Get Your Hands Dirty To Do Important Work

Sowing Seeds & Fossils © Glendon Mellow

Get your hands dirty to do important work. 

Dive in, take chances, don't expect shortcuts. 

Be driven by dreams and sweat through labour. 

Like sowing seeds with fossils in the earth. 

Sometimes something astonishing will grow. 

Ammonite Flax Flower © Glendon Mellow

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Avimimus, colored on my iPhone

Used the SketchClub app to colour my pencil drawing of an Avimimus while taking a break this evening.

Original drawing. 

Painted on my iPhone.

Diatom Kiss

Diatom Kiss © Glendon Mellow 2009. Under CCL, see sidebar.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This image is from my series, Fossil Boy, Diatom Girl.



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Red Knot in Flight

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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My Grandmother's Favourite Drawing - re-post

(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
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Royal Canadian Flying Trilobite

Royal Canadian Flying Trilobite.

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


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Trilobite Boy Mail!

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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Contest banner at Science3.0

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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Trilobite Boy chibi!

Follow the intermittent adventures of Trilobite Boy!

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Hashtag: 10oclockart

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

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Fossil Boy, Diatom Girl - repost

(This week I'm reposting some of the posts from the past 4 years I consider noteworthy.  Wednesday, "Inspiration and Drugs". Thursday, "Science Vocabulary = Better Art".  Today, here is a post from December 2009.)
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Our final project for my Drawing & Narrative class was more or less open. I decided to continue exploring ammonite fossils, hands, and some diatoms. 

For a long time, I've used diatoms along with images of my wife, Michelle. Diatoms are beautiful algae that create complicated geometric structures from silica, and look like beautiful glass ornaments. They help create oxygen, which is a nice thing for an asthmatic like me to associate with my wife in a metaphorical life-sustaining way. The fossils are kind of a proxy for me. Part of the suggested outline for the assignment included making a book, and images of family. 

Three of the most difficult things to draw are the face, hands, and feet. (Foreshortening is a whole other problem.) I love drawing hands, so I looked at this as a challenge. I decided I would add some torn paper elements as well. While working on my rough sketches, our professor suggested including some elements with the Fibonacci sequence, and looking up artists Mario Merz. I've done some sketches using Fibonacci numbers before, when I was working onDan Rhoads' Migrations blog banner. I tried to use it as a compositional device.

Almost in its entirety, (a snippet is lopped off from the edges), here are the drawings from the series Fossil Boy, Diatom Girl.

- - - - - - - - Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Inspiration+ Drugs - repost

(This post originally appeared in August 2008 here on The Flying Trilobite.  Lots of fascinating comments on that post too - check 'em out.  I thought I'd re-post it for new readers.  Comments and debate welcome.)- -
So here's the thing.

While in University, and continuing to today, I'll show somebody examples of my work for the first time, and I will hear, "Whoa, so just what are you on, man? Must be some good s--t!"

Yeah, the good s--t is my brain. My creativity. My diverse range of interest and my hard-won madskillz with a pencil. My brain dwarfs other brains. And I can tell you why.


I've been attempting to write this post for a long time now. It's a hard one to write without sounding smug and preachy or after-school-special. So I'm just throwing it out there in plain language and not worrying too much about it.

I don't drink alcoholic beverages, and I don't do recreational drugs, and I follow no religion. Period. Never have, and likely won't. Over the course of an entire year, I maybe polish off one glass of wine divided up over New Year's, a random evening and my wedding anniversary. I should probably drink a bit of wine for the health effects. Keep meaning to do that.

Let me cut off some common assumptions at this point: I really really don't care if other people drink alcohol. It is not something I do, but I am not passing some kind of moral judgement on people either. In a free and open society, I am free to not drink and think you're cool. No need to explain to me how it's really good I don't drink, and you admire it, or to accuse me of accusing you of wrongdoing. Telling me my coffee-drinking is "at least something, kind of wimpy, but something," makes me laugh.

I don't drink or do drugs for a bunch of reasons, but here's one of the largest. As I emerged like a delicate, lumbering butterfly into my University years, I was asked "what I was into" more and more. And in my first year survey course of Western Art, we began talking about Hieronymous Bosch. Bosch did fascinating things, unreal visions of heaven and hell with the most unlikely structures made from the tools of alchemy. And a theory we were presented with, very popular and assumed to be true by my peers, was that ergot of rye in the fields near the artist were causing Bosch to experience the effects of very mild LSD.

