The Flying Trilobite

ScienceOnline2012 Photos

2012-01-30T16:15:00.000-05:00

This week I'll be continuing to write about ScienceOnline2012, both here and on Symbiartic.

You can see a few posts already:

New Art Movement? The Science-Artists Feed Keeps Growing

ScienceOnline2012 Art Show!

ScienceOnline2012 Sci-Art Show Winners

Later in the week I'll be posting about how the sessions went, the art & photo walk, and the impact I think having a bunch of artists in attendance had on a science and science communication unconference.

For now, some fun photos.

This year I decided to pack as light as possible for ScienceOnline2012, my fourth time attending. Instead of a regular camera, I brought my iPhone 4.

Here's a few photos from some of the new friends and familiar faces I met on the trip. I wasn't nearly thorough enough documenting the experience, and regret missing photos of a ton of people. Like Anton Zuiker for being amazing and helpful; Lisa Grossman for being roomies; Greg Laden for being great dinner company; Brian Malow and Kaitlyn Thaney for letting me prattle on at breakfast about the history of paint pigments; Brian Switek, Karen James, Andy Farke, Southern Fried Scientist and Bluegrass Bluecrab, Lyndell Bade, Kevin Zelnio, Miriam Goldstein, Doc Freeride, Blake Stacey, Scicurious and a whole bunch of others I'll regret forgetting to mention as soon as I hit publish, are all great friends and fascinating people. Thankfully, people like Russ Creech, Jason Goldman and Maggie Pingolt were doing a better job than I documenting.

Okay. Buncha photos.

Fanboy moment for me: with Maggie Koerth-Baker of Boing Boing, left, and Annalee Newitx of io9.com, right.
Both of these two have shouted out and shared my work this past year on their popular sites (here and here) and so a bit of their tres coolness has rubbed off on me.

Michele Banks, aka Artologica and me mugging for the camera.

John Dupuis, the local science blogger I think I see more of when we're both in North Carolina,
with Bora Zivkovic, #scio12 organizer, the Blogfather, and Scientific American Bloggy Bossman.

A tableau vivant of science artists in their natural habitat: the museum.
My Symbiartic co-blogger Kalliopi Monoyios, Lynn Fellman and Nathaniel Gold.
Under a whale.

Perrin Ireland, Katy Chalmers and Russ Creech, 3 more members of the massive artist cabal at this year's ScienceOnline.

Me and one of my co-moderators, Emily Bauerfeind of the New England Aquarium.

Me and co-curator of the science art show, ScienceOnline organizer and MC, Karyn Traphagen.

More thoughts & photos about the unconference experience soon!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Red Knot in Flight

2012-01-28T22:42:00.001-05:00

While I'm working on a series of scientific illustrations I can't reveal yet, I thought I'd re-post this pencil (and the oils below) of a red knot in flight.

Originally created for biologist and conservationist Dan Rhoads' excellent and vital Migrations blog, you can read more about it at his site, and my two-part making-of, here and here.

Dan fights the good fight to save birds from the heinous hunting practices of migratory birds in his adopted home of Cyprus. You can sign the petition to stop the practice here.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Copyright, Darwin, SOPA, and ScienceOnline2012

2012-01-20T16:54:00.001-05:00

(This post originally appeared a couple of days ago on Symbiartic.)

So I’m sitting in an airport on a long layover in the middle of the night, excited to be heading to ScienceOnline 2012 for my 4th time. CNN is on repeat, talking about the SOPA protest blackouts by Wikipedia and others. I’ve for science-based imagery on my mind.

Like many science bloggers, I enjoy a good dressing-down of superstition and religion in the face of facts and reason now and again. On the plane, I was thinking about how the simple symbols can sometimes be the most powerful. I’m not a graphic designer, my work is too messy and complex, but I appreciate powerful designs when I see them.

In my portrait of Charles Darwin. “Darwin Took Steps”, I included the little tree of speciation Darwin had sketched and famously written, “I think.”

It’s an incredibly descriptive little diagram. It’s possible to imagine other ways to depict evolution by natural selection: a wildfire, spiral river-eddies, interlocking Venn circles, perhaps.

But Charles made an awkward, halting little tree that still describes his theory well even after the discovery of DNA and cataloguing the genome.

I was thinking: what if some skeptic, atheist group really promoted it, really rattled religious cages successfully and it became an important, loud rallying symbol? In the news, punk kids wearing it on their knapsacks. Talking head on CNN dismissing stunts an graffiti without understanding it.

Would that be what Charles Darwin would have wanted for his little sketch? By all accounts he tried to avoid needless controversy while preserving the idea. (It could be easily argued that better science ed is a necessary controversy.)

Charles Darwin drew that little tree, but due to copyright laws, there’s no claim he can posthumously make for it. Or his estate. So it could be used by a noisy group he would have disavowed for their tactics and there’s nothing anyone could say about it. Because copyright eventually expires, and the most impact-full images are remembered and echo through culture. The echo might get distorted but we still hear/see it.

Da Vinci, in his attempts at joining noble society would no doubt have lost his temper when Dadaist Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache on a print of the Mona Lisa. But even before copyright laws, our society understand that sometimes preserving images from the past means re-imagining them.

This is why, even as an artist and content-creator, I oppose SOPA. Eventually, all artists have to let their creations live in the world. Punishing the unfettered creativity of the Internet and sometimes, even the artist’s own fans is just fighting against the life-cycle of an image. Creators *do* have the right to nurse their creations along.

Let them go. At your own speed, of course, make your career, control your creations, steer them to the right clients and in service of the right causes and genres.

But one day, they’re going to go off on their own.

.

iPhone sketches - ScienceOnline2012 Nature Art Walk

2012-01-20T16:08:00.001-05:00

A couple of sketches I did today on my iPhone at the botanical gardens here in Raleigh.

Japanese Myrtle - done with ArtRage for iPhone.

Dark Pond - done with Sketchbook Pro Mobile on iPhone.

Relaxing day talking with Jason Goldman, Perrin Ireland, Kapi Monoyios and many others.

Science Art Show starts today!

2012-01-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

This show couldn't have come about without the hard work of Karyn Traphagen and the support of Rob R Dunn's Your Wild Life Lab and all the amazing submissions we received.

More about the show and #scio12 in coming days! Keep watching my Twitter feed.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Blackout - No SOPA No PIPA No RWA

2012-01-18T08:59:00.001-05:00

I am a content creator and I vehemently oppose these proposed laws.

Teetering and Tottering Toward Epic Awesomeness

2012-01-14T17:04:00.002-05:00

Busy, busy, crash.

2012 started off with a computer suffering from so many problems I'm exhausted enough to skip completely over what exactly happened, except to say a hearty thank you to my good friend Rudi for getting things humming again.

Means I'm in catch-up mode, teetering and tottering between equally important projects with looming deadlines and images I can't show you until I'm done, thus the repeat of our man Trilobite Boy up there.

So what am I working on?

-Mainly, being a stay-at home dad, for realz. Our son just turned 1 shortly after Krismas. He's practicing walking, talking is ever more specific and complicated, and he's really really adept at saying, "No, Dada" in a world-weary way that lets others know how much he puts up with. He's amazing every single day, and my wife is the main reason.

-I do so freelance social media promotion for a big Canadian retailer when he naps. Was doing some from my iPhone during the crashed computer days.

-For Symbiartic, the art+science blog on Scientific American, there are a ton of half-complete interviews and posts and feelers sent out. Lots to come there, some artists and discussions I've wanted to have since before launch. There's no shortage of material to cover, and I'm hoping to get some more, shorter, "gee whiz looks at this image" posts up to go along with the usual discussions that get started. I'm lucky to be writing alongside my co-blogger Kalliopi Monoyios, mainly because her posts continue to surprise me. The whole network at Scientific American is pretty amazing, and I have a ton of new-favourite bloggers now, not least of which is Alex Wild's Compound Eye.

-ScienceOnline2012 is coming up fast, and I'll be involved in 2 discussions and I'm co-curating the science-art show. More on that over the next few days in some new posts. (Yes we've decided what we be in the show! Everyone should receive emails by Monday morning.)

-In addition, I'm plugging away having a merry time working on my first actual scientific illustration (not surreal, no arthropod-human hybrids or winged sealife). Can't wait to share.

So what's on the launchpad for The Flying Trilobite?

-March 2012 will be The Flying Trilobite's 5th blogiversary online, and I plan to mark it with a Bold! New! Direction! for Trilobite Boy and some regularity to the artwork that fizzled out with my short-lived webcomic last year. I made some progress over the non-computer days on that front, and I'm excited about where's it's going to go. Should I reveal it?

Spoiler--> The plan is one comic book cover a month, painted, showing Trilobite Boy's adventures. Or at least teasing at them. And there will be some *ahem* hidden things. Can't say any more than that.

-Hopefully I'll be able to do another contest for the 5th Blogiversary celebrations as well.

-I'm also planning on more tutorials using oil paint and ArtRage in the coming months, to share how I do what I do.

-Sales in my online store were up a bit in 2011 from 2010, and I'm hoping to get them up higher with some of the projects I have planned this year. Calendars collections still available, and you can choose the start month!

