New Year's Goblin

New Year's Goblin © Glendon Mellow

Happy New Year to all my friends, families and supporters of my art and The Flying Trilobite blog!

Next year, may all your goblins be small-ish and cheery.

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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 Scientific American Blog Network!

Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America

Cover photo of Buprestis rufipes by Ted MacRae

Buprestis striata field guide page showing colour variations.

Sample key to genera page. All characters used in the key are illustrated with either high magnification photographs or simple illustrations.

Trachys generic page from Field Guide to Jewel Beetles featuring original artwork by scientific illustrator/artist Glendon Mellow.

(*All above image captions by Morgan Jackson.) 
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Last summer, I had Beetle Week here on The Flying Trilobite, to show a series of Ontario jewel beetle paintings I was commissioned to illustrate by entomologist and insect photographer Morgan Jackson, blogger at Biodiversity in Focus. 

The book is now available - including limited copies for FREE, and its a beauty!

I'm so thrilled my illustrations get to share the same pages as photos from Ted McCrae, Morgan Jackson, and many others.

My thanks to Morgan and his co-authors, Stephen M Paiero, Adam Jewiss-Gaines, Troy Kimoto, Bruce D Gill, and Stephen A Marshall.

For another look at the book, and details on getting a copy, check out Morgan's announcement post at Biodiversity in Focus. Make sure to read how this book came about, and learn about the changing beetle landscape.

You can also find merchy-merch on sale in my online store  with the illustrations I created - greeting cards, framed prints, iPhone cases, tees, 2013 calendar and more.

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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!

Black and White Trilobite iPhone Case

New iPhone case in my online store!  A sophisticated black and white trilobite for those moments in life where you need your glowing device to make a statement: "hey, I don't need hundreds of colours".
There's more cases available than are pictured here for iPhone 3,4, & 5 as well as iPod touch - and coming in the new year, iPad cases too! 

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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!

Interview with Legendary Illustrator James Gurney

"Inspiring New Realities: interview with James Gurney"

Check out my Symbiartic interview at Scientific American: http://t.co/tvYotjaw

Beetles + Trilobites 2013 Calendar

It's here! And marked 10% off!

http://www.redbubble.com/people/flyingtrilobite/calendars/9728704-an-inordinate-fondness-for-beetles-trilobites

RedBubble print quality is fantastic, and there's no more economical way to get your hands on some surreal science for the new year.

Gamers for Godlessness 24 Hour Gameathonapalooza!

Lousy Canuck (Jason Thibeault) and JT Eberhard are currently engaged in a 24 hour long video gaming marathon, with guests Skyping in! Money raised goes to the fine people at Camp Quest and Women in Secularism.

I'll be joining them for a chat (and to help keep them awake) starting at about 1 am tonight!  Probably talk about atheism in comic book games, and I'm hoping to discuss Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed.

Oh - the little banner I whipped up, above, was made on my iPhone using Sketch Club with some lettering a cloning done in Photoshop afterward.

Visit them here!  You can comment and join in the fun.
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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!

Arthropod Meeting

Sometimes I forget just how useful warm-up sketches and painting can be. Enjoying taking old pencil sketches and digitally watercolour painting them with ArtRage to get my engine running for commissioned projects. 

I tend to build up a lot of neurotic "all conditions must be perfect in life, studio and mindset" hang-ups before I get started on things. It's good to visually slap myself out of it by working on pieces like this that are already decent drawings, and just play loose with the colour. 

I like this enough I made prints available in my store. - - - - - - - -

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 On The Wall

As much as I feel satisfied when I create something(satisfied the twitchy itch to draw or paint has been sated temporarily, that is), I feel excited about seeing that someone is enjoying the finished art.

Here's journalist Tyler Dukes' (@mtdukes) art wall, featuring a print of my Darwin Took Steps, an image by Alex Wild, and many others:

Tyler Dukes' science-art wall.

Entomologist and insect photographer Morgan Jackson (@BioInFocus) of the Biodiversity in Focus blog has my original drawing Latest Fashion from Paris now framed and sitting among his fly genitalia diagrams in his lab: 

Morgan Jackson displayed Latest Fashion From Paris in his lab, and on Instagram.

Anyone else out there have some of my artwork displayed? On a wall, an iPhone case or sitting on a shelf?  I'd love to share some more pictures of Flying Trilobite art in the wild.


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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!

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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Prints available. - - - - - - - -

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!

Halloween with a Turtle

Our son is almost 2 and loved Hallowe'en. Even ventured up to a couple of houses on his own while we waited at the walk.

My wife read him "Goodnight Goon" to send him off to bed.

Happy Hallowe'en brave turtle!

Illustrated Five Word Stories

Last Friday, I was messing around on my iPhone while waiting to see my respirologist. I became fascinated by the #FiveWordStories hashtag on Twitter, masterfully being played around with by comic book writer Gail Simone and many other people.

I decided to try a few of my own, and attach some past artwork. I wasn't sure at first if attaching the art was cheating, but judging from the favourites and retweets, I kept going. 





It was a lot of fun and a nice creative challenge. Maybe I'll try that again.

Most of the images above are available for sale in my online shop as prints, cards and more. You can find me as @flyingtrilobite on Twitter.

