Andy & Sandy

This pair of Palmate Geckos are from the deserts of Namibia and have the strangest coloring. Their skin is somewhat translucent and one of them is shown wiping grains of sand from its eye with its transparent tongue.

To paint the sand I masked off the geckos and airbrushed the background with layers of yellow and brown. While I wanted to show the detail of the sand grains I wasn't about to paint each one by hand. So one method was to lower the pressure of the airbrush tank until it caused the paint to spit from the airbrush. It worked but the drops were still too small, so I grabbed a toothbrush, dipped the edge in paint and began flicking the bristles using my thumb.
This image was published in The Desert Alphabet Book and also shows a desert snake hidden in the sand that usually hunts these geckos. The original painting is available on my website and there are limited edition prints available by contacting me.