Sketchbook : Penguins & Sea Dragons

More drawings from the New England Aquarium: Rockhopper penguins, a weedy and a leafy sea dragon (in purple pencil), and a pygmy crocodile (who is actually a tagalong from a day at the zoo...). Penguins are generally a lot of fun to sketch - simple silhouettes, but between grooming, squabbling, darting around underwater, and hip-hopping around the rocks in their exhibit, they offer up a surprising amount of gestures, and as much expression as birds are capable of. And if you're ever at the NEAQ, you must, must, must check out the sea dragons - they are by far one of the most brilliantly beautiful and incredible fish you'll ever see. Sea dragons are native to the southern and western coasts of Australia and belong to the same family as sea horses - as evidenced by their long snout and gracefully arched necks. The Weedy sea dragon (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) is painted in a contrasty array of canary yellow, neon blue, glowing orange and deep purple, and has a sleek, undulating body that sprouts a handful of oar-shaped, "weed-like" projections from head to tail tip. By contrast, the yellowy-orange colored Leafy sea dragon (Phycodurus eques) is completely covered in ruffly protrusions and looks remarkably like a dense cluster of drifting kelp strands. Sea dragons lack the prehensile tails of their cousins, the sea horses, but like sea horses, male sea dragons are tasked with safeguarding their mate's eggs after fertilizing them; instead of using the sea horse's kangaroo style pouch to incubate the eggs, sea dragons have a spongy "brood patch" on their tails to which the eggs are attached and receive oxygen through for roughly nine weeks until they hatch.

I decided not to work color into my above sketch, but after a little photo research online I found this beautiful painting of weedy sea dragons by the incredible 18th century natural history artist, Ferdinand Bauer (image from the collection of the Natural History Museum, London). Bauer accompanied the famous Flinders' expedition of 1801-1803 - the first voyage to cicumnavigate Terra Australis, the island continent of Australia (then called New Holland). Working closely with on-board botanist Robert Brown, Bauer generated a remarkable 1500+ drawings of Australian flora and fauna (and hundreds more from specimens collected on surrounding islands), including marsupial mammals, colorful parrots and tropical fish. Studiously true to nature, Bauer has even drawn one of the fish in his painting with a thick row of eggs lining the underside of it's tail...