Though these creatures are a departure from my natural realism style, their lack of seriousness has been very fun to do. Most of these started as pencil sketches that I scribbled out while either waiting on hold on the phone for long periods or waiting in doctors’ offices or hospitals. Doing them kept me entertained during the long waits. Later, I scanned the sketches into the computer and digitally enhanced them with color and further details.

Each creature came into being by thinking of a shape which I sketched out. I would then let the shape conjure up the next feature or features of the creature. I didn’t have any objective such as a function of the creature for a particular habitat. I just let the design and shapes define the creature, and though sometimes a creature would appear to have specific characteristics for specific adaptations, those features were not intentional on my part.