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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!

9 Years

High Five

High Five - Flying Trilobite and Tiktaalik © Glendon Mellow

This high five goes out to my bloggy buddy-cop policing science-art, Kalliopi Monoyios. Kalliopi and I co-blog on Symbiartic, the art + science blog on the Scientific American blog network.

For the month of September 2012, we set out to post 30 pieces of science-art, in a SciArt of the Day feature - and we made it. At times it was a bit of a marathon, but the wealth of art out there and the graciousness of the many fine artists, illustrators and creators we tapped on the shoulder was amazing. Thanks everyone!

We showed art by a viking blacksmith, horror illustrator, abstract expressionist, trompe l'oiel, superhero comic artist, cartoonists, fermented bacteria clothing, steampunk Renaissance rhinos, polarized micro-thin rocks, concept art and much more. The attempt was in part to challenge perceptions on what effective science communication can look like.

What does the future hold? We have more plans, lots of long and short posts on the go, and we'll continue to showcase creators and their images relating to science communication, education and entertainment.

You can see them all at the SciArt of the Day label on Symbiartic. We also have the whole first year's worth of science+art posts indexed here.

And Kalliopi: props. 

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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!

There's a Trilobite loose in the App Store!

That's how this oil painting:

© Glendon Mellow

Became this:

© Glendon Mellow

Using Manga Camera, Halftone and Instagram, respectively. I love seeing my images in different versions.

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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!

Two-Headed Mutant Ammonite

© Glendon Mellow

I mentioned on Twitter I was drawing a two-headed mutant ammonite. 
Here's the discussion. 

. @flyingtrilobite's tweet makes me wonder: are there any fossils of two-headed animals?

— Ed Yong(@edyong209) August 29, 2012

@edyong209 @flyingtrilobite Yep. A two-headed reptile hatchling:news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/0…

— Mary Beth Griggs (@MaryBethGriggs) August 29, 2012

I LOVE SCIENCE AND TWITTER AND THE WORLD RT @marybethgriggs: @flyingtrilobite Yep. A two-headed reptile hatchling:bit.ly/RmKx5s

— Ed Yong(@edyong209) August 29, 2012

@edyong209 See rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/1/81… in Biology Letters - 2-headed champsosaur from China's Cretaceous

— Andrew A. Farke (@AndyFarke) August 29, 2012

@edyong209 If you believe in yourself, one day *you* might be a two-headed fossil, Ed. Make your own dreams come true.

— Glendon Mellow (@flyingtrilobite) August 29, 2012

@edyong209 @flyingtrilobite SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.

— Brian George (@brianggeorge) August 29, 2012

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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!

Fossil Fish Sketch

Loosely based on Diplomystus, here's a fossil fish I've been sketching while waiting to pick up my son from daycare.

Little Landscape Photos

I'm no photographer but I've been having fun playing around with these little photographic details. They're from my recent vacation. Using Instagram and Photoshop Express on my iPhone.

These are the types of things I'm thinking about while exploring ideas do a big painting in the works.

Successful Start for My New Portfolio!

Hey hey! I'm excited. 48 hours in, my domain URL not fully migrated yet, and already I've had over 1200 views on my new site. Thanks everyone! 

Finally got fed-up enough with the lack of statistics and support from DeviantArt about their Portfolio service -I really think they've abandoned developing it- so I decided to hunt around and give Blogger's Dynamic Views another try.

I've complained about my problems with DeviantArt Portfolios before, and played with Dynamic Views before.

I decided to go with the Flipcard view to start, and then hunted around to see what other artist-bloggers may have done to tweak the service.

I found a terrific tutorial by fantasy art illustrator Dan Dos Santos on the stellar Muddy Colors blog that solved about 90% of my desired tweaks.

Then, I remembered a great blog for css tweaks to Dynamic Views I had found months ago when messing around, Southern Speakers.

The changes and tweaks were quick and easy, just a couple of hours. Uploading the art and adding links took a while longer. The great thing is, unlike DeviantArt Portfolios, I can have links to my online store, and buttons for tweets and +1 and Likes right below the art.

Note the links to blog posts, my online store, and buttons to +1, tweet or Like. Niftiness!

There seems to be a delay with my glendonmellow.com migrating to URL to mask the site - but clicking on www.glendonmellow.com seems to work fine for most people.

If you'd like to see the old site for comparisons' sake, it's still there. I really admire the set-up DeviantArt Portfolios had going, but it wasn't flexible and the lack of statistics really bothered me.

Thanks for checking out my new home!


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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!

Fossil Gears

One of the highlights during our road trip from Toronto to Halifax was spending a night at atheist-political-sciencey blogger Lousy Canuck's place. Jason and Jodi were kind enough to put our travelling caravan up for the night and introduce us to the wonder of Portal 2. 

To thank @lousycanuck and @pixelsnake for their hospitality, I repainted one of the paintings on slate from my (now-dismantled) final school project into this new work, Fossil Gears. 

The visit was far too short. We need to meet up again some time! 

Flying Trilobite, left, Lousy Canuck, right.

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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!

Bay of Fundy

Vacation with my family.

On Vacation

On vacation, driving to Halifax. Stopped in Montreal for poutine and then spent the night in River de Loup.