Calendar peeky-peep

Here's some more peeks at The Flying Trilobite 2009 Calendar.

March.This is the original Mythical Flying Trilobite Fossil painted on shale. There should be a new one gracing my blog banner early in the New Year.

May.

June.

The calendar is available by clicking on the back-cover image in my sidebar, any of the images above, or by clicking here.

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.

Art Monday: business card tweaks

A 3"x2.5" piece of cardstock is supposed to be my standard bearer when introducing people in realspace to my online identity and artwork.

Earlier this month, I began tweaking this important piece of identification. I hope I may ask for some opinions? Things that look great on the computer screen may not look as nice on paper. My favourite has more drawbacks than the others.

a. Classic look.

b. X-ray look.

c. Pop look.

Which is most "me"? Or do I say who cares, which one stands out the most?

The reverse of each of these will simply list the urls for my blog and hub, online gallery, email, and reproduction store. Hmm. Should I add my Facebook page link?

I'm finishing the end of the year indecisive. Decisive will wait for 2009.

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.
2009 Calendars available now!

Art Monday: Encrinurus

Here is the drawing along with the Tra-la-la-lobe-ite painting presented yesterday.

I just hope Walcott discovers what's in those presents. A big thanks to Marek Eby of eTrilobite for joining me in that epoch-old holiday of trilobites at Krismas/Solstice/Newtonmas/Haeckelmas. It just isn't the same without a glass of cinnamon-topped egg nog, a trilobite racing around underfoot and some lovely art.

If you'd like more trilobite art year 'round, why not pick up The Flying Trilobite 2009 Calendar?



Ahh, the holidays...Merry Krismas, everyone!
-Glendon

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store. 2009 Calendar now available!

Tra-la-la-lobe-ite!

Happy Holidays from The Flying Trilobite and eTrilobite!

Tra-la-la-lobe-ite, la, la, la, laaaa!

A brand-new oil painting/digital painting. From drawing to oil painting to digital painting in one day, and I still had time for a family gathering. (Hooray for coffee and egg nog!)

The talented Marek Eby of eTrilobite and I whipped up some three-lobed fun: now mosey on over to eTrilobite and see what Marek and his friend Walcott have been up to! And don't forget to browse eTrilobite's clothing shop!

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I've wanted to paint an Encrinurus trilobite for a while now: ever since reading in a Dorling Kindersley book that they are sometimes referred to as "the strawberry-headed trilobite". I've done a detailed drawing so in the spring I can produce a variant of this image with a strawberry theme. I think this one will make 2010's calendar.

(Don't miss The Disillusioned Taxonomist's excellent holiday paleo-art either!) Feel free to fill up some comments either here or at eTrilobite with other paleo-holiday art links!

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store. 2009 Calendar available now!

This weekend: A Trilobite Holiday Treat

Triple-lobed prehistoric yuley solsticey fun!

Marek Eby of eTrilobite and I will present a pair of holiday trilobite paintings over the weekend! Will Walcott be involved?

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store. 2009 Calendar available now!

Art Monday: loosening up

Painting is still a learning process, or as I refer to it, a struggle. It's rare that I produce a piece I am 100% okay with. Going back and forth on the amount of realism I want to inject into my work is a part of the struggle. The small oil sketch above is a light in the tunnel for me, or perhaps a point-change mutation with beneficial traits being expressed, if you prefer.

This piece, Callimorphia dominula, was created for a colleague as a Secret Santa gift. (The recipient is extremely talented, and though I don't often refer to folks at my day-job, keeping the two worlds separate, you can see Ash's paintings here.) Since her name is Ash, I painted leaves from an ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), and a Scarlet Tiger Moth - - or is it one of the faerie-like Meliae?

The mutation for me was in the attempt to create a thickly-painted -one might say slathered- background, and a realistic foreground.

The background here on the left is obscured, partly because I put the still-very-wet painting onto my scanner, and it left shadows of the sticky paint when it scanned. What you're missing there is largely off-white, with a hint of blue-green.

In the coming months, I hope to get a number of paintings developed, and this little sketch feels like I've uncovered a small but vital technique that breaks a block I've had for a while.


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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.

Art Monday: hadrosaur sketching at the museum

Some museum sketching pics from November, taken at the Royal Ontario Museum.

My nephew and I sketching a Corythosaurus skull he found interesting. He's part of the Explorer's Club there, and received a nice treasure for all the visits this year.
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Comparing my Gryposaurus incurvimanus drawing to the original. I like the interesting reflections of the new Crystal architecture on the glass in this shot.
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The Gryposaurus skull drawing is also featured as one of the dozen months of 2009 in my 1st-ever calendar, on sale for about 23 bucks. And there's still time to get it for the New Year.- -
All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.

Darwin on a pink tee!

In time for the festive Newtonmas to Darwin Day season, there's new items in The Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop! Personally, I'm giving some for Krismas.
The popular Darwin Took Steps image is now available in colour on American Apparel shirts. As before, a portion of the purchase of my Darwin-tees will go toward supporting The Beagle Project, so you wear a surreal image of the controversial biologist-adventurer with pride.

Darwin Took Steps shirts are available in a wide range of colours, as well as four styles of shirt. Just click the t-shirt button and take a look at the choices.
Sweat-shop free, and starting at $23.94 U.S.! RedBubble accepts Australian, U.K., American and Canadian currencies too.
This year I have also put together a calender, a first for me. If you're a fan of my artwork, or surreal scientific illustration, this is the best way to pick up a dozen prints of my work in one place. Here's a some shots of the calender, $22.99 U.S.:

Hmm. I'm kind of digging that white background. Maybe a re-design in the New Year? You can also visit the RedBubble-hosted store and click through to see every month.

Order soon to guarantee it in for Christmas and New Year's!

I've also added cards, prints and canvas-reproductions of my popular Haldane's Precambrian Puzzle in each configuration!

With such a dizzying array of holidays coming up, give the gift of Flying Trilobite.

(Product shots from RedBubble! Thanks RedBubble, you're super-keen!)

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.

My favourite museum.

My submission for The Boneyard #26 over at Traumador the Tyrannosaur: The Royal Ontario Museum.

I love the ornate, classic entrance with its detailed relief.

I love the looming new Crystal, crashing into the old building.
The pachycephalosaur intimidates me and enthralls me, lit from below with a purple light.

I love to go there and draw prehistoric skulls, and interact with extinct creatures that never imagined me - and wonder what in the future I am not imagining.

Gordo is wickedcool. You can't take in his whole skeleton in a glance in the space. I love that children and adults can see him from the street.

I'm disappointed no one got my oreodont joke last year: "an early mammal, the oreodont, and it looks like some predator only licked out the soft middle and left the cookie parts intact".

The museum brings out the child in me.

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All original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow. The contents of this blog are under a Creative Commons Licence. See sidebar for details. Please visit my blog, gallery and reproduction store.