Thanks to everyone who visited and commented on The Flying Trilobite last year - I'm hoping 2012 will be full of epic awesomeness and world trilobite domination.

Dark Scraping

2011-12-26T22:31:00.001-05:00

A quick warm-up sketch done with ArtRage 3 for iPhone. I love the pc version, as my regular readers know, so I'm excited to play with the mobile version of this powerful digital painting toolbox.

Merry Krismas, Trilobiteers!

2011-12-25T08:19:00.000-05:00

Tra-la-la-la-lobite © Glendon Mellow

Make sure to read about the true meaning of Krismas for many of us on The Meming of Life with Dale McGowan.

Krismas, as defined by Jacob Walker:

Krismas is a secular holiday that celebrates the myth of Kris Kringle, commonly known as Santa Claus. It happens on December 25th of each year, and is also closely associated with Krismas Eve, which occurs December 24th… Krismas is about giving gifts, especially those “from the heart”; it is about the magic of childhood; it is about peace on earth; and it is about goodwill towards humankind, and anything else you wish it to mean that does not involve the Jesus as a savior bit.

Merry Everything to Everyone!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Losing heroes

2011-12-16T10:09:00.001-05:00

This is what getting older is, isn't it? I mean at my stage in life. Losing heroes.

I feel like I just got to this party. I've been blogging about art, science and atheism for almost 5 years, and seriously reading about atheism another 5 before that. I just got here, and one of the most interesting guests had to go.

Feeling selfish this morning. I want to take the day, eschew my professional responsibilities and do a proper portrait of the man to make up for dawdle of a sketch I did when I heard the news in the middle of the night.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Hitchens sketch

2011-12-16T03:33:00.003-05:00

This is a terrible, awful sketch of Christopher Hitchens, who died today and deserves better than my scratching at 2a.m. after two nights of no sleep from our teething baby. I'm posting it anyway. Fuck it.

Hitchens wrote with his verve and sharpness when he shouldn't have had any energy left. I can post a sketch done out of dealing with my feelings at the loss of one of atheism's great champions and an author I enjoyed. This drawing was about the process upon immediately reading the news on Twitter. Done in ArtRage Studio Pro.

I think I got the eyes right. Hold your hand up and cover the lower half of the image. Unyielding, strong, you can hide behind those eyes like shields of reason.

I will miss him.

Here's Hitchens in defense of the Danish cartoonists targeted by fanatics. Every artist can learn from his defense of free speech.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Science-Art Gallery Show in January - submit!

2011-12-14T10:24:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to announce that for the first time, ScienceOnline will be having a science-art show! We'll be showing a digital slideshow of accepted images, curated by myself with help from Karyn Traphagen. Free for anyone to enter, we'll be picking the most fascinating images in scientific illustration, fine art, photography, cartoons, data-visualization, street art and more.

After the unconference, we'll be posting the final digital gallery online in some form. This is the first time we're attempting something like this, so we may ask for help or encounter some snags along the way. With so many talented science-artists attending #scio12 this year, we've got to forge ahead and gives this a try. When applying to the show, you can give us links to three images. Not all may be chosen, but what better way to get you images in front of eyeballs than up to 450 talented science communicators in one place?

Feel free to email with any questions at symbiartic.gm@gmail.com or via Twitter @flyingtrilobite.

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Thanks to Karyn Traphagen for her help, and to Perrin Ireland, Kalliopi Monoyios and Nathaniel Gold for agreeing to appear on the poster.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Tree Pangolin sketch

2011-12-12T08:46:00.000-05:00

A little sketch done at the Royal Ontario Museum while visiting with the SONSI crew. Tree Pangolin and an unidentified beetle for a warm-up.

The pattern of the overlapping plates and the unusual, almost neck-less body was challenging. Pangolins have really cool tails. I'm surprised they're not the basis for more science fiction creatures or robots.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

iPhone & iPod Case Sale - Darwin, Trilobite and Trilobite Boy

2011-12-10T10:32:00.001-05:00

My online store is having a sale on iPhone and iPod cases.

RedBubble, who produces my prints, cards, shirts, stickers, calendars and iPhone cases has also expanded the line. Now, you can get cases for iPhone 4, 4S, 3GS and iPod Touch 4GS and 3GS. Each is available either in a single piece clip-on Deflector style, or 2-piece slide-on Capsule style case.
Click here for Darwin Took Steps

Click here for Goldeneye Trilobite

Click here for Trilobite Boy Sk8

And use code CAPSULE15 at checkout to get 15% off.
Only until December 15th!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Movember's End

2011-12-06T12:17:00.001-05:00

The itchy 'stache is gone.

My thanks to Christian & Sheilagh, Sherry and Charles, Joe and Patricia, and Shereen and Lex for their contributions to my Movember campaign on the Crusty and Dusty team. Thanks for helping me support men's health by messing with my face.

And now what you wanted to know you didn't know you didn't want: some photos of me hamming it up for Movember.

Week 1:

Week 2:

You're not looking at my moustache. You're looking at the baby.

Week 4:

Ah, Instagram. Coupla more years, and this is gonna be like lens flare
and we'll all think these faux-retro photos look stupid. My moustache is however, magnificent.

...aaaaand, back to the cowboy hat.

Thanks everyone! Especially my long-suffering wife Michelle.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Oh hey, this looks familiar.

2011-11-20T23:29:00.001-05:00

The buggy nightmare of Dynamic Views on The Flying Trilobite has ended.

For now.

For those who want to know my reasons for changing back, here's what I said in the discussion on G+:

My reasons for wanting to switch back to my old template:

1. I think the alternate Dynamic Views button is too prominent. They're neat, but unnecessary and confusing.

2. Commenting only really works if you're logged into your (Google, Yahoo etc) account before you start typing the comment. Otherwise it sends you to an old-style Blogger comment page, and doesn't bring the comment with it (hitting back allows you to find the comment again).

3. "Below the fold" articles don't open up at all in the magazine layout. see:http://glendonmellow.blogspot.com/2011/10/illustration-blogging-why-its-essential.html

4. I liked having some of my widgets/gadgets in the sidebar and footer, though I think this exercise in Dynamic Views has made me realize I could lose tons of them and not care. Gadgets are apparently a work-in-progress for Blogger and will be coming back.

5. It's working in every view I have tested: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. My iPhone picks up the mobile template and doesn't read Dynamic Views. But it sounds like some people are having problems with it.

6. The HTML5 animations of transitions are sometimes choppy, and my internet connection is pretty damn good.

Thanks to everyone who commented and weighted in on Twitter, G+ and here on the blog. I learned how many gadgets I miss and how many I don't. Changes haven't ended, but I thinking taking a step back after plunging forward is good for the design.

Changes haven't ended. After all, when The Flying Trilobite turns 5 in a few months, it'll need a facelift.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite?

2011-11-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite?

A couple of weeks ago, I made the jump to using Blogger's Dynamic Views here on The Flying Trilobite.

After receiving a heartfelt complaint from a friend and colleague about the site re-design, I thought I'd ask:

Does it work aesthetically?

For those familiar with it, was it better before with the simpler template?

Is it crashing every time you try to load it?

Are the individual posts functioning?

Are they too hard to read (if you follow a link to a single post, the banner stays affixed in place and takes up half the screen - which doesn't happen if you click on one from the main page)?

Gadgets in the sidebar apparently will be coming back, so I'm not too concerned with those.

Would love any and all feedback.

Movember has started.

2011-11-07T06:36:00.001-05:00

Movember has started.

Thanks to C&S and S&C for their donations so far. On Twitter and Facebook, and I noted I wouldn't post any pictures of my moustache so far until someone made a donation. And I promised a cowboy hat.

Here's an Instagram for ya'll.

You can donate here on the Crusty & Dusty page to help kick prostate cancer in cojones. The more donations, the more pictures of this magnificent moustache will appear here on The Flying Trilobite blog, on Twitter, Facebook and G+.

So, yeah: mixed blessing.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Dog's Full Moon

2011-11-01T14:10:00.001-04:00

Dog's Full Moon © Glendon Mellow

Aroooooooo!

Here's a quick ArtRage 3.5 painting I did for Jason Goldman's excellent blog, The Thoughtful Animal.

Jason takes a look at the urban legend that dogs are more prone to biting humans during the full moon in his post, Real-Life Werewolves? Dog Bites and Full Moons.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

2011-10-31T06:30:00.000-04:00

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

(Bit of an older image. Hope no one minds...)

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

My Grandmother's Favourite Drawing - re-post

2011-10-24T09:31:00.000-04:00

(With over 600 posts and almost 5 years of blogging, some days I'll dig through the archives and re-post an older Flying Trilobite post. This one originally appeared in November 2008.)
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This drawing was always my grandmother's favourite piece of my artwork. I drew this back in the early days of university after I had largely stopped drawing vampires and faeries, and as my interest in science had started coming back to the fore. I called it "Beetleman", though I'm not really sure why.

