This is why

This is why I bought myself an iPad last week.

            

ArtRage is so satisfying. Can't wait to get the Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus to go with it! 

Finally joining the future

Bought an iPad. Can't wait to get a Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus next: you can bet I'll review it on Symbiartic on Scientific American! 

        

Playing with a logo-style design

Playing with a new logo-style design. Whaddaya think? 

Trilobite Boy face sketch

Took some time on this before work today. Trilobite Boy face in pencil, to be digitally painted later. 

Should he be wearing a necktie? Denim jacket? Why am I getting a "Robert Smith for The Cure" vibe off of this? 

Drawing Ovals and Triangles With Your Host, Calvin

He's currently 2 and half. 

I'm currently very proud.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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Knowledge Pupates [wip]

Lately I need a warm-up to get back into my commissions, so I've been spending a few minutes here and there with this old drawing, re-painting it with ArtRage. I think the pencils are about 15 years old.

It might appear on Symbiartic in its final form. 

The ebook I have planned will likely be this style, or something close to it. Pieces like this help me think about it.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
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Ent in Autumn, work-in-progress

Worked on this some more this evening while waiting for my son to fall asleep. Kid has such an imagination.

Not done yet. Pencil, imported into my iPhone 4 and painted with the Sketch Club app. 

That Little Glow

Just sent final art off to a client. Feels good to have accomplished some illustration work before 7am on a Monday. That Little Glow. 

It isn't the pic below though: can't show everyone yet!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
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Playing with Watery Trilobites

Been really enjoying painting with my new ArtRage 4 - and I find myself just addicted to messing with the images with various filters in the Halftone app afterward. 

So, that painting I made the other night when I couldn't sleep?  This one?

Yeah; underneath some of the layers it actually started out as more of just a watercolour. 

The shape is a bit different because I painted two layers and then hid this one.

And then I decided to email it to myself, save to my iPhone and play with it in Halftone. 

Here's some watery trilobites. 

I've really been enjoying black, grey and stark white images lately. 

If you haven't tried ArtRage before, I highly recommend it: the watercolours and inks have me hooked and the oil mixing is amazing. Perfect for traditional painters making a transition to digital. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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Distressed and Fit for a Saloon

Playing with ArtRage 4. Then run through the Halftone app for a filter I like.

A Flying Trilobite for 2013. 

How to Destroy Priceless Works of Art is no 1

Totally blogging about this. 

My recent post over at Symbiartic, How to Destroy Priceless Works of Art is currently sitting at the number 1 most read post on the network. 

 Go read it!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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Biology Drug

In university I was asked regularly what I was smoking or doing to come up with ideas in my paintings. 

Answer was I was reading biology. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
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Trilobite Boy has cracks in his fossil face

Instead of acne, suffers from fissures in his fossil face. Start of a new sketch on my work break. 

Regaining That Edge

The eternal debate. After the toddler is good and asleep, do I stay up late and work on contracts? Or get up extra early in the morning? 

Mug design by Glendon Mellow, commissioned by Scicurious

Back when I worked at the art store (before the kid) I would get up around 5a.m. and make art or blog. Then, I'd be thinking about what I had worked on all day and I'd feel good about it. But something happened after being a stay at home dad for almost a year. I've become a night person. An ineffective, exhausted, but can't-get-to-sleep night person. 

So I needed something stronger than coffee to help. Something to help me regain that edge.

That's right: two coffees. 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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A Few Flying Trilobite Facebook Stats

After The Flying Trilobite reached 600+ Likes on Facebook recently, I thought I'd take a look at some of the stats. 

Click to enlarge. As of 9 June 2013.

The stat I like best is that among my most popular age range, 25-34 year olds, the gender divide is pretty close to even. Nice to know my niche paintings are close to gender neutral in appeal. 

Another stat you don't see here, is that though I currently have 580+ friends on Facebook, only 191 of them also Like the art page. For a long time, I've mostly posted separate items on the wall, saving the double-posts for ones I found the most important. Now I'm not so sure if I should bother. Maybe I'll post things at different times of day so it's less repetition in people's streams (though they could silence one or the other). 

Facebook is also giving me $50 of advertising money since I hit 600 Likes: not sure yet what I'll do with it. See if I can post an animated gif of a flying trilobite being swatted with a flyswatter? 

What is it readers like about the page?  Let me know! 

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite © to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
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Tip-Top Steam-Powered Robot

Pencil drawing painted on my iPhone 4 with Sketch Club. I think this one is complete now. 

Trilobite Boy Leaping

Quick lunchtime sketch 

Trilobite Boys - Big Plans, Little Brains

A real birthday treat! 

Morgan Jackson, sent me this wonderful mash-up via Twitter this morning:

He even dug deep into my bloggy archives and included Ana and her pet Opabinia! 

Thanks Morgan!  Funny stuff. And yeah, his Trilobite Boy's (or should I call him T-Boy?  Seems more appropriate) habit of wearing white tanks fits in perfectly. I'll have to illustrate him in plaid next. 

Love this. 

Old Timey Art in Awe of Science

Bunch of Maggots

Quick lousy sketch after listening to a lousy radio program by Toronto's Mayor. 

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