did quickly and with a pen. It was my first time really trying to do this with a pen as I've always preferred pencils.

Lemur Pose Sketches

At the Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm again and this time with Lemurs. I enjoyed drawing the Lemurs but towards the end they curled up and didn't move much so didn't get a lot of sketches of them. At this point I was still learning to do pose sketches of animals.

Racoon Pose Sketches

Here is another group of my sketches from Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm but this time of a Racoon and above are photos of said Racoon. He was very difficult to draw as he kept trying to steal my pen or paper or he was running around his cage at top speed. They aren't very good pose sketches because of this but I am up for the challenge to attempt drawing a Racoon again as I have learned more about doing pose sketches of quick animals.

Reindeer Pose Sketches

My next few posts will be pose sketches that I drew at Ponderosa Rare Breeds Farm and the ones below are of Reindeers. I had never tried drawing them before and didn't spend a long time with them but I found them difficult to draw but interesting as they would cross their legs while changing direction and hardly ever stopped moving between the trees.

Cartoon drawings of Remus

I was watching one of my lecture videos today and Remus kept coming up to me and crying and looking longingly outside but as I'm at my boyfriends who lives next to a busy road he isn't allowed out. It was then that I did some quick drawings of him in my notebook. I edited the pic a bit to remove my notes for you though.

Life Drawings of Remus

Here are some Life Drawings of my Bengal cat, Remus when he was a kitten. I love how Bengals have a wild look about them because they have Asian Leopard Cats in their ancestry. Remus is about 5 generations from one.



Here are some photos of Remus when he was a kitten to compare my drawings to :)

Remus the cat - design sketches

Here are some drawings I did when designing the cartoon version of my Bengal cat, Remus for my final year uni project.

Here I tried working on the face but soon realised that the eyes were too close together and with the spots it was too busy.


So I made the eyes further apart and removed the spots but kept some stripes for some markings. I was still working on side views at this point and for some reason was having hard time with it.


Here he didn't look cartoony or cute enough so he turned into the character at the top. Yeah for some odd reason I started at the bottom of the page and worked up. No idea why. I had also worked out side views from looking at Remus and films with cartoon cats in. Looks lots better and its easier to draw!


Then finally some more design sketches with the finishing look of him. I make notes a lot on my work to remind me what isn't looking right or what I want to change so when I come back later I can read it and then look again and see if I still agree or not and then can do said changes.

Another old cartoon drawing

This was a design sheet for my character in my final year project for uni. I actually made her look a bit like I did when I was younger as thats when I was most confident and happy about how I look. In a way she is the younger version of me. On the left is a photo I found of me in a backward cap too!

As you can tell my character has a bigger head and smaller body than myself. This is for her to look appealing and cartoony. By the way, the fish on the hat was just rough and to give the idea that a fish will go there so no Jesus thing going on with character, just a quick way of showing a fish.

Just for fun - My sister Steph

I like to do something a bit different every now and again. This is a pretty old cartoon drawing of my sister, Stephanie. Below is a photo of her and the drawing I did.

Ermine Pose Sketches

When I say Pose Sketches I mean watching an animal moving and quickly drawing it as its moving around. A lot will look messy and scratchy or nothing like the animal its meant to be but a few will catch good poses and moves. Below are my pose sketches of an Ermine. The last 2 are of an ermine killing a rabbit, I did them from a BBC reference video.

More Pantalaimon - Ermine

More Ermines based on the character, Pantalaimon. Think I like the ones where I gave him a patch on his head the most as I was more awake when I drew them and the patch can be used to show expressions easier, like eyebrows.

Pantalaimon - Ermine

I chose to try drawing Ermines because I've been reading the His Dark Materials books and Lyra's daemon, Pantalaimon often turns into an Ermine and inspired me.


Below is an image from the film, The Golden Compass with Pantalaimon as an Ermine.



Interestingly Ermine's are brown in the summer and in the winter they are white except the tip of their tail. They are from the arctic and can also run through snow easily. They are ferocious hunters and are capable of killing animals much larger than itself even though they are small (can grow 30 cm long) but some of the smallest weasles are most dangerous! (They are a member of the weasle family)
Poor Ermines are endangered due to be hunted for their fur, its even used in the robes of the Lord Chief Justice of England.

A new start!

Sorry that I started this blog and never really got it going but I have made a plan of doing at least a page a day of drawings, whether they are life-drawings, quick pose sketches or caricatures. My main subject will be animals though as I love to find out about animals and watch and study them; some of the reasons I want to be a creature animator.

Well I hope you enjoy looking into my sketchbooks and please feel free to comment on any of my images or make suggestions for what to draw next :)

Laughing Otters

The woman in the news who was attacked by otters made me think of doing this. I just imagined them laughing about it.