My grandmother loved this one, and I gave her a reproduction of it. I miss my grandparents, and I'll always appreciate how they encouraged me in my artwork. My grandmother would challenge me about what I was trying to do, and pester me with questions, until she'd laugh at my answer once it was clear. My grandfather would not have much commentary about the subjects, instead asking about the media used, and supplying us with astonishing amounts of paper when my sisters and I were small.

Good times.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Science-Art Geek iPhone 4 cases!

2011-10-22T23:42:00.001-04:00

Available now, in my print shop at RedBubble.

Here's some specs from RedBubble themselves:

Uncommon spent months in the desert inventing a revolutionary and top secret printing process called TATT™, which embeds the design into the case—so no fading or peeling, ever. It all sounds a bit space age really, which we quite like.

Our cases were made specifically for the iPhone 4S & 4, ensuring that all of your bits, pieces and functions line up where they should. Plus, Uncommon cases are chosen by Apple for sale in Apple Stores. Seal of approval right there.

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In addition to selling these designs on an ongoing basis, I'm also looking for someone to finance a few as prizes for ScienceOnline12 ! Please email me at theflyingtrilobite at gmail dot com if interested.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
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I hope everyone enjoys my cheesy mirror effect above.

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Let's have a frank talk about illustration royalties.

2011-10-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

This is a conversation I think illustrators should have. My blog allows anonymous comments since I think that will let more of us have it.

My experiences are still few and new in the field of illustration. I come from a science-inspired, fine art background, and since taking my artwork online almost 5 years ago, my fine art projects are usually asked into service illustrating science blogs, books and magazines (and occasionally skin with tattoo design).

The book work up until now has mainly been covers. However, after watching a couple of potential book contracts fall apart, one for a mid-size reputable publisher I will not name, I've been curious about one aspect of the illustration biz: royalties.

The experience I mention called for me to submit my originals, hand over all copyright and get paid a flat fee worth less than equivalent stock art images for my creations. No hope of royalties or re-negotiation if the book was a hit and re-printed.

At the time I was using the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, 12th Edition (13th is out now). Leaving out the details of the publisher's requirements, according to the Guide I should have been charging about $550 per drawing, and I was offering $300. The publisher wanted to offer $150.

I know there are a lot of specific circumstances to any contract: we parted amicably I hope (they produce a lot of books I enjoy). I thought it was just this case, for whatever reason. After speaking to new illustration acquaintances on G+ over the last several weeks, from many different realms of illustration, I'm hearing that "no royalties" and prices below the GAG Guide are common.

What I wanted to discuss, is without details (I am not out to vilify any publishers here, that's not the point so no need to identify them) are illustrators:

getting royalties as part of a contract?
finding the GAG Guide prices accurate reflections of reality?
being offered more than work-for-hire?

Part of the 'long-tail' of illustration is licensing your own images after the copyright either reverts to you, or by retaining it. The other is royalties.

Let me know approximately how long you've been at the illustration biz, and whether you've found royalties common or uncommon. Again, I allow for anonymous comments and I'd prefer not to discuss specific publishers, just get more of a sense of what's happening out there.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

What would make good iPhone case art?

2011-10-19T00:31:00.000-04:00

RedBubble, the extraordinary company that makes my art prints, cards, calendars, clothing and stickers for my online store has now started making iPhone 4 cases.

So I thought I would ask: what images from glendonmellow.com or my dA Gallery would make good iPhone cases in your opinion? What do you think people would like to be seen carrying? This info will help me ramp up for the holiday push to sell some wares in my online store.

Darwin Took Steps? A pink parasaurolophus? Trilobite Boy? Please comment below if you have an opinion on this!

Also: if anyone is interested in financing a giveaway of a number of cases or other Flying Trilobite swag at ScienceOnline12 in January, let's talk!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio

Blog

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--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Eight Years

2011-10-18T07:50:00.000-04:00

Eight years ago this evening, I married Michelle.

I drew this for our invitation, based on John Atkinson Grimshaw's Iris, my favourite painting, which we saw on our second date.

Victoria College, University of Toronto.

She is my favourite person.

Times have sometimes been challenging but mostly they've been amazing.
We're never at a loss for conversation and I can't take my eyes off of her.

We still have the best of times...

Even more now that little Mr. Amazing has rolled into our lives.

I love our family. Happy Anniversary.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.

Portfolio

Blog

Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Illustration blogging: why it's essential - a SONSI discussion

2011-10-16T02:43:00.000-04:00

This post is mainly a supplementary series of links and points accompanying our discussion, "Illustration blogging: why it's essential" at SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day.

More art after the jump!

Reminder: SONSI Science-Art Talks in Toronto this weekend!

2011-10-11T08:31:00.000-04:00

I'll be one of the presenters at this weekend's Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrator's series of professional talks. These should be a great help to illustrators of all stripes, and I'm psyched about the day.
Here's a link to the official blurb, and I've re-posted it below.

Invitation to all illustrators in Southern Ontario:

SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day

October 16, 2011

12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Toronto's Harbourfront Community Centre

Assembly Room A

http://www.harbourfrontcc.ca/

627 Queen’s Quay West, Toronto

Please join us for an afternoon of illustration-related presentations by members of the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators and a representative of Access Copyright. Light refreshments (coffee, cookies) will be provided.

For non-members, a $15 donation to SONSI is requested (or $10 for full-time students). This will help us cover the cost of facility rental and refreshments.

Space is limited so please register to attend by sending an e-mail to: sonsigroup@gmail.com

Agenda:

Arrive at noon, presentations begin promptly at 12:20.

12:20 pm to 1:30 pm "A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop"
1:35 pm to 2:15 pm "What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators"
2:15-2:30 break
2:30 pm to 4 pm "Illustration Blogging; why it's essential"
4:10 pm to 4:50 pm "The Content of Contracts"

PROGRAM:
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"A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop" by SONSI member Jeremy Loranger

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most powerful programs in an illustrator’s arsenal today. However useful it may be, Photoshop can also be quite a daunting program for newcomers. This presentation will serve as a brief introduction to the program as well as provide some very useful tips and tricks that are commonly overlooked in many tutorials. Proper file formatting for print and web, as well as web security for your work will also be discussed. Bring your questions!

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"What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators" by Margaret McGuffin of Access Copyright

Every day across the country individuals in schools, businesses and government copy excerpts from published works to obtain the valuable content they need to get their jobs done. But are you - the owners of that content - being compensated? If one of your copyrighted illustrations is published in a book, newspaper, magazine, or journal, then you need to find about becoming an Access Copyright Affiliate. Don't miss out on Payback! Also, Margaret will explain what grants The Access Copyright Foundation offers to creators of copyrighted material, including Research and Professional Development Grants.

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"Illustration Blogging: why it's essential" by SONSI member Glendon Mellow
How to dive into the online world of blogging and social media to find work, fulfilment and community. Worried about image theft and your copyright? Don't understand Twitter or G+? Want to see how easy it is to set up a blog? Blogging your artwork can be essential in today's market - people expect to be able to provide feedback in numerous ways to images they find on the internet. We'll discuss the basics to the latest in social media for illustrators and how to be effectively busy online without losing control of your images and brand.

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"The Content of Contracts" by SONSI member Emily S. Damstra

Wondering if it's really worthwhile to have your clients sign an agreement? Worried that your contract is missing something? Frustrated that the contract your client provided isn't quite what you had in mind? Hear from someone who has signed a lot of contracts in her career; learn from her mistakes as well as her successes.

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The Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators is a regional organization of illustrators whose works focus on science and nature.

Our goals are to:

Further our own professional development by learning from each other
Encourage each other toward higher standards of competence and ethics
Network and socialize with others having similar interests and work experiences
Support the intellectual property rights of visual artists
Promote our discipline to the general public and to potential clients
Educate the public about science and nature through our work

We meet every month or two throughout the year, primarily in locations between Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Anyone with a genuine interest in nature and science illustration is welcome to join.

For more information about SONSI please visit our website: www.sonsi.ca

- - -
Bios of presenters:

Jeremy Loranger has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Technical and Scientific Illustration from Sheridan College and has been working freelance for 2 years. His work covers a broad spectrum including fine art, biomedical textbook illustration, exploded isometric assembly diagrams, video game production art, and 3D modelling. http://www.jloranger.com/

Margaret McGuffin is Director of Licensing and Distribution Services at Access Copyright. Prior to joining Access Copyright, Margaret worked as a consultant providing business planning and research services to organizations including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Heritage and The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Margaret has been involved in the formation and development of a large number of music industry collective management organizations including the Canadian Private Copyright Collective and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada. Margaret currently sits on the Advisory Committee of MusiCounts which is a not-for-profit providing grants to schools across Canada for the purchase of musical instruments. She also spends a large amount of her free time in hockey arenas with her two children as a team manager and trainer. For more information about Access Copyright visit their website: http://www.accesscopyright.ca/

Glendon Mellow is a fine artist + illustrator whose projects have ranged from fine art commissions to tattoo design to museum display; appearing in magazines such as Earth and Secular Nation, in books such as Geology in Art and The Open Laboratory and sites such as io9.com. He has spoken at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario and at ScienceOnline. Glendon is a co-blogger on the new Scientific American science-art blog Symbiartic and shares his art process at his blog The Flying Trilobite, and tweets at @flyingtrilobite. His portfolio can be found at glendonmellow.com.

