I've been keeping an "everything" notebook. In it are my traffic school notes (yeah, I got my first ticket...joy to the world), appointment dates, sketches and Sub-Zero's Kombos and Finishing Moves for Mortal Kombat 3...eclectic, if nothing else.

It's been a rather long time since I did any "real" art. Whatever that is. I just decided to draw. The pressure to please others or produce "real" art has been keeping me from doing any. So, lately I've just been drawing in the ratty notebook with a mechanical pencil, not knowing for sure what would happen. Sometimes I used some kind of model; sometimes I didn't. It just happened and I don't make any promises about more to come or finishing anything unfinished. So there.

So, here are links. You may have to zoom in on some or all of them.

1. Hawk-headed Microraptor: I drew this from memory. I borrowed some feather patterns from the hawk-headed parrot.

2. The Dragon Thief: I started out by drawing an eye. I didn't know what would happen. I just went with it. There are some perspective (and other) problems, but I even thought of a partial story while drawing.

3. Cheetah and Thompson's Gazelle: These are the two fastest land animals. Co-evolution has made them both very fast. The cheetah is faster, but the gazelle can turn more quickly. The cheetah ended up looking more like a leopard because I made the nose too skinny. The cheetah's nose is very broad for intaking large amounts of air. Later I drew another picture to study the nose and fur pattern beneath the spots.

4. Cheetah Head Study: This is unfinished. I drew it to better understand the head structure of a cheetah. The fur patterns helped me to get the nose and other head structures right. I was only interested in structure and may never "finish" this even to sketch level. And I don't care.

5."After Khazad-Dum" and "Mother T. Rex and Chicks": This is a two-fer. You may have to zoom in to see. I sat down with no model for these and ended up drawing my own conception of Frodo Baggins and a T. rex and young. The T. rex's snout is a little too short, making it look more like a Carnotaurus, but whatever. If I ever want to do it "right" I'll study bones and a model. Or not.

6. "Blue and Gold Deinonychus" and "Whirling Dervish": Another two-fer. Thinking about feathered theropods, I wondered what Deinonychus would look like decorated in the plumage of a blue and gold macaw. I have no idea where the whirling dervish came from. Honest. I didn't use any models for these.

7. "Stickle-backed Sand Dragon": As far as I know, there is no such thing as a stickle-backed sand dragon, but I can tell you its habitat, defensive measures and hunting methods.

Here's my favorite: "Velociraptor mongoliensis vs. Protoceratops andrewsi : A Famous Fossil in the Making":