#73 of 100 Elephants: The Sea Elephant

I have a creative burst and it is back to mix and matching animals. Although, I enjoy the repetition of the curl here.

#72 of 100 Elephants: Tetraprosopus Elephant

This is by far my favorite of all the 100 elephants that I have created. Although there are some great ones to come, I love what I did here. I feel I reached the something truly unique with the multiple faces and trunks. Each eye shares a face with another face. This one was the hardest for me to sell, but I know it went to someone that really appreciates it.

#71 of 100 Elephants: Deconstructive Elephant

This is the deconstructive elephant. I was looking at breaking it down into its basic parts.

#70 of 100 Elephants: Picasso

With #70 I really started to push the limits of my creativity. I moved out of my traditional style and started exploring other options. It was exciting and liberating in many ways that like cubist was the precursor for many art movements. Here, I realized you need to break your personal limitations, the ones you randomly set up, to get to a better place. We often put restraints on our creativity. I am sure there are many reasons for this, but at times to get past a block to push to the next level of thinking we need to lay aside our assumptions–our safety net. We need to step into the unknown and get uncomfortable.

This is also one of the first ones that sold.

#67– #69 of 100 Elephants: back to the robots

I thought it would be best to show all three of theses at once.

One of the things I love most about this exercise is the exploration of options. It forces you to look for different ways of drawing the same thing. You take a theme and push it in different directions. I had drawn an elephant robot earlier and thought I was done. As I continued the process of exploring, I realized there were different options. I particularly enjoyed the idea of the trunk being a vacuum and the different places that took me with the robot.

#66 of 100 Elephants: Three Heads

If a two headed elephant is good, a three headed elephant is even better.

#65 of 100 Elephants: Elephirus

I really do not know what this mix between a virus and an elephant it would do to someone, but it is not an illness I would want.

#64 of 100 Elephants: The Mantaphant

Continuing with aquatic elephants is the Mantaphant, a manta ray elephant. I loved how the ears transformed into the fins of the manta ray.

I also continually find it interesting how one idea naturally leads to another. I created the Whale elephant which inspired this creation.

#63 of 100 Elephants: the Whalephant

Elephant plus Whale equals Whalephant.

#62 of 100 Elephants: Styracophant

How many tusks can an elephant have has ben something I have been playing with to varying degrees with this creative challenge. This is taking various ideas from the Triceratops and Styracosaurus and mixing it with the elephant.

#61 of 100 Elephants: Cowboy

Back to the themed elephants. I was having fun exploring what the trunk would do.

#60 of 100 Elephants: Snail

#60 is back to the mixing up animals.

#59 of 100 Elephants: Pirate

The pirate is a continuation of the themed elephant. Both this one and the clown have been sold.

#58 of 100 Elephants: The Clown

With 58 I started getting stuck again. Based on feedback from students I started a theme of different genres.

#57 of 100 Elephants: More Proportion Adjustment

Here I am again making slight adjustments to proportions. I thickened the tusks and elongated the face.

#56 of 100 Elephants: The Big Brain

This is another play with the proportions and a variation of the head in a jar, without the jar. Basically this guy is all about thinking.

#54 of 100 Elephants: Flat

This is another one I was pleased with. What is the Elephant was 2-dimensional, ribbon like. It is just a fun idea.

#54 of 100 Elephants: Octophant

The octopus is just cool. Norman Rockwell is attributed as saying “If the illustration is not working put a dog in it. If it still isn't working put a bandage on the dogs paw.” I would maintain that if any art work is not working put an octopus in it and then you won't even need a bandage. This works for logos and graphic design as well.

#53 of 100 Elephants: The Penguiphant

With 53, I went back to mixing and matching the elephant with the penguin.

#52 of 100 Elephants: Playing with Proportions

Here I played with proportions more.

#51 of 100 Elephants: No Body

Here I thought, what if the elephant was all head and no body.