Emily S. Damstra has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan and has been a full-time freelance illustrator for eleven years. Her clients have included the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The City of Kitchener, The University of Michigan Press, Natural History Magazine, The Royal Canadian Mint, The Calgary Zoo, and many more. Visit her website: www.emilydamstra.com

The best terrible painting (and decision) I've made.

2011-10-03T13:03:00.000-04:00

It's been a year.

A year since I left my management job with a dynamic art supply retailer I'd been employed by for 10 years.

Above is a little painting I did the following Monday, my first day as a full-time freelancer. It's kind of a poorly-painted little oil painting I call Freelance Leap, and it represents my excitement and anxiety at leaving a secure job and diving into my illustration and social media work.

I'm still glad I made the change to challenge myself in most ways. But I cannot deny, times have also been much rougher than I ever imagined. It's been the best and worst year ever.

Reading Jesse Bering's piece on Bering in Mind, Half Dead: Men and the "Mid-Life Crisis" has me wondering about which option of Jacques' will happen with my creativity in mid-life (note to self: you're 37 you're already there): will my current state of anxiety propel me to greater heights like Bach? Or will I do a major about-face in my creative style, brining me larger success than before? (The third option, dying somehow, is off the table as far as I'm concerned.)

Good friend and amazing illustrator Eric Orchard shared this piece on G+ yesterday, by Scott Timberg from Salon: The Creative Class is a Lie. It's an engaging piece, covering everything from retail jobs to writers. And it offers a ton of interesting things to think about for illustrators.

Up until now, my business model has been:
1. Make cool artwork, mostly for a niche scientifically-literate audience
2. Put online for people to view for free.
3. Take commissions for originals or prints from people who like it enough to want their own, or have a budget.

It works. It works better than not being online ever did. It works haltingly, in fits and starts, with many months in between. It's not enough to feed my family. How does this whole creative economy do that? Or all we destined to be like rock stars, where only a tiny few ever make it despite the public''s hunger for imagery and illustration?

I outlined in my Symbiartic post, It's Time for Illustrators to Take Back the Net that illustrators supporting each other when faced with image theft online could put the profession back on a path to respectability. Would income follow?

I miss the guy I was when I did that terrible little painting, above. I'm still optimistic I might get to that amusement park in the distance, but my feathers are bedraggled.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

White Tree iPod doodle

2011-09-29T19:46:00.001-04:00

Little sketch done in Sketch Club on my iPod. Still summery weather here for the most part with the exciting tingle of autumn in the air. Dunno where this winter scene was inspired from.

Flying Trilobite YouTube Channel

2011-09-26T13:01:00.001-04:00

There's been a positive response to my two very brief art tutorial videos, so I decided to make a YouTube Channel to keep them in one place. I hope to make some more.

You can see both videos below, or visit them on YouTube for comments, liking, and counting how many times I say "umm".

Flying Trilobite YouTube Channel
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Making of The Last Refuge (repost)

2011-09-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

This is a repost from last year. I've been thinking about the process on this painting, and trying to apply some of the lessons learned in some new work I have incubating in my brain and my sketchbook.
- -

Earlier this month I debuted a new painting, commissioned by Kevin Zelnio of Deep Sea News and The Other 95%. You can see Kevin's post about The Last Refuge here, and who it was for.

Here's a little about the process of making that painting.

Kevin had mentioned it to me quite a while earlier, the first time we met in person. The idea rattled around in my head quite a bit, so there wasn't a lot of prep work needed for this one.

I started with the sketch above, done using my Faber-Castell Pitt pens. It's a typical type of starting sketch for me, not a lot of stuff that may make sense to someone else. I'll try to explain it after the jump.
First of all, it's two sketches side by side. Let's look at the right one: the little "x" marks all around are a typical comic book notation for all black background. I knew I wanted heavy black shadows, and the light source coming from behind.

You can see the original composition was quite symmetrical: I wanted almost a reverent feel, almost like a religious landscape. It's an easier feeling to invoke with obvious geometry and I thought black smoker thermal vents on either side would evoke that.

Turned on Die Antwoord and Massive Attack videos on my 'puter, made some coffee (mocha java) and got started painting. Used black acrylic for a base in the background. As oil paints age, they become darker and more transparent, so a dark ground will prevent the painting from bleaching over time.

But at the last second I changed the composition.

Something about all that indanthrene blue...I needed to give the ocean itself more space. I jettisoned the symmetrical composition for a more natural one. Also, I wanted a series of lines of light that would direct the eye around the painting in a trangular way, and the submersible hiding behind a smoker wouldn't have helped.

I stayed with a classical compositions with three distances. The first distance, is the rock at the bottom left with the big standard trilobite (Elrathia kingi is one of my favourites). This typically gives the viewer an entryway into the painting, and since we're in the West, starting on the left is typical. The trilobite kind of gazes and points into the rest of the painting. The 2nd, or middle distance, brings in more detail, and shows the "story" of the painting.

When painting the submersible, originally I hadn't add much in the way of light. I knew I wanted to make some dramatic beams, and a halo, but if I did that and it looked awful, I wouldn't be able to get that smooth deep blue of the surrounding water without starting completely over in the background.

Had to go for it. I was happy with the result, but I still miss that deep mysterious blue cutting down the left hand side. The light is more dramatic, less tranquil.

The shape of the light beam is actually inspired by comics. I still pick up Marvel or Dark Horse comics now and then, (love New Avengers) and the shape of the light beams is roughly the same as when a ninja throws multiple stars: the arc of their hand intercut with the path of the throwing stars. If you read comics, you probably know what I mean.

For the title, I kicked around names like "Deep Discovery" and suchlike, but Kevn supplied the perfect one: The Last Refuge.

My aim for The Last Refuge was to create a painting the recipient could sit still and look at, and notice little details in the edges. The cluster of trilobites on the right. The tubeworms rising out of the dark. The shape and texture of the sulpherous smoke.

It's about a dream, isn't it? Richard Fortey in Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution said, "Hope has faded that, when today's mid-ocean ridges were explored by bathyscape, in some dimly-known abyss there might still dwell a solitary trilobite to bring Paleozoic virtues into the age of the soundbite..,".

I hope Kevin and the painting's recipient enjoy The Last Refuge for many years to come.
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The Last Refuge is also available in a variety of prints from my online print shop. I recommend the laminated print (shown below) or the charcoal frame with dark mat.

A Robot Out for a Stroll

2011-09-19T13:25:00.001-04:00

A robot out for a stroll.

Feeling like Spider-Man

2011-09-14T10:04:00.000-04:00

Created in ArtRage Studio Pro

Things are happily hectic these days. Consider this a report-card on my independent commission-career.

My wife is awesome, our baby is happy (except for the teething) and we've managed to spend some really good times with our nephew this summer.

Career-wise, thanks to Symbiartic on Scientific American, I've interviewed a ton of really fascinating people involved in the art+science intersection and have no end in sight to new posts for that blog. It's a real science-art movement, and I'm lucky enough to be a part of it.

I've been attempting to be less precious with my artwork, and dive into more sketches. The Flying Trilobite has been great to just put up my little scratches.

Lately the thing I'm most excited about are the opportunities that are popping up from so many unexpected places. Thanks to everyone who's thinking about me and my artwork for being inspired enough to want to work with me. It keeps me going.

Like Spider-Man, I've recently begun meeting and collaborating with more and more super-people in the arts and sciences.

I have to be careful though.

Some exhaustion is setting in. 4 part-time jobs. I'm currently working an entry-level retail position with a lot of part-time hours to help pay the bills. I'm still doing social media (Twitter) work for a major national retail brand and hoping to add more clients like that so I can potentially stay home with the baby and work from home. Symbiartic is a blast, and I'm giving that my all. I have a couple of exciting science-art commissions right now. And I'll be giving another talk on science-art and blogging at Harbourfront here in Toronto next month.

Like Spider-Man, I have the ability to do some spectacular things, but the fridge is all-too often empty since spectacular abilities don't always pay the bills.

Despite the 4 part-time jobs, money is really tight at home and each month is a challenge. It's easy to lose focus on what's next. My big hope at the moment is to take on 3-4 new social media clients like the one I'm already doing, and let go of the retail. Then, evenings and weekends open up for Symbiartic and commissioned illustration.

Recently, a good talk with my wife's uncle let me really step back and look at the big picture again, which is why I'm excited for the future. I've been so focused on the immediate need to literally feed my family and keep the lights on, I was losing sight of how far I've come. Thanks to everyone for your support.

I'm expecting amazing things from myself in the near future, so you can too.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Ten Years

2011-09-11T01:43:00.001-04:00

Talking copyright and illustrator activism on Symbiartic

2011-09-09T10:27:00.001-04:00

Today I have what I think is an important post up on Symbiartic over at Scientific American, discussing copyright and illustrator activism.

Head over there to read and discuss whether I'm right in saying "It's time for Illustrators to take back the Net". Or just critique my sketchy Western illustrations. It was inspired by a lot of the posts and situations I link to, and from the growing community of illustrators on Google+.

