Alaska Authors: Artist Doug Lindstrand distills five decades of experience into a new guide on drawing Alaska wildlife

This is part of Alaska Authors, an occasional series about authors and other literary figures with ties to the 49th state.

“I always tell young artists that the first 50 years are the toughest,” Doug Lindstrand said, looking back on his long career of drawing Alaska’s wildlife. “If you survive those 50 years, then you’re probably going to be an artist. Don’t give up too soon.”

Lindstrand would know. For over five decades he’s pursued a successful career as a wildlife artist and photographer, spending winters in his studio working on his art, and summers traveling the state with his sketchbook and photography gear, watching and recording Alaska’s wildlife. He’s also a prolific author who recently published his 11th book, “Drawing Alaska’s Wildlife,” a guide for aspiring and established artists alike.

Lindstrand said the new book isn’t a how-to-draw manual. It’s an effort at showing artists what to look for in animals so that they can achieve the sort of accuracy he himself seeks. “I didn’t do a lot of step-by-step stuff,” he said. “Instead, I’m trying to help people or artists to better understand different poses, seasons and ages of these animals for their own reference.”

This is Lindstrand’s method when making his drawings. Although he does do field sketching during warmer months, he primarily works from his own wildlife photographs obtained throughout the year, mainly during the time when the birds or mammals are in their prime coats or feathers. “It’s very seldom you get a photograph with the pose and everything just right. But with a series of photos one can usually get the reference needed to do a good accurate drawing,” he said.

Lindstrand has been drawing for as long as he can remember. Raised in Winthrop, Minnesota, a small town surrounded by farms and undeveloped country, he had ample time outdoors to observe the area’s wild creatures, later doodling them in school classrooms. “I remember drawing and the teachers kind of marveling that I had the interest and obviously some talent. So I just kept drawing.”

Art was just a hobby at first, but remained a persistent interest. After high school, he attended college for a year, then joined the Army as a paratrooper, spending a year in Vietnam with the 4th Infantry. Then he finished college, studying biology and fine arts. Following graduation he worked in advertising and graphic arts before moving to Alaska in 1970, hoping to find work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

“I was going to try and work with them. But, when I got up here, all I wanted was to explore Alaska and do my thing. I wasn’t making a lot of money at first, but my expenses were low. Plus I had a little money saved up, so I just wanted to be free to travel around for a few years.”

When autumn came that first year, he found a remote cabin for wintering over. During the next six years he pursued a schedule of finding a remote cabin for the winter, then flying back into civilization with a plane full of paintings and drawings to try to sell during warmer months. “Most of these winter cabins,” he recalled, “I only had a pilot come in once a month with supplies. I spent those winters alone with only my great dog Chinook for company. He’d pull the sled around as we hauled wood, hunted, gathered water, and ran my little trap line to earn enough money to pay for the plane trips. They were definitely some good and exciting years.”

When Lindstrand emerged from the Bush that first spring, he quickly found a market for his art among locals, tourists and art collectors. His work soon began appearing in gift shops and galleries. “I actually managed to save a little money,” he said. “And then with that I expanded and got into art prints, calendars and cards. These are the things you need to do to support yourself as an artist.”

After his Bush years drew to a close, Lindstrand bought a lakeside cabin in the Matanuska-Susitna region, where he lived before moving to Anchorage in 1990. “I like Anchorage because there’s a lot of wildlife around here, it’s easy to get to, and living here certainly makes running a small business a lot easier,” he said. “It’s a great place to live.”

In 1978 he published his first book, “Doug Lindstrand’s Alaskan Sketchbook.” Though presently out of print, there have been 13 editions. Over the years he’s produced other books dealing mostly with Alaska and with drawing animals, including “The Artist’s Guide to Drawing Realistic Animals,” “Wild Alaska,” “Mountain Royalty” and “Drawing Mammals.”

For “Drawing Alaska’s Wildlife,” produced in cooperation with Anchorage-based Publication Consultants, Lindstrand brought together his photographs, drawings and journal entries, then added text from Fish and Game publications. Having the agency’s permission to use them meant he could offer readers the latest and most accurate wildlife information possible.

Still living in Anchorage, Lindstrand now drives or flies to places he wants to observe wildlife in, adding that it’s much easier than when he was living in the Bush, a tent or a car. “All the places that tourists and everybody that lives up here want to go to for wildlife, that’s where I go also,” he said. “Of course I’m usually going when those particular animals are in their prime. Those are the birds and mammals that I’m trying to capture for others to look at and learn from.”

Denali National Park is a favored spot for photography and wildlife viewing, but it’s the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, where he spends time photographing and volunteering, that has become like a second home for Lindstrand. “I’ve been volunteering there for over 20 years,” he said. He values the education that the center offers everyone passing through, as well as “the fact that they work with injured and orphaned animals, because that’s one of my passions too — to work with and help animals.”

Reflecting on his nearly 55 years in Alaska, Lindstrand said, “a lot of people dream about going out into the wilds and running a trap line, chopping and hauling wood, cutting a hole in the lake ice to catch a fish for breakfast, and those are all things I did.” He said he enjoyed the opportunity to hike in remote wilderness and reap Alaska’s bounty in places where he would seldom see another person. “Nowadays I don’t hunt anymore. I just like to photograph and sketch. If I can get a photo that catches the sparkle in a caribou’s eye, well, that is certainly as rewarding as shooting it.”

Lindstrand said he first saw Alaska from a plane en route to Vietnam, and recalled a journal entry from that day. “I vividly remember looking out the window of a military plane and seeing a small cabin on the edge of a remote lake with a thin, straight column of chimney smoke rising above it. And I remember thinking of it as I spent a year in the boonies of Vietnam, and later while finishing college in Minnesota. It is one of my favorite memories in life and I am happy to say that it is now the life I live. I am now that person building that fire in a lakeside wilderness cabin. I feel blessed every day.”