abbyhoward

Extinct Creatures-- Icarosaurus

Our next Triassic Weirdo is Icarosaurus, a gliding relative of lizards and snakes. This particular form of gliding, where the ribs support a membrane, has actually evolved independently several times, so Icarosaurus isn't even that much of a weirdo. Coelurosauravus came before them, and Icarosaurus was a member of a whole group of these little gliding reptiles that lived during the Triassic. And now, in modern times, we have the entire Draco genus of gliding lizards. So it seems this is a pretty...

Extinct Creatures-- Sharovipteryx

Continuing with the Triassic Weirdos, here's Sharovipteryx, a creature closely related to archosaurs (it's in the group archosauromorpha, all creatures more closely related to archosaurs than to lizards and snakes). It was a glider, and as you can see, it sure was a weirdo.

We only have one fossil specimen of Sharovipteryx, and during preparation, the arms and any membranes that may have been attached to them were mistakenly cleared away. So we don't really know what they could have looked lik...

Extinct Creatures-- Shringasaurus indicus

A paper was published a few days ago describing this dude, and included a skeletal reconstruction that made it look.... pretty unreal, so I decided I had to draw it! I recommend doing a google image search for this guy, one of the top results is the skeletal reconstruction. When I saw it I laughed, it looked fake. But that's kind of a trend in Triassic animals, a lot of them are just... weird, to the point that they look like Fake Animals. So for the next week I'll be posting a Triassic weirdo a...

Sketchbook Chunks 4

Sketch Chunks!!

Also look out next week, $5 patrons, I'll be posting some process art from Dinosaur Empire~

Thank you so much for your support!

Your Gross Girlfriend

Look I know plenty of other people who have understanding partners about these things, it's NOT WEIRD

If It Screams Like A Peacock...

Who knows what mysteries lurk in the woods around my mom's house. Some turtles probably. And peacocks now I guess.

Skyping now!

Hey, just sending out a reminder that we're on for Jackbox right now! It's not too late to join, we'll probably be going until at least 10:30 if not later. Hope to see you there!

Let's Play Some Games (again)~

Hey, folks! Sorry it's been a little while, from here on out I'm gonna nail down a more rigid schedule, I swear. Check it out, I even included a calendar this time! I'm a professional now.

So our next hang-out will be on Wednesday the 16th at 8pm Eastern, and since I neglected to schedule one last month, how does everyone feel about a make-up "sesh" on the 30th? As a reminder, my username on Skype is abby.howard.art, and you should send a contact request if you haven't already!

And from ...

Cats Look Like Little People

If you stare at a cat for too long their features become indistinguishable from a human's and that's just the way it is. I look at Spoons and cannot name something that makes her different from a human.

Hiking >:c

The actual act of walking through the woods is a wonderful experience and one I always enjoy, but when other humans are involved I get all anxious because I don't wanna exercise in front of people, especially fit people who hike regularly. I worry it'll just confirm whatever suspicion they may have that I'm unhealthy and gross and have been lying about going to the gym (because of course, if I actually did anything strenuous at the gym, I'd be skinny by now, according to the internet). It's the ...

The End Of Class and Birthed Day

My class ended in the spring, and some of the students gave presentations of animals they had made up to fit certain niches. I think they had fun?? And some of them really got it, while others kind of got it, and still others at least had a good time.

My birthday is next week and I am totally chill about it I probably won't even do anything lol haha. I don't need to be drowned in affection or anything, I'm totally cool with whatever. I'll probably just work all day am I rite??

Sometimes ...

Extinct Creatures-- The Land Before Time

I drew the cast of The Land Before Time, slightly more accurate! The original designs aren't half bad, because most of the creatures they picked are pretty tough to mess up, but here are the main edits:

Ducky-- at her size, she wouldn't have grown a crest yet, and Parasaurolophus wasn't bipedal, so she'd be on all fours most of the time.

Petri-- wouldn't have had a crest yet and would have been covered in hairlike pycnofibres. 

Spike-- for the longest time I had no idea what S...

3-page Preview of Tim'rous Beastie Story

The first three pages of the story I illustrated, written by my pal Eli Church, for the Tim'rous Beastie anthology!

This story was really self-indulgent for both Eli and me. I'm obsessed with Watership Down so I love drawing rabbits, and I got to draw some very good spooks as well. I'm excited for people to see the whole thing!

Sketchbook Chunks 3

Another chunk of sketches for you! This was still in the thick of Dinosaur Empire, as you can see. I started quite a few paleo posts in this time, but was pretty unsatisfied with the way the sketches looked, so here they are.

Thank you all for your continued support! Next week I have a few pages of finished art to share with you, I'm so excited to show it off.

-Abby

Various journal comics~

Hey, folks! Sorry for the wait on these, decided to post em all at once to catch up for the weeks I missed. I'll have two more for you next week!

The day I brought Wednesday in to see the kids was so great! It was the class on reptiles, so I was worried the kids would tune it out because we weren't talking about anything fluffy, but they were so into it. I'm sure the fact that they knew they'd be able to touch a snake at the end of class was a factor in their good behavior...

And I'd bee...

Extinct Creatures-- Regaliceratops

Regaliceratops was a ceratopsian that lived in the late Cretaceous of Canada, and I think it was quite pretty! Ceratopsians are all so cool and chunky, I love em.