Everyone nodded. Of course. It was instantly assumed this is where his genius and creativity stemmed from.

It was an outrage! An outrage because what if it wasn't ergot of rye? A great disservice to a great mind. It was an outrage because in my view, it smacked of complacency by my fellow art students. Wanna push your art further? Drugs. Worked for Bosch.

If it was true, than my mind would be unremarkable without intentional damage inflicted upon myself. No thanks. I needed to hold fast against the weak undercurrent of peer pressure and create fantastic, unreal images in the face of pure sobriety.

I'm not the next Hieronymous Bosch. I'm doing what I do. My body suffers from asthma, and I have some medications I take regularly, daily, along with a love for coffee. Throwing more into the mix will not help. One day, will someone cite my puffers as the source of my creativity? I hope it is not the case.


And I spoke above of my thoughts on alcohol, how do I feel about drugs?

I think they are kind of lame. (There I go, sounding like an after-school special.) I am especially weary of marijuana. It is so present and so popular now, you can't escape it at parties. And users always want to tell me all the scientific facts they know, about how it's no worse than alcohol, they only use it sometimes to fall asleep, I've studied it way more than you, blah blah blah. You know why it bugs me? Because alcohol stays in your glass and on your breath, but marijuana goes into everyone's lungs. Smoking marijuana is lame and selfish.

I am writing this post not to judge others, but to judge myself. Perhaps it is not an achievement to be visually creative without drugs, and this is seen as nothing more than a fearful person stamping their foot saying "I don't wanna". In my view, my brain dwarfs many other brains. My synapses are intact, my dendrites and neurons hum happily. This creativity is mine, and not the product of liquid or inhaled inspiration.

I'll reiterate, I really don't judge others by what substances they use for fun. Friends say I'm fun at parties. I simply get cross when someone gets pushy or insulting by wondering what drugs/alcohol/religion I am on, and won't believe I can live without those things.

Please feel free to disagree on this touchy topic, and make comments.

Oh, and cheers!

This week I am re-posting a few pieces previously posted due to the topic. In order, these pieces are entitled, from the top, Anthropomorphic Gestation, Knowledge Pupates, & Asthma Incubus.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

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Flying Trilobite Etsy

There's a lot of new original art and signed prints in my Etsy store. 

Encrinurus trilobite

Eremotherium (extinct sloth) and Glyptodon skulls

Mythical Flying Trilobite Fossil IV

Young Darwin Discovers Glyptodon sketch

 Admittedly, freelancing has been pretty rough and I'm in some immediate need, so I've put a few originals in here I haven't attempted to sell before. Consider buying one of these on Etsy and help me keep the lights on. Or you can contact me at theflyingtrilobite@gmail.com about them.

I also continue to sell prints, calendars, stickers, posters, postcards and greeting cards through my RedBubble Print Shop. As usual, my work appears online under Creative Commons and can be enjoyed digitally for free minus the cost of the weirdness inflicted.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

under Creative Commons Licence.

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Testing out the Sketchclub app

I first read about the Sketchclub app on the excellent blog fingerpainted.it. 

Like Brushes and Sketchbook Pro Mobile, it's a powerful little app, great for sketching on the go. Immediately though, I have to say I love the interface.  Selecting brushes and colours just zips along, and some of the brushes are really fun. You only get 2 layers, but you can use tools like Multiply or Overlay. 

My first sketch was of a trilobite and a face. 

©  Glendon Mellow 2011

Is the face me?  Not my nose, but my eyebrows and tired new-dad eyes. I like the little shaded blade. Surprisingly though, I don't think there's a tortillon or smudger for the pencil tool.  But it does simulate it by tracking turns and where you would smudge it with your hand.  Sorta. 

Here's a couple more of my first explorations of this nifty new app which I posted directly to Facebook - another neat feature. Can't wait for Twitter to be added.

eye sketch - Sketchclub - © Glendon Mellow 2011

Ammonite sketch - Sketchclub - © Glendon Mellow 2011

If I have a complaint, it's that there's no button I can find for starting a new sketch. If I pick an empty slot from the file page, it loads with my last worked-on drawing, which I then need to clear.  According to the review though, the developer has a background in the gaming industry, and is actively and constantly improving the app, so I expect good things. 

