Smudgy Clouds and Art Conventions

Sometimes real life looks kind of fake. Or it would if you tried to paint it. Lurid pink, purple and orange sunsets. Up close detail of tree bark. 

Or this morning's low hanging clouds over Toronto. They look like poor use of the Photoshop smudge tool. 

When painting, we sometimes stick to conventions based on viewer expectation instead of what nature actually looks like. It's rooted in the same impulse that children use when always picking blue for colouring skies even though in they may just as often be grey. 

1st Astronaut Hero

Our son Calvin, age 2, watching Commander Hadfield sing Bowie's Space Oddity a few hours before touchdown. 

Calvin tried to sing along about "he puts on his helmet" and "big giant Jupiter in the sky-y-y..."

Stegoceras sketch ii

Refined this sketch a little more on my lunch break today. Getting me warmed up for a late night binge of drawing commissions.

Bora Zivkovic to Visit Toronto

The Blogfather himself, Bora Zivkovic of Scientific American, ScienceOnline, OpenLab and circadian-rhythm-awesomeness is coming to Toronto next week!

Bora will be giving a talk at my alma mater York University, about Science and the New Media Ecosystem from 2:00-3:30. 

Here's the deets:

Science and the New Media Ecosystem

Bora Zivkovic, Blog Editor at Scientific American
Monday, May 6, 2013, 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Paul Delaney Gallery, Room 320, Bethune College
York University, Toronto Map
Abstract: The whole media landscape is shifting and changing – newspapers on the decline with blogs, Twitter and YouTube on the rise.
Science is no different. Come listen to one of the pioneers of online science communication talk about how this new media landscape is shaping how science is done, evaluated and communicated in an increasingly connected world.

John Dupuis, the Science Librarian with Bora Zivkovic from ScienceOnline2012.

There's also going to be a tweet-up Monday night! Check out the Facebook page, and here's the info: Monday May 6th, 7pm Duke of York Tavern. Map. Thanks so much to John Dupuis for organizing these events, (and Romeo Vitelli for starting the FB page!)

Both events are open to the public. I'll be at the tweet-up for sure, so say hi to the guy with the winged trilobite tattoo on his arm!



- - - - - - - -

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

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

Trilobite Boy - band poster

More goofing around with the Halftone app. Just need to put a date, time and venue on this one. 

From this original oil painting. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

TRILOBITE FTW!

Stupid Asthma

Asthma Incubus Distressed © Glendon Mellow 

Woke up at 4am because it hurts to breathe. Stupid asthma. 

A painting I did in ArtRage, run through a filter in the Halftone app. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

Dimetrodon Sphinx, painted on my iPhone

Over the past few years, I've done more versions of this character and image than I can count. It's an exercise in poor background environment planning. These are no different. 

My idea for the Dimetrodon Sphinx goes back quite a ways, but at its root has to do with my love for blending mythology and prehistoric creatures, much like the chimaeric flying trilobites. If the Sphinx is an archetype of ancient tricks and wisdom, I thought a predatory dimetrodon is sufficiently old and strange enough to create a half-human with. I have some further ideas for her, and she'll be appearing in the ebook story I've started working on. 

So here are a couple of versions of my Dimetrodon Sphinx drawing painted using Sketch Club on my iPhone 4; square ones were put through Instagram afterward. 

Pleased with the sky in this one. 

Out of the four of them, I like this one best.  

See other versions here. 

Here's the drawing I started from. Should have taken the time on the iPhone to highlight her lizardy feet and human hands some more. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

Oh, that? That's my ego.

Pic of my revamped studio space.



The hovering blob of heavenly light is my ego, caught on film with a Victorian spiritual technique. Most people have guttering candle flames of light; but I'm an artist.

Snails of Spring

Calvin has been meeting some of the ants and snails in the neighbourhood.

Edit: Here's a fun tweet I received in response to the post!

@flyingtrilobite Nice! Great pics of interesting Cepaea hortensis invaders from Europe.

— BJLS (@BiolJLinnSoc) April 19, 2013

@flyingtrilobite Looking again, they probably C. nemoralis because of dark lips! Also both 5-banded yellow morph; 2nd has all bands fused.