I'm down visiting my mom for her birthday, so the post is short this week! I have a lot of Party Prep and dog petting to do.

Thank you all for your support, it means the world to me!

A Chair For Me At Last

On my way back from Wisconsin, my flight was delayed by like three hours, which gave me so much time to catch up on Patreon stuff. Like this journal comic about that very subject, which was drawn in a chair at the gate that I had just stolen from someone foolish enough to leave it unattended for more than five seconds.

Sketchbook Chunks 2

This month's sketches are from the time I was working on Dinosaur Empire pencils, so there are a lot of extinct creatures! This was also around the time I started doing the paleo posts, but none of these made the cut because they were just a little too sketchy.

(And in case you haven't seen it, you can pre-order Dinosaur Empire right now! It's coming out August 1st.)

Extinct creatures: Lycaenops

Speaking of "mammal-like reptiles", here's an example of one of my absolute favorites-- Lycaenops, which is a kind of Gorgonopsid. Gorgonopsids were medium to large predators that lived near the end of the Permian, which is the time right before the age of the dinosaurs. They're usually reconstructed with no fur because we aren't really sure how far back fur evolved, though we know other mammal-like reptiles in this time had fur, so like... who knows!! Maybe they just had a very fine coat of hai...

Reminder--JackBox tonight!

Sorry for all the emails y'all have been getting from me lately, scheduling just takes a bit of doing.

We're gonna try to play some JackBox games tonight around 9pm EST, though that is quite flexible. You should request to add me on Skype so we can screenshare and talk to each other-- my Skype handle is abby.howard.art!

Let me know if you have any issues getting set up. Hope to play with you soon!

-Abby

They've accepted me as one of their own

I was offered the Official Handshake of the Youth and I completed it successfully. Talking about animals and letting the kids pet your snake is the secret to gaining their trust.

(PS: in case you were wondering what's been keeping me from TLH and JSPH, I've had a couple very big projects to finish this month that have been taking up all my time, but I'll be done after July 1st. Also, I'll be in Charlotte at Heroes Con this weekend, come see me!!) 

Thank you for your support,

-...

Let's Play (Jackbox) Games!

Hey, my good pals of the $10 tier (and some of the $20 tier)! So I was on deadline last week, then had to deal with my Collapsing Ceiling™on top of finding a new roommate, so it's been tricky to find time for our first game night. But I am finally ready to schedule!

I'll be free for the next three days, then I'll be free after the 25th. I'll be in North Carolina at Heroes Con/my mom's 60th birthday party, so I won't be able to host from the 16th on, but I'd love to get our first session in b...

Extinct Creatures: Suminia

This week's extinct creature is a relative of ours! In the time before the dinosaurs, the world was ruled by "mammal-like reptiles", which are the creatures that existed between our more reptilian-ish ancestors and mammals proper. Using words like "reptile" is tough here, though, because it's not as though we evolved from lizards. Lizards are highly evolved in their own ways, and belong to an entirely separate group of tetrapods. I'll probably talk more about the different groups of tetrapods in...

A pustule of rotting wood

Kept putting off doing something about the leaking swell of slowly rotting wood above my studio because I am busy dealing with the "now" problems and plus, what's a leak every now and then, how bad could it get, but it has finally begun its too-rapid collapse and honestly, it feels a little on the nose, universe.

Also how convenient that this happens just as I have to find a new roommate and only have three weeks to do so! And in a month when ~no one is looking~

Fortunately, I can just c...

A (secret) print for a pal's Kickstarter!

I was asked by Kel McDonald to make a stretch goal print for her anthology of cute werewolf stories , and y'all get to see it early! This was a fun one to work on. 

The book is called "Can I Pet Your Werewolf", and it's being Kickstarted right now. You should tell your...

New reward tiers!

Heya, folks! Some of you may have noticed that a couple things have been changed in the past month or so, and I've just finished polishing up all the changes, so here's a post about all this!!

The $1 tier is now an actual thing-- I've been posting little journal comics for everyone pledging $1+, and it's been really fun!

The $2 tier is basically as it was before, though now I am updating much more consistently. Also, you can suggest ancient creatures you'd like me to draw, rather than me...

Extinct Creatures: Opabinia

Changing it up a little from our usual vertebrates and doing a creature from long long ago in the Cambrian-- Opabinia!

Opabinia is an ocean-dwelling creature we think might be related to arthropods (like crabs and insects). They are very unusual creatures, as they have five eyes and a proboscis with a little claw on the end that was used for grabbing food off the sea floor. They look like they were made up for a sci-fi movie and they are beautiful.

In the background you can see a sponge ...

Journal Comic-- "Nice"

I loved this kid!! Caught her drawing dragons and dragon boyfriends and reading dark YA books instead of doing classwork and every time I was just like "kid, you do you." The look of horror on her face when I caught her drawing an anime dragon warrior was so familiar... like looking into the past......

Extinct creatures-- Kulindadromeus

Last time I mentioned this guy, and I figured it was about time it got a post!

Kulindadromeus was a small herbivorous Ornithischian ("bird-hipped" dinosaur-- the sister group to Saurischia, the group containing theropods and sauropods, which might not be a group anymore because of exciting paleontology news) from the late Jurassic of Russia.

...

Spring Cleaning

It is the spring which means it is the time for cleaning. And also the time of shedding all that winter fur, which then coats my floor and makes it so anyone with cat allergies dies when they enter my home.