An Apple. It's Really Flawed, But I'm Proud Of It, Since It's The Best One I've Done So Far. Maybe Next

A piece I’m working on. I’m bad at colouring, so I wanted to share it before I possibly ruined it. Nonetheless, I’ll follow up later with the coloured version.

Winter milky way.

Aichi, Japan.

The right edge was a bit wonky on the previous version, so I decided to post a slightly updated version. I made the skull linger a bit more as well. I think it’s definitely an improvement on the previous version.

Irrelevant personal tangent under the cut

I’ve honestly been really happy so far with my forays into digital art and animation. I haven’t had much time to practise properly, so I’m not improving as fast as I would have liked, but nonetheless, it’s been fun.

I’m sort of in a bottle phase right now, so my next piece is probably going to be a ship in a bottle.

A watercolour piece of a kitchen. Reference from Pinterest. I honestly prefer the uncoloured version and other steps in the progress to the actual finished product, but I’m still learning, so that’s fine, I guess.

An apple I did in my notes app. I guess this counts as my first piece of digital art.

I have one last apple thing I’m working on, but then I’ll probably stop doing so many apples.

Some miscellaneous things I’ve done in the past two days. All from photo reference, but trying out different styles.

Some stuff I drew for a friend. It’s the characters Ashe and Bob from Overwatch. I haven’t played the game yet, but it was still cool to work on. I really enjoyed drawing the hat on Ashe and all the mechanical stuff for Bob. The colouring got sort of rushed at the end for Bob (see his right arm especially) and I sort of messed up the right shoulder, but I like these.

One Mountain, Two Tigers: A New Species of Gloydius (Serpentes: Viperidae) from the Upper Lancang Valley in Xizang, China, with Comments on the Diagnostic Characters and Evolution of the G. strauchi (Bedriaga, 1912) Species Complex

Jinlong REN, Junjie HUANG, Wei WU, Ke JIANG, Jiatang LI

Abstract

The Hengduan Mountains Region (HMR) in China, a globally significant biodiversity hotspot, has garnered attention for its potential to harbor cryptic species within the Asian pit viper genus Gloydius Hoge & Romano-Hoge, 1981. Based on comprehensive morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Gloydius strauchi complex, this study identified a previously unrecognized species of Asian pit viper. Discovered in the upper Lancang (Mekong) hot dry valley of Xizang, China, this species is geographically proximate to G. huangi but exhibits clear morphological distinctions from other members of the genus, representing the second Gloydius species identified along the upper Lancang River. We describe here this new species and highlight the significance of skull and hemipenis morphology, which were instrumental in its diagnosis and in resolving taxonomic boundaries and ambiguities within the G. strauchi complex. This study provides insights into the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of this newly described species, enhancing our understanding of diversification patterns in this genus.

Read the paper here:

One Mountain, Two Tigers: A New Species of <italic>Gloydius</italic> (Serpentes: Viperidae) from the Upper Lancang Valley in Xizang, China, with Comments on the Diagnostic Characters and Evolution of the <italic>G</italic>. <italic>strauchi</italic> (Bedriaga, 1912) Species Complex

Started as a pose study from Pinterest, but I think I want to turn it into something more. This is just the sketch before I do the watercolours over it, but I probably won’t get to colouring for a bit, since I’m fairly busy this week.

Did a portrait from a Pinterest reference today. I’ve been trying to get the hang of digital drawing, and I think it’s been working. Of course, I still have a lot to learn(for example, the eyes are a bit wonky) but I’m fairly pleased.