Drawing elephants is a lot of work, but since I don’t want to leave you for two weeks while I worry about wrinkles, I’ll put up a few of the illustrations that I’ve done for books and journals over the last few years.

Here are a couple I did for the interior of Heyday Books’ “One Day on Beetle Rock”. I showed you the cover image (a long-tailed weasel) in an early post, but there were 29 black and white illustrations inside and below are two of my favorites.

In eastern North America, Black Bears (Ursus americanus) are black. However, by the time you get reach the Rockies, brown “black” bears are common and the states and Canadian provinces that border the Pacific Ocean feature “black” bears from brown to blond to cinnamon. There are even a few special places on Canadian and Alaskan coastal islands where you can find them white or “blue”.

I’m not sure about Sequoia National Park, where Beetle Rock is located, but most of the twin cubs I’ve seen in the West were similar in coloring. Only once have I seen siblings that were as different as these two. I have to admit to doing it for the visual effect.

It should be illegal to paint a California Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis zonata) in tones of gray. Especially against a background of granite and/or pine needles these animals look extraordinary. I portrayed this one in pursuit of a Sierra Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis – subspecies taylori); at least that’s what I remember it being. At this point, 2 years later, I only know that the wonderful staff at the Beetle Rock Visitor’s Center approved it.