Scorpio, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Pisces, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Leo April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Libra, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Sagittarius, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Capricorn, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Aquarius, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Virgo, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Cancer, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Taurus, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Aries, April 2019; I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Here's the final image:

Gemini, April 2019: I draw your horoscope

From my April 2019 horoscope project, where I illustrated a common thread in the online horoscopes for each sign.

Final image:

Inktober 2018, Day 24 "Chop"

Day 24 of Inktober, prompt word "Chop." I previously wrote about Inktober here. This is an edited version, but I'm posting these daily on my Instagram, @St.Rhinoceros:

Day 24 of Inktober 2018, prompt word "Chop." Dip pen and ink. by Ciana Pullen / St. Rhinocéros. [Image description: black and white drawing of the head and shoulders of a woman. She holds a knife with a sphere impaled on the end of it, which she examines with a disinterestedly skeptical expression. The sphere contains an image of a bird flying over treetops, as in a crystal ball or a parallel reality contained within the sphere. The sphere is the light source; the background is black and the figure is shaded in high contrast. Somewhat realistic style.]

Inktober 2018 Day 13 "Guarded"

Day 13 of Inktober, prompt word "Guarded." I previously wrote about Inktober here. This is an edited version, but I'm posting these daily on my Instagram, @St.Rhinoceros:

Day 13 of Inktober 2018, prompt word "Guarded," showing a minotaur in a labyrinth. By Ciana Pullen. [Image description: black and white ink drawing with light sepia brown washes in a realistic comic style. A bored naked woman with hairy legs and giant horns sits in a massive armchair reading a magazine and drinking tea. The chair has a shaggy fur hide draped over the seat, bull's hooves for legs, and the front of each arm is studded with a massive taxidermied animal paws (lion? demon?) clutching a human skull. The minotaur has her legs crossed and the magazine which she is thumbing through is balanced on her knee, her legs are crossed and she's absent-mindedly dangling a human skull from her toe by the eye socket like people do with sandals. Her other hand is lazily holding a big tea cup sitting on the arm of the chair. The scene is dramatically uplit from an unseen light source in the bottom right hand corner and a sliver of backlighting. In the upper left background a few corners of the maze are visible and a faraway second minotaur figure is walking, not toward the first minotaur.]

Inktober 2018 Day 12 "Whale"

Day 12 of Inktober, prompt word "Whale." I previously wrote about Inktober here. This is an edited version, but I'm posting these daily on my Instagram, @St.Rhinoceros:

Day 12 of Inktober 2018, prompt word "whale," after a painting by Mary Cassatt. This was my second attempt, at first I sketched out an interior scene of my own invention but it didn't have the right mood and looked too... invented. When I realized I wanted it to have the feel of Mary Cassat's painting, I decided to simply copy the painting and add my whale under the watery floor. I always thought the big blue sofas looked like they were floating in an ocean in the original. [Image description: black and white ink wash painting of a living room with several overstuffed skirted sofas and chairs in it at odd angles. In the chair closest to the viewer sits a little girl, bored and slumped back with her feet dangling. Instead of a floor, there is the surface of water with little ripples. The black shadow of a whale swims through the living room toward the viewer and underneath the chair the child sits on.]

Inktober 2018 Day 9 "Precious"

Day 9 of Inktober, prompt word "Precious." I previously wrote about Inktober here. This is an edited version, but I'm posting these daily on my Instagram, @St.Rhinoceros:

Day 9 of Inktober 2018, prompt word "Precious." by Ciana Pullen / St. Rhinocéros. I drew this out in black ink over a light yellow-orange mottled watercolor wash, then digitally reversed the colors so it was bright lines over a dark mottled blue/purple background. Then I made the bright lines a bit more yellowish than white to make it look less like an architectural blueprint. The eyes in circles I left un-reversed, but changed the colors slightly to blend with the rest of the image. [Image description: a mystical tarot card-like design drawn in pale yellow over a blueish black background. The linework is spare with little shading. In the center frame a large pomegranate sits on a dock that stretches symmetrically away from the viewer into a body of water. A section of the pomegranate is peeled with the flesh and seeds exposed. Directly above the end of the dock are two cupped hands with three circles lined up vertically superimposed above the hands. In each circle is an eye; the up looks up and to the left, the middle looks down and to the right, the bottom is closed. To the right of the hands superimposed above the waterline and sky is a glowing set of abstract symbols including wings, a moon and some dangling mobile-like circles and lines. Glow lines radiate out from the symbol a short distance. On the left of the hands a towering wave rises out of the water and curls up over the hands. The stylized wave design is reminiscent of the famous Japanese woodcut print by Hiroshige. In the outer rectangular frame are, the wave extends beyond the inner frame. A string of stars and stardust on the bottom left and upper right outer frame areas bookend the middle framed area.]

Inktober Day 4 "Spell"

Day 4 of Inktober, prompt word "Spell." I previously wrote about Inktober here. This is an edited version, but I'm posting these daily on my Instagram, @St.Rhinoceros:

Day 4 of Inktober 2018, prompt word "Spell," by Ciana Pullen / St. Rhinocéros. Dip pen and ink wash. I'm happy with the image, it's basically what I envisioned; but I realized at this point in the challenge that drawing in this style is the biggest time investment with the least amount of visual payoff for me. I always think cartooning will make me draw looser, but in fact it's the opposite. My style is loosest, simplest and most honest when I'm aiming at realism. Good to know, and just one reason I'm glad I participated in Inktober this year. [Image description: a cartoonish black and white drawing with ink wash in the style of The New Yorker cartoons (that was an accident). It's a view straight down the hallway of a bland modern hospital, from slightly above eye level. A bored nurse in scrubs walks along the ground pushing a cart. Meanwhile patients float near the ceiling. In the close foreground only a man's belly, feet, and one hand holding a cup of tea are visible. In the middle-ground a woman in a wheelchair floats with the top of her head pointed toward the viewer. Just behind her a man floats with his back to the viewer looking at the ground, like a pathetic version of a famous heavenly figure in the Sistine Chapel. They float just under fluorescent lights and are in shadow; they also cast shadows on the shiny floor that stretch toward the viewer. Extra shadows hint that there are more floating patients behind the wheelchair lady, out of view.]