Illustrations of various types of newts and salamanders. All illustrations are hand drawn and expertly rendered. Most illustrations are available in both line art and full color. In the gallery is the California Newt, Fire Salamanders, Marbled Salamanders, Tiger Salamander and several other species. High quality prints made on acid-free archival paper are available of all drawings in the gallery. If you do not see the salamander, toad or other amphibian you're looking for please contact the artist to make a suggestion. Custom illustrations of specific salamanders, newts or other amphibians can be ordered as well. For more information and pricing please call 1 (800) 913-7906 or send an email to the artist. All salamander and newt drawings shown are available in both B&W line art versions and color
The wildlife drawings are also available for stock art illustration.
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Artist's notes: Salamander and Newts have always held a great fascination for me. While I didn't encounter them too frequently growing up in Minnesota (even though there are a few species that do live there, despite the cold winters) I've been lucky to come across them in California frequently. In fact on one of my first hiking trips I came to a pond where the newts were breeding. I had no idea they were, or how they did their breeding. So I was pretty amazed to see a tangle of newts slowly rise to the surface of the water - at first I was at a complete loss as to what it even was! But scanning the pond, I saw little brown and orange newts coming up for air and retreating back into the muddy waters. It took me a little time to start adding salamanders and newts to the image library, but over the years I've managed to draw just under 10. I'll probably keep adding them, but if you'd like to make a suggestion, please feel free to email me with the species you'd like to see.
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Information about Salamanders:Salamander is the common name of some 500 extant species of amphibian. They are generally have slender bodies, stout noses and are long-tailed. They have moist skin, and therefore are usually not found very far from water, such as swamps, marshes, bogs, caves and in riparian areas. They are the only vertebrates that can regenerate lost limbs and other body parts. Salamanders range from very small - such as the minute salamanders which grown to lengths of only about an inch, up to the large Chinese Salamander that grows up to 6 feet long. Most salamanders, however, are about 4-8 inches long. Like frogs and some other amphibians, salamanders are generally in decline due to habitat loss, climate change and the deadly fungal disease chytridiomycosis. Information about Newts:Newts are members of the family Salamandridae, which are true salamanders. They have lizard shaped bodies, and are usually aquatic or semi-aquatic. They are native to wet habitats in North America, Asia and Europe. Newts are slender bodies. Like other salamanders, they are able to regenerate lost limbs, although this process isn't fully understood. Newts produce toxins in their bodies, meant to discourage predators. Like the poison dart frogs of Central and South America, some native North American used the toxins of the newt as an offensive weapon. Like other amphibians, newts begin their lives in the water as eggs, then hatching out to become larvae, then when they have reached adulthood, newts leave the water and dwell on the land, returning to the water only to breed. Both newts and salamanders are carnivorous. They are mostly nocturnal, and will emerge from their damp hiding spaces ad night to hunt insects and other small invertebrates such as worms, snails, and slugs. |
