Trying Something Bold

Pretty soon I plan to have a new website portfolio and probably even an integrated blog. I may be leaving my 7 year home here on Blogspot pretty soon.

Above is a logo, badge icon thingee I'm trying out.

The two contenders for my future website are Squarespace and newcomer with mystery future-features Artstation. More about all of this soon. 
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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!

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. 

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!

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!

Hybrid Flying Trilobite

Recent sketch in my Moleskine.

My professional portfolio on deviantART - stay or go?

The last few years if you've looked at glendonmellow.com , it's whisked you away to the URL otherwise known as daportfolio.com/179939 - I have been using the popular art site deviantART for my professional art portfolio hosting. I'm considering a change and would love some opinions. Below I have my pros and cons.

Before I say much more (an oh, I'm gonna), there is a big difference between a standard dA account page and their portfolio service. I'm not planning to leave dA entirely, just considering whether or not to stop paying for Premium and using their professional portfolios.

Here's the visuals:

Standard dA bio page. 

Portfolio bio page.

Standard dA gallery page.

Portfolio gallery page.

I pay about $30 a year for the Premium service (last year with some very welcome donations from fans for this new dad). The Premium Portfolio means:

• I can customize the URL, hence the very original glendonmellow.com.
• No ads from deviantART appear on my page.
• I can make new portfolios, add specific page URLS through my domain host (like published.glendonmellow.com ) 
• There's lots of image storage. 

Those are all decent features in the plus column.

Here's a couple of other things I like:

• Layout forces me to stay clean and simple for potential clients. 
• It really easy for me to change and add or drop artwork. 
• Limits on how much art per gallery forces me to keep it fresh for return clients.
• I occasionally add my entire resume to it as a pdf download - not there at the moment, but that's neat-o. 
• I love how it looks. 

But here are the features in the minus column that have me wondering if my $30/year would be better served somewhere else. 

• Not enough links. The text on the bio page is insanely limited and includes the HTML - so when something helpful to my business like say, Google+ crops up, I have to delete another important - actually important, not just for fun - link from the link list. They limit the text so that the whole portfolio has no scrolling. Yeah cool. But to link to my Scientific American gig and increasing Media list, I had to drop links to two other blogs I have contributed to. 
• I pay for no ads, but I get pranks. This past April Fools' Day, deviantART thought it would be funny to pretend they were taken over by cats and there was a pop-up that if you wanted, would lead you further into the joke. Or you could disable it. Each time you went on dA on April 1st, it would pop back up. Kind of funny stuff, but I pay for no dA ads, and here's a silly joke I had no part in designing that any potential client was going to get stuck figuring out for a whole day. Pissed me right off. 
• No links in art descriptions. Click on the little letter "i" under the art, get some neat info about the image. But no links to further information, and it's reduced to about two short sentences. I do science-based art. It sometimes needs a bit more explanation about the client, project, subject and materials. You know. The professional details. 
• No statistics. This is the worst. The HTML I am allowed to use is on the bio page only, and is very very basic. No third party html widgets or gadgets to track stats using SiteMeter or Statcounter or even Google Analytics. When the portfolio service first launched I assumed this was coming at some point (dA offers crazy amounts of stats for their basic accounts). That was 2.5 years ago. Last year, when Annalee Newitz of the popular geek site io9.com featured Trilobite Boy and some of art in a fun article, they appropriately linked back to glendonmellow.com . And though I can see on the io9 article that it had over 14000 views (most just in those first few days) I have absolutely no idea how many went through to my own portfolio.

So. Do I stay or go?  If I go, does anyone have any good suggestions?  


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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!

Oh hey, this looks familiar.

The buggy nightmare of Dynamic Views on The Flying Trilobite has ended.

For now.

For those who want to know my reasons for changing back, here's what I said in the discussion on G+:

My reasons for wanting to switch back to my old template: 

1. I think the alternate Dynamic Views button is too prominent. They're neat, but unnecessary and confusing. 

2. Commenting only really works if you're logged into your (Google, Yahoo etc) account before you start typing the comment. Otherwise it sends you to an old-style Blogger comment page, and doesn't bring the comment with it (hitting back allows you to find the comment again). 

3. "Below the fold" articles don't open up at all in the magazine layout. see:http://glendonmellow.blogspot.com/2011/10/illustration-blogging-why-its-essential.html

4. I liked having some of my widgets/gadgets in the sidebar and footer, though I think this exercise in Dynamic Views has made me realize I could lose tons of them and not care. Gadgets are apparently a work-in-progress for Blogger and will be coming back. 

