About the Green Iguana Drawing
I have known Green Iguanas since childhood, when I kept them as pets, but I later came to know them in a very different way through fieldwork in the tropics. I have observed and captured many of these large lizards in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama.
I have also encountered Green Iguanas in Florida, where they have become established as an invasive species. Their appetite for leaves, flowers, and fruit makes them particularly noticeable, and often unwelcome, in gardens and landscaped areas.
What attracted me to this portrait was not the animal’s color, but its extraordinary surface. The enlarged cheek scale, overlapping facial scales, granular skin, dewlap, and dorsal spines create a complex landscape of shapes and textures that is especially well suited to graphite. The title Scales reflects my decision to make those intricate details the central subject of the drawing rather than simply portraying the lizard as a whole.
Scales is an 8 × 10-inch graphite wildlife drawing of a Green Iguana (Iguana iguana) by Michael E. Dorcas for Tantilla Art. Reference photograph by W. W. Lamar.