 A meticulous illustration of a spiny lobster by artist Dugald Stermer that appeared in the L.A. Times. (Dugald Stermer / For the L.A. Times) |
But as a onetime member of the Los Angeles Times' Outdoors section, I will always cherish the stunning and detailed color illustrations of animals and flowers that he created starting in 2003 for the section, a former part of the newspaper. Each illustration ran weekly and was accompanied by a field guide entry written by naturalist David Lukas.
Times staff writer Valerie J. Nelson explains his style of wildlife drawing in this obituary: "In the 1970s, he made his first wildlife drawings when he failed to find illustrations of seabirds to run in Oceans magazine. His illustrations were exactingly rendered in pencil with a watercolor wash."
The illustrator's daughter Megan Dugald said his "new style" had "kind of hit a chord." It was "classic wildlife painting," she said, but with a bit of a contemporary twist.
His books include "Vanishing Creatures" (1980) and "Vanishing Flora" (1995).
Here's a photo gallery of some of the creatures and flora that came to life under Stermer's careful hand -- and places to visit to see them in real life.