Here's the composite image I sliced up for the post, done with the latest edition of ArtRage Studio Pro:

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Stupendous Upcoming SONSI Science-Art Talks

2011-09-09T08:37:00.000-04:00

Really excited about the upcoming talks for the Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators group at Harbourfront on October 16th - and I'll be giving one!

My talk is about why it's essential that illustrators have a blog and use social media, without being terrified of copyright infringement.

Here's the page about the day:
Invitation to all illustrators in Southern Ontario:

SONSI's 2011 Presentation Day

October 16, 2011

12:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Toronto's Harbourfront Community Centre

Assembly Room A

http://www.harbourfrontcc.ca/

627 Queen’s Quay West, Toronto

For non-members, a $15 donation to SONSI is requested (or $10 for full-time students). This will help us cover the cost of facility rental and refreshments.

Space is limited so please register to attend by sending an e-mail to: sonsigroup@gmail.com

Agenda:

Arrive at noon, presentations begin promptly at 12:20.

"A Quick Look at Adobe Photoshop" by SONSI member Jeremy Loranger

Jeremy Loranger has a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Technical and Scientific Illustration from Sheridan College and has been working freelance for 2 years. His work covers a broad spectrum including fine art, biomedical textbook illustration, exploded isometric assembly diagrams, video game production art, and 3D modelling. http://www.jloranger.com/

"What Access Copyright can do for Illustrators" by Margaret McGuffin of Access Copyright

Margaret McGuffin is Director of Licensing and Distribution Services at Access Copyright. Prior to joining Access Copyright, Margaret worked as a consultant providing business planning and research services to organizations including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Heritage and The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Margaret has been involved in the formation and development of a large number of music industry collective management organizations including the Canadian Private Copyright Collective and the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada. Margaret currently sits on the Advisory Committee of MusiCounts which is a not-for-profit providing grants to schools across Canada for the purchase of musical instruments. She also spends a large amount of her free time in hockey arenas with her two children as a team manager and trainer. For more information about Access Copyright visit their website: http://www.accesscopyright.ca/

Glendon Mellow is a fine artist + illustrator whose projects have ranged from fine art commissions to tattoo design to museum display; appearing in magazines such as Earth and Secular Nation, in books such as Geology in Art and The Open Laboratory and sites such as io9.com. He has spoken at the Centre for Inquiry Ontario and at ScienceOnline. Glendon is a co-blogger on the new Scientific American science-art blog Symbiartic and shares his art process at his blog The Flying Trilobite, and tweets at @flyingtrilobite. His portfolio can be found at glendonmellow.com.

"The Content of Contracts" by SONSI member Emily S. Damstra

Emily S. Damstra has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan and has been a full-time freelance illustrator for eleven years. Her clients have included the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The City of Kitchener, The University of Michigan Press, Natural History Magazine, The Royal Canadian Mint, The Calgary Zoo, and many more. Visit her website: www.emilydamstra.com

The Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators is a regional organization of illustrators whose works focus on science and nature.

Our goals are to:

Further our own professional development by learning from each other
Encourage each other toward higher standards of competence and ethics
Network and socialize with others having similar interests and work experiences
Support the intellectual property rights of visual artists
Promote our discipline to the general public and to potential clients
Educate the public about science and nature through our work

For more information about SONSI please visit our website: www.sonsi.ca

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Beware of Explodey Anklyosaurs

2011-09-05T10:31:00.000-04:00

Beware of explodey pineapple anklyosaurs.

Sometimes they travel far distances before kabooming.

- - -

This post marks the return of Art Mondays on The Flying Trilobite! My posting has been a bit sporadic lately, so I think I'll return to this discipline that I held for a few years on the blog. At the very least, expect new art and art commentary each Monday.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Latest Fashion from Paris

2011-09-02T06:19:00.000-04:00

Stylish, non?

For more about making insects stylish and yummy, check out this Symbiartic post by Kalliopi Monoyios.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Symbiartic spreading its wings

2011-08-25T17:20:00.005-04:00

Since scientific illustrator Kalliopi Monoyios and I launched Symbiartic: the art of science and the science of art on the Scientific American Blog Network last month, we've been trying to challenge ourselves and our readers with our posts.

Science-inspired art is everywhere these days, and there's so much of and so many fascinating issues about the technology, about the ethics of scientific accuracy in art, and about the people behind it, I'm so excited we're bringing these issues and images to a larger audience. And I think it's working: more artists than ever before are contacting us by email, Twitter, G+ and Facebook, and I'm really happy with the traffic on Symbiartic.

In case your one of my regular Flying Trilobite readers and you haven't checked out Symbiartic yet, here's a quick rundown of all the posts on Symbiartic to date, in blog-style reverse chronology:

Alone in the blogiverse: where are all the space-art bloggers? - Glendon Mellow.

Tagging Science Art - Glendon Mellow. A look at science-based street art for Scientific American's Cities event.

Tools change, view is the same - Glendon Mellow.

Science-art Scumble #22 - Glendon Mellow. I moved these popular posts rounding up links on science-art from The Flying Trilobite to Scientific American, and began featuring a pic of the week.

How bad images rob science (and good ones don't) - Kalliopi Monoyios.

What does a scientific glassblower make? - Kalliopi Monoyios. I swear, this could be a whole new career in steampunk genres.

Science-art Scumble #21 - Paleo Controversy Edition - Glendon Mellow.

We Blew a Bubble for a Man Named Edison - Kalliopi Monoyios.

The Chemistry of Oil Painting - Glendon Mellow.

Science-art Scumble #20 - Glendon Mellow.

Meet the Future of Photography - Kalliopi Monoyios.

To © is Human - Glendon Mellow.

The DNA Hall of Shame - Kalliopi Monoyios.

Science-art Scumble - Glendon Mellow. The first Scumble not on Flying Trilobite.

Magic Beans - Glendon Mellow.

The Dudley Bug - Glendon Mellow.

5 Reasons Your Camera Won't Steal My Job - Kalliopi Monoyios.

Science-art: don't call it 'art' - Glendon Mellow

Visual beings: meet Symbiartic - Kalliopi Monoyios. Our introductory post!

Check it out, leave comments, let us know about your science-art!
- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

The Fish Stands for Surrealism

2011-08-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Lookee here--> Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Avimimus sketch

2011-08-22T12:00:00.001-04:00

Had some fun with textures and feathers on this Avimimus sketch earlier in the summer.

Thought I'd post it now, since there's an interesting discussion started by Craig Dylke over at ART Evolved about dinosaur feathers and accuracy in science art and film.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

New! Find me on Symbiartic, the art+science blog on the new Scientific American Blog Network!

Royal Canadian Flying Trilobite

2011-08-16T12:06:00.000-04:00

Royal Canadian Flying Trilobite.

Circa WWI. There have been tremendous advancements since then of course.

- - - - - - - -

Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

New! Find me on Symbiartic, the new art+science blog on Scientific American!

A painting's "aura": repost

2011-08-09T14:42:00.002-04:00

This was originally posted in October 2008. With over 600 posts on The Flying Trilobite now, I've been re-posting a few from time to time. Incidentally, the artwork featured here is available for purchase in a variety of card and print formats.

Reprinting today because originals versus prints has been on my mind again lately. Make sure to check the original post for the insightful comments there.
- -
Today, I'd like to touch on how the artist feels about their own work, and its "aura", and how that differs for the Fine Artist versus the Illustrator. And no, I haven't lost my skeptical, rational mind.

The idea of a painting's aura is one I remember being presented without judgment by the prof in university. The concept has stayed with me.It's the notion that original paintings have an "aura" that emanates off the paint & canvas surface. Almost as though the original painting has a soul, or a living presence you sense when looking at it. It adds to their specialness. You have not truly experienced the painting until you've seen it in person. Our teachers tried to impart that this is mainly a macho, modernist idea.

In Fine Art, the modernist period was something fairly specific. To sum it up all too briefly, modernism in

painting was "paintings with the subject matter of paint". You weren't painting a still-life of an apple: you were painting red paint. As an example, think of something by Rothko, or Pollock. Giant humongous canvases, covered usually in a couple of dominating colours. There was a lot of baggage that went along with this type of work, including that they should not ideally be viewed as reproductions.
Post-modernism in the fine art world, was (again, gross oversimplification) about deconstructing those modernist ideals of pure paint and pure sculpture, and of overthrowing the unique. A post-modern piece of art could contain both a painting and sculpture adjacent asone piece. Take that, modernist!
To look at one example, modernist Charles Demuth created the painting Figure Five in Gold, (1928). Classic Modernism, interplay of colour over a familiar, somewhat random symbol (5) we all know. It's distinct, and certainly was in '28.

Post-modern painter Robert Indiana created this painting,The Figure Five, (1963) as a way of overthrowing the originality of Demuth's Five. He disrupted the original by Demuth's claim to importance by making it one of many instead of unique. I see it as kind of a fine art world version of "screw you".

