Interlude with Alligator

I don't mean to interrupt the Elfworld proceedings for long, but I had a distracted couple of minutes with some colored pens earlier today and paid a surprise visit to an old friend.

It might be more accurate to say that the friend paid me a visit, because I didn't expect to draw this alligator at all. I was reaching for a purple pen when my hand came up with a green one instead, and my mind was too tired to look for another. (And probably too tired to have figured out a suitable drawing in purple, anyway!)


My last real decision before starting to draw was to resolve to sketch an alligator, and at that point muscle memory took over. I've drawn this 'gator in some form or another for (mirabile dictu) twenty-five years, though I really can't remember when I last drew him. Yes, he's highly derivative of Albert Alligator, but not as much as he used to be.

You may note the ghostly images of Hebrew letters bleeding through the other side of the paper he's drawn on. They're just calligraphic studies, and have nothing to do with the alligator. And even less with quasi-kabbalistic reptile worship (ahem).