Mike Hendley 🎨 ✍️ 🇨🇦

@mikehendley.com

Artist, naturalist, podcaster, art teacher. Graphite, watercolor, oil, acrylic, and digital. By day, I work in IT & health research. https://MikeHendley.com/links

Quick raven sketch, mid call. Worked the .3 and .5 graphite pencils to get that near black feather range without losing the shape. Ravens hold grudges for years apparently, feels right for a bird drawn looking this deliberate. Done at a coffee shop table in Ithaca. #birds

Graphite sketch of a raven mid call, beak open, feathers rendered in fine detailed strokes with dramatic tonal contrast. The bird stands on a branch, one leg lifted, set against a mostly blank cream page. A mechanical pencil, kneaded eraser, and coffee cup rest beside the sketchbook on a wooden table.

Watch out for turtles — it’s that time of year. Found this snapping turtle laying eggs at the roadside near the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and watched from my car. Drew her later with GraphGear 1000 pencils, Blu-Tack, and blenders. She knew that spot long before the road was there. #sciart

Graphite drawing of a snapping turtle viewed from the side in a small sketchbook, rendered with fine mechanical pencils. The turtle faces right with detailed scutes, textured skin, and a mossy shell. Grasses sketched loosely in the background. Cool grey tones on cream paper.

Found this American toad on a trail at Taughannock Falls, just sitting there watching us hike by. Drew it in graphite over a few coffee shop sessions. Somewhere in the middle it stopped feeling like a drawing and started feeling like sculpture. Knew it was done when it held still for me. #sciart

Detailed graphite drawing of an American toad resting among grass, twigs, and leaf litter. The toad faces right in profile, its warty skin and large dark eye rendered in fine detail. Soft pencil shading creates a blurred natural background. Drawn in a sketchbook, shown outdoors in sunlight.

Spent the week with this harvest mouse. All graphite, GraphGear 1000 in three weights, and the branch took longer than the mouse did. Retirement is coming up in August and I am finally letting drawings take the time they want to take and taking days off like today to do that. #sciart

Graphite drawing of a harvest mouse perched on a textured, lichen-covered branch, rendered in detailed black and gray pencil work. The mouse sits upright with its tail dangling, facing right, with small sprigs of foliage along the branch on a cream sketchbook page.

Lunchtime stop at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca. Two 15 minute ballpoint sketches. A black capped chickadee and a tufted titmouse. I left them on the inspiration wall. Tiny birds. Tiny drawings. Somehow it still feels like leaving a small conversation with nature behind. #sciart #bird

Hand holding a gray pen between two small square cards with ballpoint sketches of birds. Left card shows a fluffy tufted titmouse on a branch. Right card shows a black capped chickadee perched on twigs. A sign behind asks "Where do you find beauty in nature?" on an inspiration wall.

Started this tiny gray mouse lemur sketch over coffee in a café in Ithaca and finished it after work. A father and daughter nearby asked to see the sketchbook which was a nice surprise. Graphite with Pentel Graphgear pencils. Fun fact: gray mouse lemurs are the smallest primates on Earth. #sciart

Tiny graphite sketch of a gray mouse lemur peeking from behind textured tree bark in a small pocket sketchbook. The lemur's wide round eyes face forward while soft fur shading contrasts with the dark vertical bark.