Jef Jaxon

Jeff's Stuff and Works Copywrited by Jeff Jackson

[jef-jaxon]

Preliminary sketches for a larger painting. A parasaurolophus and her baby forage in the forest.

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW A NAGATITAN! A newly discovered Sauropod from Thailand that is super cool, right?

Are you ready? Draw- wait. I was talking with your friend and mine, @wanderingnork, who typed, “You know, these drawing lessons of yours are ok but not very helpful, maybe you could show some preliminary steps to help us get started? Seems like you’re leaving out a step or two in your step by steps” and to that I say, “Of course!” So here you are, study:

Study! Here’s another:

Study moar! And another…

Need one more?

Don’t study that one, it’s an old one…from… before…

Once you get that stuff out of the way, you’re ready to draw your NAGATITAN!

Step 1: Find a backyard birthday party with one of those ballon artists. I did and climbed over a fence and pushed some cake-eating kid out of the way. I then asked the balloon artist, “NAGATITAN?” And I did one of those ‘snap, snap, pop finger things, and they said (no lie) NAGATITAN! They snap-snap-popped back. After a bunch of balloon squeaking noises…BAM! NAGATITAN!

I had to draw it real fast because the police sirens were getting closer, but I handed the actual ballon to the birthday kid, winning!

There you have it, NAGATITAN!! Woo! Yours is looking great! Hope all that preliminary junk helped! Next time, STEGOSAURUS!

[jef-jaxon]

Doolysaurus Huhmini, a recently discovered and super cute mid-Cretaceous dinosaur from South Korea…even its name is cute.

[jef-jaxon]

A family of Bewick’s wren made a nest in our backyard. We call mom Lettuce and dad Tomato. I was out there drawing yesterday, and they raised a ruckus but got used to me and went back to look after their chicks. Our little dinosaurs.

[jef-jaxon]

I’m at In-N-Out waiting for a friend. ‘Drawing dinosaurs as usual, headphones on. Two construction workers walk by and one says, “bro that’s good.” Headphones come off, “thanks.” “No really bro, that’s really good .” He taps my sketchbook. This is, now, IN-N-Outosaurus, liked by that one construction worker in Mountain View.

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW A STEGOSAURUS!!

Howdy friends, time for another super helpful drawing lesson! As promised (multiple times), the one with more plate than a waiter on Mother’s Day brunch.

First, draw a cone. Cones are hard to draw? Let’s all go to your favorite ice cream shop separately and get a single (or double,triple etc) scoop/dip, but save the cone-I’ll wait.

…

Mmm ice cream! Now draw your cone.

When you’re done drawing, eat the cone.

Next, go out and get one of those multicolor pencils they sell at every museum gift shop in the world.

Attach your stegosaurus tail to the cone (it’s a thagomizer)….aaaand BOOM! You’ve got your Pride month stegosaurus! This is just for my mutual @starmars-jacam and everyone in the LGBTG+ community so you can click the pride heart this month.

Look at that face!

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW LYTHRONAX!

Welcome back art fans to yet another drawing lesson and this time we focus on a relative of the Tyrannosaurus, LYTHRONAX! Ready to boast about your dinosaur drawing skills? Strap in and away we go.

First, open your sketchbook to a new or mostly doodle free page.

Then prep your page with a marker so that, if you hold your page at the right angle and squint, it sort of looks like wood grain. Realistically, you can skip this step but sometimes it gives an interesting result.

Whoo! Looking good, you are amazing! Now the next step is kinda hard but if you get it, your drawing will look authentic. All you have to do is go back to the late Cretaceous and look for a family reunion of Tyrannosauridae, careful they only get together on Thanksgiving, and bring back a Lythronax. …And BOOM! LYTHRONAX!

So awesome! Great work, you are a real artist. This is a first for me, I’ve never posted a blank page before. Welp thanks for being here folks. Next up, STEGOSAURS.