You can click on the iPod Touch label for more of my iPod sketches. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

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Feeling safe

©  Glendon Mellow 2011 click to enlarge.

Just before my son was born, I lost a dear friend and work colleague. I've been missing him everyday: we had a lot of common interests and even yesterday I find myself thinking for a fraction of a second, "I've got to talk to him about this!"  And I can't. Arthur, I miss you.

My colleagues at DeSerres, thanks for everyone being supportive of each other while we mourn our friend Arthur.

A few days ago, I thought I would reconnect with my childhood best friend. I have seen him around my neighbourhood: we grew up together in the east end, and are both now west enders. We're both dads now, and I thought it would be great to meet for coffee or something. I had a really happy childhood, and all of the best times were my friend and me on our bikes at the beach. I tried to find him online and discovered he passed away just over a year ago. I think of all we did together Gray, and I miss you.

Thanks to our mutual friend for letting me know what happened when I realized we both knew him; and thanks to his sister for allowing me to reach out in my grief about Gray.

Thanks to my wife Michelle for putting up with her basketcase of a husband who can't sleep. Painting the little piece above in the wee hours of the morning has helped a bit.

Last year I wrote about being an atheist insomniac. Reading the comments there again have helped a bit. Thanks also to those commenters.

Karen James's comment really helps me right now, so I thought I would share it for others:

We achieve a natural immortality through having existed, through having acted in this world and through our bodies being physically reabsorbed by the planet.
Like Alan Watts said, 'our fundamental self is not something just inside the skin', but our perceptions and, as Allston writes, the domino effects of our actions.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow

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Pink Dinosaur Charity for Breast Cancer Research

From my co-administrators at Art Evolved:

image © by Peter Bond 2010

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and what better way to promote awareness is there than with Pink Dinosaurs?!

ART Evolved is organizing a Pink Dinosaur Fundraising Event for the month of October to benifit cancer research. I personally know too many people who have passed away and who are currently battling cancer, as I am sure many of you do too. Pink Dinosaurs is hoping to raise $500 towards cancer research (through the Canadian Cancer Society).

There are two ways to donate with Pink Dinosaurs:

First, visit our Pink Dinosaurs event page and donate directly there.

Second, please SEND IN a picture of a pink dinosaur to us here at artevolved@gmail.com and ART Evolved's administration will donate one dollar for each pink dinosaur submitted. We will post each pink dinosaur here throughout October, so find that pink marker and start drawing!

Again, our Pink Dinosaur Event Page is http://cancerevents.kintera.org/pinkdinosaurs. 

The Pink dinosaur event is already a huge success, and over 80 pink dinosaur illustrations have been submitted so far!  

I'll be donating what I can as well. 

And here's a sketch of my Parasaurolophus entry so far.  I hope To have it ready by Monday for submission.

 

Click to enlarge.

Anyone can enter, at any artistic skill level!  Fun-fun for a great cause. 
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Art Evolved image by Peter Bond.
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Art Monday: Retrospectacle Valkyrie drawing

Pencil on bristol, 2007.
Originally created as part of the commissioned Retrospectacle blog banner for Shelley Batts.
Seen here, making of here, and at the discontinued Scienceblog Retrospectacle here, where it shared banner duty with one by the science illustration master, Carl Buell.

The support I received early on in my blogging days from both Carl and Shelley has been wonderful, and invaluable. A lot of my current decisions still rest on things I learned from them both.  Thanks, guys!

- - - - - - - - Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Art Monday: Beetleman

Beetleman
Pencil on paper, around 1996, I think, despite that watermark.

This was my late grandmother's favourite drawing. Yeah, she was a fun person.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
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Art Monday: Hyperferrule

Hyperferrule
Pencil in my Moleskine, 2007.
A steampunk-inspired painting device; obviously it needs the latest in Linux hand-eye shareware.
Originally appeared on this post.
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.

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Fine Art Open House at York U

Last week, we had the Visual Art Open House at York U.  I had a couple of pieces there. 

I took some pictures of other fascinating paintings and sculptures, but didn't know who (or sometimes where) the actual artists were to put them on here with their permissions; everyone was having a good time socializing and showing guests around.  Michelle and our nephew came with me.  Here's a few pics. 

My Invasive Species project.