My illustration is of a crocodile. This story is about alligators. Alligators are often confused with crocodiles, they belong to two quite separate taxonomic families. However, I love the this story.
It goes like this: in the 1920’s and 1930’s families would return from holiday in Florida and bring back baby alligators to New York City, with the idea of keeping them as pets for their children. When the alligators grew too large for comfort, they’d be flushed down the toilet!
The alligators survived and lived within the sewers and reproduced, eating rats and rubbish, growing to huge sizes and striking fear into the hearts of New Yorkers, who were afraid of what lurked beneath!
This illustration is coming on nicely. As you van see, the head is nearly finished. I used a bit of wet-in-wet technique in areas here, blending the yellow ochre with the green.
Image © Daniel Mackie
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With the exception of artists, inventors, and teenagers - we humans are diurnal daytime creatures on the whole, and although it’s one thing to be out and about during the night in a street lit urban environment, it’s a very different scenario if you find yourself in, say… oh, I don’t know, a forest per se. Where, if you’re lucky, you may hear the unmistakable cry or hoot of an Owl: natures very own nocturne, a stark reminder of the unknown peril of night, and a creature that has featured heavily in myth and folklore throughout the ages.
Daniel Mackie
Author