The Iguana

Top piece time!!! This is one of my favorite works I have ever done. It’s a Grand Cayman Blue Iguana! I only recently discovered this creature, but I chose to draw it because these iguana’s already look like works of art, and I really wanted to emphasize their… otherworldiness… with a drawing. Also, not many creatures are blue, and I think it’s important to admire the ones that are!

Here’s what a real life Grand Cayman Blue Iguana looks like. I think they’re amazing.

Aren’t they cool!? They look like spiky blue dust puppies!

How could I look at this majestic thingy and not draw it? I broke out my Prismacolors and sketched a quick likeness of one in a light color. I neglected to take pictures at this stage, though, so here’s a picture of it after I had already started working on it more.

I had such a fun time laying in finite details over the colors and contrasts. I’m not the most patient when it comes to details, so I didn’t wait until I had the base all blocked in. And I am SO GLAD I didn’t!!

This is my final piece. I purposefully left it unfinished, because I loved the loose, scratchy look that my underdrawing had, and I wanted it to shine through onto the overall look of the iguana. Nature isn’t perfect or pristine, and I wanted to reflect that with an unfinished final piece. I think it really emphasizes the erratic energy of the iguana as well. Animals usually aren’t going to stay in one place for you anyway, (trust me, I did like 20 dog portraits over the weekend) and so many plein air drawings of living creatures end up unfinished or just sort of fudged together in some places.

I love how this turned out. I think it the unfinished look really added another layer of impact to it than if I had made it a finished, pristine drawing.

Overall, I’m really proud of this work. It also made an appearance as a full-color print at the LOLIN booth, and 100% will make it into my Species Journal book. Thank you for reading!