— BJLS (@BiolJLinnSoc) April 20, 2013

Don't Make Wombats Explode

This has been a public service announcement of The Flying Trilobite. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

Little Stegoceras Sketch

I think I might refine this a little more. What an intriguing, alien looking skull.

© Glendon Mellow

As cartoonist Peter Cook (@doodletronicsp) remarked while we stood sketching at the Royal Ontario Museum last weekend, "Mr. Giger would approve".

And so do I.

Strong Marriage

Gay marriage in Canada has been around about as long as my marriage to Michelle. It has in no way been a detriment to the country. Here's hoping things change in the U.S. and the rest of the world faster than they have so far. 

When we were married, we had a Unitarian minister. I'm an atheist, and my wife's belief system is not up to me to say. It felt strange inviting friends who are part of the LGBT community to our wedding if it wasn't something they could take part in. Unitarian ministers at the time were administering unions to gay couples, so: if it was good enough for them, it was good enough for us. A small gesture (did our family and friends even know? I'm not sure), but we felt it was important. 

Married at Victoria College at the University of Toronto under stained glass depicting Kant(I think?), Newton, Ben Franklin and Columbus. Three wise men and a guy who can't steer a boat. 

Anyway the point of this trip down memory lane is this: our marriage is stronger when it is something all couples can do. Here's hoping for my American friends.
- - - - - - - -

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

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

Art Barrage

Gutting my studio space and tossing old supplies I'll never use. This also has the added effect of cleaning up the front hall, since that's where my studio is. 

The big question: barrage visitors to our home by hanging all my paintings in a giant egotistical monument to my awesomeness, or store them neatly in the corner? 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

S I X

One. 

Two. 

Three. 

Four. 

Five. 

And now, 

Six. 

The Flying Trilobite blog is six years old today. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

Sketches Better Than Paintings

Sometimes I wonder if the sketches look better than the paintings. 

Trilobite Boy with Gargoyles - sketch.

Trilobite Boy with Gargoyles - complete. 

There's something about the scratchiness of it I don't usually retain in the finished pieces. That's why I think I'm enjoying drawing and then placing the original drawing over the digital painting on a multiply layer. I'm catching the scratchiness a bit better. 

Avimimus - pencil drawing.

Avimimus - painted using the Sketch Club app on my iPhone. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

If I Had Google Glass

I am Canadian, not American, but...  #ifihadglass  I would record the collision of science and art through my painting, through research and through making something new. Sharing my perspective from my perspective on our greatest ability, the ability to make things that never before existed. #ifihadglass  I would share creation.

Google Glass looks cool with a hoodie. I own hoodies. 

- -
Google's rules ask for a 50 word or less answer to what you would do if you had Google Glass. Above is mine.

I cannot win since I am Canadian. But I haven't been this inspired by technology for my art since I saw a painting done on an iPad for the first time. I still haven't been able to budget for an iPad (I hope to change that in the next 6 months) but now...

I don't know exactly how to describe it. With Google Glass, I picture gathering my materials, snapshots, calling up past sketches from my blog before my eyes as needed, and embarking on a new painting. Snippets of video of brush on canvas, of Wacom pen on graphic tablet. 

My new book idea on a Guide to Flying Trilobites, a send-up on scientific inquiry, plus a document of the creation behind it. A book about the blind spots in science, with my own blind spots available for the audience to see and experience as viewers while I create. 


Holy monkey, I need Google Glass. Without it, I'm still here blogging. You create with what you have. 

- - - - - - - -

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

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

Merry Darwin Day 2013

Illustrating Vaccine Stories on Symbiartic

Over the weekend I was blogging on Symbiartic, the art+science blog I share with Kalliopi Monoyios. My focus was on images that undercut the scientific message they are trying to relay, specifically using posts about vaccines and pro-vaccination outreach. 

The comment threads are pretty lively and the discussion continued on Twitter and G+. 

Head over to Symbiartic to read, Pro-Vaccine Communication: You're Doing It Wrong.
- - - - - - - -

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

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

Beetle Valentine

Haldane geekery FTW!

Cards and prints available in my shop!

- - - - - - - -

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

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