David's Sketchbook - The Carroll Studio Gallery

Wildlife Studies
by David M. Carroll

Turtle Nest Hatching Sequence

A series of three watercolors, near-complete works in progress for my as-yet unpublished children’s book, TURTLE’S JOURNEY, accompanied by text from my manuscript and comments on the subject of each painting: The turtle leaving her completed nest, with a cutaway showing her just deposited eggs in the nest chamber; a cutaway within a cutaway of the nest showing the hatchlings developing inside their eggshells; and finally, the hatchling turtles pipping from their eggshells and beginning to dig their way out of the ground.

Hatchling Turtle’s Nest-to-Water Journey

Four more watercolors from the book, with text from the story and commentary on the associated turtle ecology. The hatchling is shown emerging from the nest one hundred days from her mother’s nesting, followed by three paintings showing some of the events along her way in making the long and perilous migration in quest of the wetland she must find in order to hibernate through her first winter. Taken together, the seven watercolors, in complete and near-complete states, are illustrative of my watercolor techniques.

Turtle Study Sketches

The three images in this series feature studies of Blanding’s, spotted, and musk turtles. These pencil and watercolor pieces are unpublished works from my “Swamp Sketchbook”, in which I did many studies of turtles and other animals of swamps and marshes, as well as many species of wetland plants. Some are sketches and small details, such as a turtle’s head or foot, section of a carapace, and such; others are fully rendered drawings and paintings. All were done from life, and nearly all of them were preparatory for finished art used to illustrate my five published books.

Pen and Ink Drawings

Pen and Ink Drawings – These fully rendered, minutely detailed drawings of a hatchling painted turtle and a bullfrog are examples of the many such works I produced for my books – 95 in YEAR OF THE TURTLE alone. I add commentary on my manner of working with this demanding genre.