For my sister’s birthday, I made her an origami Vaquita. I used the instructions for a dolphin and made a few tweaks to make it a porpoise. Then I colored it to finish the design. Here is the final product:
Category Archives: Artwork
I’ll be back
Here is what the t-shirt looks like (they simplified my drawings’ colors and details for easier printing):
I have been and will continue to be extremely busy for the next few months, due to the publishing of my book, the creation of the VCS, and helping coordinate National Save the Vaquita Day (July 6). I may not be able to post as many things during this time. But believe me, I am going to have a lot of stories to tell when it’s all over.
Vaquita Conservation Society
I have been thinking about this for a very long time now. My idea is the Vaquita Conservation Society, or VCS. After all of the craziness of the book and National Save the Vaquita Day is over, I am going to start a new organization. The goal of the organization will be to educate the public about the Vaquita and hopefully serve as the first charity directly sending money to the switch-out program. I plan on working closely with the Muskwa Club and possibly the American Cetacean Society to create a new website with a similar look to these awesome pages: Manta Trust and Polar Bears International. Some of the pages will include: About the Vaquita, How to Help, Our Mission, Our Projects, and a News Page. It will closely follow all of the action of the Muskwa Club and everyone that will be associated with the VCS, and go hand in hand with V-log (which will continue as normal). More updates to come. I even have the logo created:
Endangered Species Day 2013
Friday, May 17 was Endangered Species Day 2013. As a donation to our beautiful world, please buy a Vaquita t-shirt at https://campaign.customink.com/savethevaquita.
To my delight, my campaign is currently featured in the “Trending Campaigns” section of Custom Ink’s home page, https://campaign.customink.com! Help keep it there by purchasing one for only around $25! They also make a great gift. 25% of profits will go to ¡Viva Vaquita!, and the rest will go towards the printing of my book. The book will be featured in at least two aquariums’ gift shops and will be at many tables for National Save the Vaquita Day! Look for further updates on all of these things in the future. If you have not already, follow my blog (look in the right sidebar) to receive all new posts by email, just so you don’t miss anything.
Baiji poster
I’ll admit, I got a little teary-eyed after looking at this picture. Please don’t let the Vaquita follow in the footsteps of its unfortunate cousin, the Baiji. You can help by purchasing a t-shirt here: https://campaign.customink.com/savethevaquita.
Custom Ink campaign
Using my own artwork, I have created a new Vaquita t-shirt with Custom Ink. Thanks to a comment by Karle from Custom Ink, I have discovered the Campaign feature. It is basically what I thought the Signup Sheet was originally. I have created a campaign, so now anyone in the world can purchase one and get it right to their door. The campaign ends on June 17, 2013 at 11:59 pm, and 100% of profits will go to the Vaquita. Please buy one and tell everyone you know to do the same, so I can reach my goal of 50 shirts sold! Post it on Facebook and Twitter, too! Here is the campaign: https://campaign.customink.com/savethevaquita. Thanks.
Memuco is awesome
Memuco is, to put it mildly, awesome. He agreed to illustrate the cover of my book a while ago, and yesterday he sent me the finished products. He didn’t just do one, he did four. All four are the greatest Vaquita paintings I have ever seen. It was so hard to pick one for the cover, but I finally chose a beautiful painting of a mother and calf. But I will definitely use all of them for various purposes in the future. I don’t want to post them yet due to copyright reasons, but take my word for it that they are unbelievable. The book should be published by the end of the summer.
Book illustration
I am going to give a sneak peek of the illustrations that are going to be in my book. The picture below is going to be for the “Taxonomy” chapter of the book. Also, William Whittenbury from the Muskwa Club has asked to use this picture for the introduction of one of their movies! I will post the movie series when it is completed. It promises to be awesome. Also, I will post some of the many drawings, posters, and projects my siblings and I have done in the past few years when I can.
My scientific sketch.
Tribute
I want to give a huge tribute to the amazing Mexican artist Memuco. His beautiful work has raised much awareness and money for the Vaquita over the last few years. His art is absolutely amazing. Please look him up or search him on this blog to see some of the things he has done. He has also been very kind to me, even volunteering to illustrate part of my chapter book!
I would also like to thank the awesome people at ¡Viva Vaquita!, Cetos, Save the Whales!, CEDO, the American Cetacean Society Monterey Bay Chapter, WWF, earthOCEAN, NOAA, and many more that I forgot the names of for working so hard to protect this amazing creature and for answering all of my questions.
I would finally like to thank Dr. Tom Jefferson for replying to every email I have sent him since I was ten. I remember when I used to send him about 5 emails a day. I have no idea how he stayed so patient with me. 🙂 He has always been my #1 resource on Vaquita info.
All of these people and organizations have played a huge part in inspiring me to do this blog and all of the other stuff that I’ve done over the last 3 years. I feel like I know all of these people so personally, yet I have never met any one of them. One day I hope to meet you awesome humans.
My paintings
Recently I began playing around with the very basic computer art program, Microsoft Paint. Last week I did this 20-minute doodle:
Yesterday I did a much better painting (though it literally took 17 times longer to do) of a Vaquita’s face:
My brother and I have done a lot of hand-drawn illustrations for my book lately, but I won’t show those just yet. My brother is working on an Orca painting on the same computer program, and I promised him I would post it when he finished, so look out for that soon.
V-log 