[jef-jaxon]

Alligator and swimming hippo.

[jef-jaxon]

Went to the zoo today to draw with cool folks. Here’s some results.

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW A DRAGON!

Welcome back drawers! Are you ready for another exciting (and helpful) drawing lesson? This one’s a good one because everybody loves dragons (even donkeys!) Are you ready? Here we go. Start with a gesture of your dragon, I mean you need a circle first and then a gesture but you get it now right?

Whoo, you make this look easy. Now, we need something to add that looks like a dragon…what would that be? That’s right, add a Ceratosaurus! They are super dragon-y. Just plop one of those in there….

…and BAM, you’ve almost got a dragon. Whoo Whoo. Yours is probably still better than mine but stay with me. Now, you’re almost finished, all you have to do is go down to that Halloween store that used to be an auto parts place last week, pick out a dragon costume and you’re done!

BOOM! Dragon baby! Heck yeah, nice work! Dragons sure are fun to draw, amiright? You can draw fire and effects now on your own.

Tune in next time when we draw a STEGOSAURUS!

[jef-jaxon]

Retooled the Utahceratops, it’s better now. Thanks for your patience.

[jef-jaxon]

Little Blue Penguins from Birch Aquarium, UCSD.

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW AN ALLOSAURUS!

Welcome back for another drawing lesson. Start with a circle, or a roundish shape that definitely isn’t a square.

BTW this time I’m responding to my one Tumblr responder (looking at you @toonydoodles ) who responded: “These drawing lessons aren’t very helpful, shouldn’t you put more steps in your step by step lessons? And stop being so sarcastic, maybe?” And so I’m responding to that response by responding; Step 2: Add a line of action-it’s the main gesture. It tells the story of your drawing.

Which leads us to Step 3:

A completed ALLOSAURUS! congrat-okay okay! …More steps. (Sigh)

Then put in the main construction. Those are shapes with volume when put together, give a sense of mass to your drawing.

Specifically, these construction shapes make drawing your dinosaur easier. For instance, if you want to draw the feet, use a wedge shape that breaks off into little boxes to make the toes.

AND NOW YOU’VE GOT YOURSELF AN ALLOSAURUS!

Okay, not yet. What about arms and hands?

Same process, use simple shapes that hang off your gesture line. Use a cylinder (imagine a paper towel tube) for the arm, a wedge (like one of those things you slide under a door to keep it open) for the base of the wrist and little boxes again for the fingers. A tube for the tail too.

And BAM! You’ve got an ALLO- oh the head.

The head. Think of a sort of ice cream cone shape that’s been cut in half from the round top to the pointy part. You can also think of a mailbox or plane hanger. The bottom jaw is a slice of Chicago style pizza. I like food references. Soon you’ll have roughed in your drawing-keep it light.

AND THEN YOU’VE GOT YOUR ALLOSAURUS!

Woooo! Great job! Tune in next time for stegosaurus!

[jef-jaxon]

Some color scripts I found from long ago about an asteroid hitting the planet. Each is 3 inches wide and done in chalk pastel.

[jef-jaxon]

Had student ask about rat anatomy for a project they are working on. Here’s rat skeletal, muscular and a finished drawing. Anatomy is neat.

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Here’s a dragon, or better said, wyvern.

And on the topic of dragons, a sea dragon from a recent trip to the Birch Aquarium.

[jef-jaxon]

LET’S DRAW A MEDUSACERATOPS!

Welcome back dino-drawers! Ready for another quick drawing tip? Even if you’re not, grab a pencil or something and lessgo. To get started, draw yourself an oval. Which is a sort of poorly drawn circle or egg-it doesn’t matter really.

Woo! That was tough. Need a break? I’ll wait………….let’s move on to color! Grab some colors you like and-BAM!

MEDUSACERATOPS!

Yours is probably better than mine but we’ll all get there! Tune in next time for your friend and mine; ALLOSAURUS!