So paintings may have an aura you can only feel in the presence of the actual artwork, not a reproduction? Not likely. This smacks of vague New Age-y feelings-as-fact. I wondered about this idea for a long time. An exhibit, entitled 7 Florentine Heads came to the Art Gallery of Ontario, and I remember there was to be a Da Vinci drawing included. When I saw it, I anticipated the moment. I frickin' love Da Vinci, and his interest in science as well as hissfumato technique. I looked at each drawing in turn. Looked at one, read the placard, and saw it was his. I got an involuntary shiver down my back. Was it the aura?

Even back then in my proto-skeptical days, I knew there wasn't. I only felt it's "specialness" after reading who it was by. Looking only at the drawing, I saw another example of excellent work by a Renaissance artist. Context mattered to the aura, it seemed.Which brings me to addressing the photos of posters peppered throughout this post. Is one of the differences between an illustrator and a fine artist -at least, a modernist one- how they feel about a painting's uniqueness and supremacy of being the original?

Recently, the artist (and good friend of mine) Christopher Zenga took his artwork online for the first time. And when discussing how the first couple of posts about his Zombears looked glowing off of the computer screen, Chris remarked to me, that he just sat back and stared at them; he was entranced by his own artwork reproduced in a different medium.

Chris is right. I was elated for months looking at my paintings and drawings online, and knowing others might see something of value there. Do I have a fondness for the originals? Of course. Some are hanging in my living room. And yet there is an undeniable thrill to walk down the streets of Toronto and see a poster up with artwork I laboured over.
Starting with a discussion on the nature of art over at Laelaps, author of Renaissance Oaf Sean Craven has had a lot of excellent points about whether how to judge if a piece of artwork can be deemed "art".

I would put forth there is a difference between art created for the purpose of Illustration, and Fine Art, and a small part of that difference is in how the artist feels toward reproductions. The tingly feeling is enhanced when the image leaps forth to new media and many eyeballs.

The photos throughout this post were taken downtown at the University of Toronto campus, and are of my posterfor the October 2008 lecture by PZ Myers presented by the Centre for Inquiry Ontario.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Going Pro: free dinosaur art?

2011-08-06T08:42:00.002-04:00

The ART Evolved blog I loosely administrate for (the heavy work being done by Craig Dylke, Peter Bond and Mo Hassan) has been doing extremely well the past year, with more and more talented people contributing not just to the themed galleries, but also to some fascinating posts.

It's what we wanted for the site: artists and researchers and dino fans enjoying the art and thoughts about creating it. Spin off blog posts (like this one) are becoming more common as people choose long-form comments on their own site about happenings at the ART Evolved hub.

Recently, a student researcher approached ART Evolved with ideas for a contest for artwork through the site's loose network of members and contributors, the prize being that the unpaid work would appear in a presentation in front of some paleontology luminaries. Already our decision to post something about the contest for contributors has met some justified criticism.

I commented the following on ART Evolved, but thought I would post it again here for my slightly different readership.

All excellent comments Jack, and with the AE admin crew, we discussed these very issues before we decided to go ahead and publish the contest information anyways.

There can some times be benefits to working for free for artists starting out. There I said it. I don't like it but its true. My first professional gig for an online client was high-profile and a poor student and I did the work for free and it led to more work. I still don't make enough to pay all my bills though even though I now generally charge Guild prices. That's reality: scientists do not usually have a lot of funds, and even funds earmarked for promotion of the research seldom go into artwork - something I hope high-profile sites like Art Evolved and Symbiartic will help.

Muddy Colors has excellent comments on this here and here. You may also wish to consult the Should I Work For Free infographic. No I'm not kidding, it's smarter than its sarcasm looks.

This is not to say that it is right to do free work in this instance for Mr. Persons. And here is where I should emphasize that though I'm on the ART Evolved admin team, these are my own opinions and I likely don't speak for everyone.

I don't want to lose people in research like Scott Persons as an ally. Science-artists of all kinds -scientific illustrators, animators, fine artists, cartoonists, graphic designers, infographic artists, amateurs- need scientists to be engaged with our work. We also have a duty to educate people who may hire us on best practices. Often when approached by a client, I give them a full break-down of my process, and typical fees and whether I am deviating up or down from anything typical. I keep them in the loop throughout the process with sketches and so on.

When Craig first let the other admins (Peter, Mo and myself) know about Scott's request, I was bluntly, unhappy with it. The last thing in the world I want ART Evolved to become is a clearinghouse for free art for the science community. I want our talented members to get paid.

But I didn't want to alienate a request like Scott's, though it was naive (understandably so if he has not worked with illustrators before - this is not a slight against Scott).

Ultimately, each artist affiliated with or who reads this site can make up their own mind on whether they should do this type of work for free. I hope each of them thinks it through, and decides whether its right for them.And I hope through comments like yours Jack, Scott and other researchers learn useful information for future projects.

What do artists think? What do researchers using art think?

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Camping in Rockwood

2011-08-01T10:58:00.000-04:00

Last week we packed up and went camping at a place that sounds like it's named after a map in the Fable game series. And it didn't disappoint. No Balverines though.

The Rockwood Conservation Area is near Guelph, Ontario, and near enough to civilisation you can hear trains in the night, which I enjoy -it's a bit eerie and a bit romantic. This was our first camping trip with our baby, now 7 months old, and Michelle and I were joined by our intrepid ready-for-anything nephew. It rained a lot, but I managed to make espresso over the fire, we found caves, enjoyed the Cambrian coral limestone formations, found the ruins of a mill from the 1800's and discovered glacial potholes being broken with generational slowness by the cedar forest.

I always feel like I'm committing an artistic sin when I go on a trip like this, sketchbook in hand, and don't take the time to do any sketching. What can I say: we were gone two nights and spending time with the family hiking and puttering around the campsite took priority. So I took lots of reference photos. And I will say ten Hail Artemsia Gentileschis and draw something difficult like a foot in foreshortening to atone.

Enough talk. Pictures.

Thistle in the rain.

Cedars along the rocky shore.

Entrance to the Harris Mill, established in 1885 .

Sitting with the sleepy monkey after a long hike which he snoozed his way through.

Our nephew exploring the ruins, looking for good spots to jump off of.

The Mill in the distance. A lot of goldfinches had baths in the stream.

Entrance to some caves. These went in really deep, and we could see chambers beyond.

Mist roiled out of the caves into the humid Ontario air.

Me and my boy sitting under the blue tarp in the rain.

Espresso brewing over the fire.

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Trilobite Boy Mail!

2011-07-31T10:57:00.001-04:00

Back in June a number of Flying Trilobite readers really helped me out with donations to keep my portfolio site at glendonmellow.com going. For a minimum $10 donation, I made each of them an original drawing. All of those drawings should be arriving in everyone's snail-mailboxes over the next several days.

Here's science-artist Katy Ann Chalmers with her Trilobite Boy Chibi!

My grateful thanks to each person who donated or tweeted to get the word out. It's been a tough time freelancing for me, and it really helped keep my presence alive online. I had fun with each image, and did things a little differently than the norm. I made a nice scan of each one, and will put them all up in a future post together.

As an artist, it can be really tough to earn a living wage from your work without years of royalties and a large committed fanbase. It takes time. I'm lucky to be doing well for a guy who paints trilobites with wings. But we're also living in a time when the divide between how images are prized and what people will pay for them faces a huge divide.

Artists forge ahead and use the talents to delight and inspire, and the growing movement of science-artists have a doubly important mission, turning people on to the natural world through their skills and dedication.

There's another science-artist who needs financial help right now, and is willing to put their skills to the task: Katy Ann Chalmers, pictured above, is offering an amazing deal on original artwork if people can chip in and help her afford to go back to school this year: check it out! Cephalopods and space art for a great cause!
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Cloak and Dagger wip

2011-07-25T14:20:00.002-04:00

Decided late last night to get cracking on another Marvel Comics image for fun. Below, the start of my work-in-progress of Cloak and Dagger, being done with ArtRage Studio Pro.

I've always liked these two, ever since their half-book run in Strange Tales opposite Dr. Strange. Artist Bret Blevins' take on the pair defines them for me, though I loved Kevin Nowlan's covers. This series introduced the sinister Mr. Jip (and also had the best Dr. Strange stories ever, after he destroyed all the ancient talismans that protect Earth in order to save his friends. He becomes super evil to save the world.)

Art by Carl Potts and Bret Blevins

Dagger is a teen dancer, and should be lithe, but it often portrayed in a really voluptuous way which I don't think fits this character. Her costume is revealing, but also carries a really simple design that would work well even without all the skin showing. Cloak's skin is supposed to appear sort of like old wood, so I'll see what I can do in this image to grant that effect, though most will be in shadow.

For this image, I wanted to have more mystery, and an air of menace. We'll see how it turns out.

Here's some previous sketches I posted a couple of years back:

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Pseudoscientific illustration, smacking cameras and flying gnomes: New on Symbiartic

2011-07-23T12:03:00.000-04:00

There's been a bunch of new posts on Symbiartic since Kalliopi Monoyios and I debuted our art+science blog on the new Scientific American blog network. Here's a rundown, plus a bonus gnome at the end.

Visual Beings: Meet Symbiartic by Kalliopi Monoyios - say hello to us both! Introduce yourself!

