hybrid animals

Yesterday I got the coolest art assignment ever. It sounds like a ton of fun, and I'm sure that a better artist than me would start spewing out some awesome drawings. Trust me, I'm not a good artist at all. I can sort of paint and I can sort of draw - but usually, my stuff ends up looking like a bunch of scribbles and gloopies on paper. *sigh* ANYWAY, I've decided that I'm going to at least TRY to have some fun with this assignment. Hopefully the finished product won't look too shabby :)

OKAY. Here, I'll type out the assignment first. 

ISA Term 1 - Independent Sketchbook Assignments

Each independent sketchbook assignment consists of the following two prts: 

a) 8 THUMBNAIL SKETCHES to develop many variations to express your ides. They don't have to be perfectly rendered - just try to keep the creative ideas flowing. 
b) ONE FINAL VERSION that is fully developed for your full page drawing treatment. This final drawing should have as much detail as possible to convey your ideas with clarity. Experiment with a variety of media. 

SKETCHBOOK OPTIONS: Select 2 creative challenges from the list below for your sketchbook assignments this term.

I'm not going to list all of the options, so I'll just tell you what I chose. For the first one, I chose "Combine a plant and an animal to create a new hybrid life form" and "Create a structure/building that is suited to the particular landscape it is part of". 

Sounds fun, no? I also got permission from my teacher to combine animals with in-animate objects. The first one is due in a few weeks, so I got started on that already. No, I'm not going to be posting any of my sketches cause they're just awful. I'll just post the notes that we're expected to write along with each of our creations.

#1 - Leaf + Butterfly. It has leaves for wings - not the most creative of ideas, but I put it down just 'cause I thought the idea was cool. These hybrid butterflies can only hatch from their cocoons in the spring. Their wings change with the season and they only have a life span of one year - come winter, their wings will wither away and the butterfly dies. 

#2 - Branches + Cat. This idea is a bit underdeveloped. You know how people like to draw skeletons of animals and creatures? I was hoping for the design of this particular hybrid cat to be sort of the same thing, substituting bones for branches. And the branches are only going to make up the tail/legs. The cat will have dappled brown fur. These cats have very delicate limbs and usually stay in the canopies of larger trees in forests. 

I'll post some more stuff later - gotta go eat something before I pass out from hunger.