Science-art: Don't call it "Art" by Glendon Mellow - Where I lay in some ground rules about the silly generalization of the word "art". Now with fully repaired interactive image, touring some of the hotspots of science-based and science-inspired art. Oh, also it totally links to some of those crazy fractal people. Seriously, fractal artists are whack. (And see if you can find the Autobot.)

5 Reasons Your Camera Won't Steal My Job by Kalliopi Monoyios. Kalliopi lays a smackdown on photography and states why illustration is supreme. My favourite reason? Dinosaurs.

The Dudley Bug by Glendon Mellow. How long did you think it would take before trilobites crawled onto Symbiartic? :-) An unusual coat-of-arms.

Magic Beans by Glendon Mellow. How does a scientific illustrator reconcile themselves with doing pseudoscience? Is it just for the money? What about fiction? Does it hurt their work? I explore all this and more, and included a new illustration in the style of 19th Century naturalists depicting the traits of magic beans.

A Naturalist's Study of Magic Beans by Glendon Mellow. Under Creative Commons Licence;
feel free to share and remember to attribute; no derivative; no commercial. Done using ArtRage Studio Pro.

I'm really hoping more Flying Trilobite fans will head over to Symbiartic and comment! I love the reception we've been getting about Symbiartic on my Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and here at the blog. Please take a moment to let us know how we're doing on the new network as well.

And because I know you will comment because you're all rad and stuff, I'm prepared to give you this short film of the magic bean pollinating-gnome being created as a bonus.

And you can follow Symbiartic on Twitter!

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Trapping the Man-Thing

2011-07-17T09:39:00.001-04:00

Trapping the Man-Thing. ArtRage Studio Pro, 2011.

Complete, at least for now. I've had a lot of fun dipping in and out of this painting in odd moments, but I think I'm calling it complete. See here for lots of work-in-progress posts on this Marvel Comics character.

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Man-Thing copyright to Marvel Comics. Fan art, without permission--> Respect their authoratay!

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Snowy Man-Thing wip

2011-07-12T23:28:00.001-04:00

Decided to play around with this one some more and switch the crystals at the base to snow. Still a work in progress: I'll need to add some more frostiness to ol' Man-Thing.

Does he need a carrot nose? Nah.

I'm really enjoying ArtRage Studio Pro, and I've been using this image to unwind whenever I have some time. Also, if you're an ArtRage fan, check out the updates that come with 3.5: now their's scripting! Basically, you can record a movie while you paint. I plan on making use of that pretty soon!

Previous looks at this work-in-progress here.

- - - - - - - -Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
Man-Thing copyright to Marvel Comics. Fan art, without permission> Respect their authoratay!

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My Scientific American blog debut

2011-07-07T18:24:00.001-04:00

My first post on Scientific American is now live!

Please head over and check out Science-Art: don't call it "Art" - complete with an interactive image!

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Big. Giant. News.

2011-07-05T08:31:00.000-04:00

Symbiartic by Glendon Mellow with helpful art direction by Kalliopi Monoyios.

The new Scientific American blog network has launched this morning! And I'm on it!

Head over and say welcome to Symbiartic!
I'll be co-blogging with scientific illustrator Kalliopi Monoyios about art + science, scientific illustration, copyright issues, how new media change art, data visualization, science cartoons, comics, architecture, photography, fine art and much more. You may remember Kalliopi Monoyios from the blog An Eye for Science, sometimes featured on my Scumble posts. She was also the illustrator for the books Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin and Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne.

I'm completely thrilled Kalliopi is joining me on this blog, she's tremendous fun and it's been a real collaboration while we worked on getting this ready behind the scenes. Read our introduction post, Visual Beings: Meet Symbiartic.

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So what does this mean for The Flying Trilobite? A few changes. The Scumble science-art posts I use to highlight artists and artwork from the Science Artists Feed will be moving over to Symbiartic. There's so much good work out there, I like to try and highlight what I can, even if it's not a longer form blog post and analysis or interview.

The Flying Trilobite will still be the primary showcase for my own work, and work in progress, personal commentary and so on. Symbiartic will be myself as a fine artist and Kalliopi as a scientific illustrator (and both of us as geeks) discussing mainly other people's work, unless one of us has an event we want to post there.

Basically, The Flying Trilobite is all about me, and Symbiartic is all about the science-art movement and community.

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And wait until you see what other blogs are on the new Scientific American blog network!

Head over to blog community editor Bora Zivkovic's welcome on The Network Central.

And thanks to all my Flying Trilobite readers and art-fans!
Check out Symbiartic!

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Contest banner at Science3.0

2011-07-04T08:50:00.003-04:00

Mark Hahnel of Science 3.0 asked if he could use one of my dinosaur drawings for a contest banner on their network - I said sure! My artwork is under a Creative Commons Licence that says it can be freely shared so long as no money is involved, it's not altered and I get credit. In this case it needed to be altered - but Mark asked, and hey, that's what the licence is supposed to encourage. This has been your copyright service announcement for the day.

Here's the Oviraptorosaur skull incorporated into the contest banner.

I drew this handsome fella a couple of years back at the Royal Ontario Museum.

More importantly, check out the contest!

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Religion in Science Education

2011-07-03T22:16:00.000-04:00

Available as a card, print, framed print or poster in my online store.

Originally done for a PZ Myers - CFI event here in Toronto a few years back.

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Screencast: making a charcoal preset in ArtRage

2011-07-02T00:05:00.000-04:00

My first screencast demo, using Screenr. Thanks to Rudi for suggesting Screenr, and thanks to German for asking to see an example of my charcoal preset.

Maybe I'll do more of these. Don't forget to click +1 below if you like it!

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Trilobite Boy chibi!

2011-06-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

Follow the intermittent adventures of Trilobite Boy!

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The Aura of Oil - classic Flying Trilobite

2011-06-29T12:26:00.000-04:00

(This post originally appeared here on The Flying Trilobite back in November 2008.)
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The aura of painting exists in the mind of the viewer, and in some cases the mind of the illustrator when seeing their own work reproduced. The idea of paintings having an aura or presence is something that has fascinated me since university, as discussed last week. Some excellent comments were made by artists Sean Craven and Chris Zenga, check it out.

Okay so from my non-scientific anecdotal samplings and personal experiences (oh the sins against science I commit! I will say ten ATP-->ADP reactions in penance), I doubt the existence of original paintings having a quasi-mystical aura or emitting a presence to the viewer. You can read a bit more about this "aura of authenticity" from an art historical perspective here, and from the side of new age-laced artsy language here (10th paragraph), and here.

It's head-shakingly amazing how fear for loss of the aura is dovetailed with a fear of technology.
Is there anything special or unique then, about an original painting that does not lie entirely within the biases of the viewer? In case of oil paintings, I say yes. And looking at last week's comments, Chris Zenga guessed the point of this week's Artwork Monday while thinking about a D.N.A Candle Vanitas painting I gave to him and his wife for their marriage (at right, original post here).

I love oil painting. I enjoy the scent of the oil, and the buttery consistency flowing together under a horizontally-held fan brush. And most of all, I love the depth glazing can bring about in the final work.

Oil painting differs from other types of painting in many ways. Oils do not evaporate as they dry like watercolour or acrylic painting; instead they absorb oxygen from the air. This is called a siccative quality. The way I think about this, is like the oxygen molecules are pineapple chunks being added to Jell-o in a confined bowl. Adding more will increase the density and stop the Jell-o from jiggling. I don't know that this is a chemically-apt description, so please feel free to tell me there's not room for Jell-o in the comments if I am mangling the science of siccatives.

For this reason, it's important that oil paintings are painted in thin layers with an increasing amount of oil in successive layers. It allows the oxygen to permeate evenly over the course of six months to a year after painting, and helps prevent cracking. The rule is referred to as "fat over lean".

So oil paintings, particularly by Renaissance and Baroque masters, contained many thin, mostly transparent layers of paint, each tinted with a little pigment. And herein lies the aura of a painting viewed live versus online.

When light hits all these layers of oil, it permeates each oily membrane and begins to reflect back out. But some photons will bounce back into the oil layers off of the pigments, and back to the lower layers before pinging back out of the painting, and onward to the viewers eyes. This optical effect literally creates a glow. It's also the reason for the incredibly deep blacks often found in the backgrounds of portraits.

So the illusion of depth in an oil painting can be profoundly eye-catching, and similar to looking at objects in water, the oil-glazes draw our eyes and captivate our pattern-seeking centers, making the paint feel alive. No unscientific aura necessary, just wonderful chemistry interacting on our biology.

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Forgotten art for a late night.

2011-06-27T23:35:00.000-04:00

Taking apart a room due to some slight water damage. Listening to Stromkern (thanks Stephanie!) and Wolfsheim. Here's some of my slate pieces from my final school project scanned and converted to black and white. I almost put this image in my latest print collection, and then skipped it and forgot about it.

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Hashtag: 10oclockart

2011-06-24T10:07:00.005-04:00

Today's the first day of illustrator Russell Dickerson's fun idea: #10oclockart . I heard about it last night through a conversation Russell was having with Eric Orchard on Twitter about Eric's recent post.

Every day at 10 am, artists should post whatever they're working on, at whatever stage it's in; on Twitter, Flickr, blogs, Facebook, where ever, and use the Twitter hashtag #10oclockart. Great fun! Here's mine:

Working on my donor drawings - almost all of them are done! The swirly one is far from finished. And here's my workstation and studio assistant this morning:

He's helping. And listening to DeadMaus.

Follow me on Twitter! @flyingtrilobite

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Scumble #18 - Science-art is the future! Edition

2011-06-22T17:16:00.001-04:00

Scumble:

"A painting technique in which semi-opaque or thin opaque colors are loosely brushed over an underpainted area so that patches of the color beneath show through."
From The Artist's Handbook, by Ray Smith.

Highlighting recent posts I found interesting, provocative, or otherwise caught my eye from the Science Artists Feed, and other sources.

Science-art is becoming an increasingly popular form of science communication and entertainment. Drawing from fine art, laboratory work, scientific illustration, concept art and more, watch how artists spread scientific literacy and play with the inspiring concepts in science.

Make yourself a cup of joe, put your feet up and enjoy the science-art and art techniques!

Click here for earlier Scumbles.

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World Science Festival 11: The Invisible Language of Smell - Bora Zivkovic with illustrations by Perrin Ireland, Scientific American's Guest Blog. Find more of Perrin Ireland's work at Small n Tender and Bora Zivkovic's at A Blog Around the Clock.

Using the iPad as a Portfolio - Darkstorm Creative: the Work of Russell Dickerson. A couple of years back, I blogged about the iPod Touch as a portfolio. Can't wait to get an iPad. Check out Russell's unsettling horror work while you're there.

"Picturing science" exhibit reveals the artistic beauty of scientific research - Alasdair Wilkins, io9.com.

ScienceArt-Nature-Home - Stanford. This in-process site looks promising, and check out the roster of contributors: includes Carel Brest van Kempen.

Networks are not always revolutionary - Cory Doctorow, The Guardian.

Hominid Skulls wearing Mexican Wrestler Masks - The Flying Trilobite. An example of a failed contract.

CaridianBCT - Quantum Cell Expansion System - XVIVO Science Animation Blog.

EXOSKELETONS...solo show in Melbourne - A Curious Bestiary - art by Kaitlin Beckett. I wish I could see this amazing work in person!

Titration! - Katy's Notebook.

L is for Lacewing - Curious Art Lab by Leah Palmer Preiss.

Art Talk with Marna Stalcup, The Right-Brain Initiative - Art Works.

Mathematics breathes new life into Escher's art - Jacob Aron, CultureLab.

Vintage Dinosaur Art: The Bird Hunter - Love in the Time of the Chasmosaurs.

Earliest art in the Americas: Ice Age Image of Mammoth or Mastodon found in Florida - ScienceDaily.

Of Paintings and Other Things - The Caw Box

Art and Science Team-up for Biophysical Journal - cover artist Klaus Schulten, biophysical society.

Immortal - Is this bioart?

Inter-active Broadcast: Illusion of Certainty - Sci-ence

Kinect for Windows SDK Coding Marathon - The Art of Wa.com

The Mysteryes of Nature and Art - BibliOdyssey. (hat-tip to Michael Barton!)

Evolution - Darryl Cunningham Investigates. Webcomic about evolution!

Pick of the Scumble:
Wallace and his Flying Frogs! - Alfred Wallace Website. Amazing art by Joanna Barnum. (Another tip of the hat to Mr. Barton!)

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Hominid Skulls wearing Mexican Wrestling Masks

2011-06-21T09:45:00.000-04:00

Not every art project for a client sees the light of day. Here's an example from a few years ago.
(I retained the copyright on the images even if the contract had gone through: in this case, I was never paid so I'm quite sure there's no conflict, and it's fair game to post these.)
The client had asked for a challenging tattoo design.

Up to you to judge whether or not these fit the bill. The concept was three different hominid skulls, each wearing Mexican Luchador wrestling masks. In black line: no colour, no grey scale. See? Challenging. How do you bring out the masks on very specific human ancestral skulls without colour?I got started by working on the hominid skulls and on the layout. Homo sapiens sapiens, Homo erectus tautavelensis and Australopithicus afarensis.

Deciding the layout of the three skulls.

Originally, I drew the concept in reverse by mistake;
three masks that look like hominid skulls.

I played with the drawing in Photoshop to get a different view of a "messier" ink style.

Now the challenge of overlaying cloth onto skulls,
and making the bold cartoon outlines found on Luchador masks.

Final submitted image. The Australopithecus on the bottom is wearing a half-mask.

There were more drawings than these few; I like to keep clients informed when working on a project and it's especially important for the personal work involved in tattoos. Ultimately, the project was never fully realized. But what do you think of the last image? Does it read as hominid skulls wearing Luchador masks?

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Icky and Ickier

2011-06-17T17:08:00.000-04:00

The other day I threw this old oil painting of mine, called Pupating, into a standard Photoshop filter called plastic wrap or plastic bag or something.

Using basic Photoshop filters can be considered a bit of an icky cheat in some illustration circles. Still; I think it adds something, don't you?

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Scumble #17 - Best Science-Art Links this week

2011-06-15T10:02:00.000-04:00

Scumble:

"A painting technique in which semi-opaque or thin opaque colors are loosely brushed over an underpainted area so that patches of the color beneath show through."
From The Artist's Handbook, by Ray Smith.

Highlighting recent posts I found interesting, provocative, or otherwise caught my eye from the Science Artists Feed, and other sources.

Time to slow cold-brew yourself a caramel bulee latte, put your feet up and enjoy the science-art and art techniques!

Click here for earlier Scumbles.

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Stop on Red: the Effects of Color May Lie Deep in Evolution - Science Daily. Inherited aversion to red as the study suggests, or convergent learning that red means blood by chimps and humans?

Fluid Dynamics: Watch as 'Mixed Color' comes back together right before your eyes - Geekologie. Somewhere, there's a grad student in a fine art program salivating at doing this with many automated jars in a gallery.

Scientific "proof" that abstract art is only 4% better than what a kid could do - Alasdair Wilkins, io9.com.

This is why we can't have nice things - Sci-ənce. Informative, demented webcomic.

Interview with Jim Robins - Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings. Darwin fans should check out the fun anachronistic cartoon at the bottom of the interview (should be young Darwin but what the hey - funny cartoon.)

How are art and human evolution related? - Greg Laden's Blog. Does neolithic cave art represent doodles, rituals or recipies?

GNSI Annual Exhibit Sneak Peek - Guild of Natural Science Illustrator's blog. Must see! Check out the bees.

Dino Brights! - Omegafauna. Artist/designer Sharon Lynn Wegner-Larsen makes all paleo folk jealous of her toys.

Butter Tarts - Trilobite Boy #6 - Trilobite Boy. My webcomic experiment continues.

nature/culture/nature/culture - Is this bioart? Sometimes I think this blog and my blog should discuss the terms science-art and bioart and then arm wrestle.

Scaphognathus crassirostris: A Pterosaur in the Historical Record? - David Orr, Love in the Time of the Chasmosaurs. Cryptozoology FTW!

Art and Human Evolution - for the Beaker and Brush series - Hybrids of Art and Science. Very cool and optimistic scienceart quote.

Summer, learning and children - Darkstorm Creative, the art of Russell Dickerson. I've followed Russell's art avidly for a while now. Great post about encouraging children to explore.

WIP - baby elephant - Heather Ward Wildlife Art. Spooky at this stage! Great insight into technique.

I'm now a member of the IAAA! - LucyJain's Blog. Lucy is among the hottest new astronomy-artists out there -extend congrats and then gape slack-jawed at her tremendous gallery.

Painting Through the Universe: Eskimo Nebula - Katy's Notebook. Katy Chalmers is the other hot new astronomy artist out there, and, like Lucy Jain is one of the very best astronomy artists today. Why don't more astronomy artists blog? I dunno. Follow these two though to space in new ways. Eskimo Nebula is gorgeous in a way abstract art can't touch.

David Johnson - lines and colors. Check out the portraits of Albert Einstein, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris!

Hidden Treasures - Biodiversity in Focus. This blog is making me feel inspired by fruit flies. Like, more than usual.

The Dragons of Malaysia by Ryan and AI:The Impossible Museum by Brian G George - Mad Art Lab. Very cool DIY art project about the sacred space in museums led to a very cool question: what would you want to see in an impossible museum? Check out the comments & leave your own.

Making Art of Traumatic Heart Failure - Christine Ottery, CultureLab.

MizEnScen - Street Anatomy.

Blog post of the Scumble: Wedding - Weapon of Mass Imagination. Congratulations to 3D paleo-artist and one of the masterminds behind ART Evolved, Craig Dylke and his bride Lady R! They got married!

Scienceart of the Scumble: Archaeopteryx - Bond's Blog.

Gorgeous pair of Archaeopteryx by Peter Bond, for Craig Dylke's wedding! Check out Bond's Blog for a peek at one of his sketches for this stunning painting.

- - - - - - - Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.

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