5. It's working in every view I have tested: Safari, Chrome and Firefox. My iPhone picks up the mobile template and doesn't read Dynamic Views. But it sounds like some people are having problems with it. 

6. The HTML5 animations of transitions are sometimes choppy, and my internet connection is pretty damn good.

Thanks to everyone who commented and weighted in on Twitter, G+ and here on the blog. I learned how many gadgets I miss and how many I don't.  Changes haven't ended, but I thinking taking a step back after plunging forward is good for the design.

Changes haven't ended.  After all, when The Flying Trilobite turns 5 in a few months, it'll need a facelift.

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

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

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite?

Are the wings clipped on The Flying Trilobite? 

A couple of weeks ago, I made the jump to using Blogger's Dynamic Views here on The Flying Trilobite. 

After receiving a heartfelt complaint from a friend and colleague about the site re-design, I thought I'd ask:

• Does it work aesthetically?  
• For those familiar with it, was it better before with the simpler template? 
• Is it crashing every time you try to load it? 
• Are the individual posts functioning? 
• Are they too hard to read (if you follow a link to a single post, the banner stays affixed in place and takes up half the screen - which doesn't happen if you click on one from the main page)?

Gadgets in the sidebar apparently will be coming back, so I'm not too concerned with those.

Would love any and all feedback. 

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

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

Science-Art Geek iPhone 4 cases!

Available now, in my print shop at RedBubble.

Here's some specs from RedBubble themselves:

Uncommon spent months in the desert inventing a revolutionary and top secret printing process called TATT™, which embeds the design into the case—so no fading or peeling, ever. It all sounds a bit space age really, which we quite like.

Our cases were made specifically for the iPhone 4S & 4, ensuring that all of your bits, pieces and functions line up where they should. Plus, Uncommon cases are chosen by Apple for sale in Apple Stores. Seal of approval right there.

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In addition to selling these designs on an ongoing basis, I'm also looking for someone to finance a few as prizes for ScienceOnline12 ! Please email me at theflyingtrilobite at gmail dot com if interested. 
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop 
I hope everyone enjoys my cheesy mirror effect above.

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

Ammonite-hands

Click to enlarge.

A little sketch I did after dinner last night. Ammonite-hands are predatory creatures, I assume.

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

New! Art Evolved aggregate feed

By clicking the shiny, shiny button above, you can follow all the blogs in the Art Evolved group!

There's like, 20 of us in the network at present, making paleo-themed art that ranges from scientific illustration to surreal to silly.

Check out the blogs!

• http://babbletrish.blogspot.com/
• http://blogevolved.blogspot.com
• http://coherentlight.blogspot.com/
• http://seancraven.blogspot.com/search/label/paleo%20art
• http://www.weaponofmassimagination.blogspot.com/
• http://prehistoric-insanity.blogspot.com/
• http://cawbox.blogspot.com/search/label/dinosaur
• http://drawnintime.blogspot.com/
• http://paleoking.blogspot.com/
• http://traumador.blogspot.com/
• http://www.phillyrawrblog.blogspot.com/
• http://blacknick-sculpture.blogspot.com/
• http://www.drip.de/
• http://whenpigsfly-returns.blogspot.com/search/label/Paleontology
• http://art-by-angie.blogspot.com/
• http://subhumanfreak.blogspot.com/
• http://mambobob-raptorsnest.blogspot.com/
• http://www.etrilobite.com/
• http://petersaurus.blogspot.com/
• http://glendonmellow.blogspot.com

I've also made a feed widget available to our members, you can see it in my left sidebar (I may move things around though).
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence. 


Portfolio
Blog
Print Shop

Art Monday: sketchy twitobite

My current Twitter background. Click to enlarge.

A montage incorporating sketches and drawings from the last few months.

The difference between a drawing and a sketch you ask? Drawings are considered to be more final, polished art. Sketches are the rougher, playful, workin'-it-out type of marks on paper.

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

Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: what's this all about?

While I was at ScienceOnline2010, I was lucky enough to get in another fascinating conversation with Roger Harris. At one point, Roger was telling me about how he had explained the flying trilobites to someone, and I was riveted. It was an explanation I hadn't heard before, not far from my thoughts, but taken in a much more socially relevant direction (there aren't a lot of people more socially relevant than Roger, I suspect).

So what's this all about?

Why would I spend that last 14 years populating my drawings and paintings with trilobites with wings? Lend the concept to my blog's title and theme for the last (almost) 3 years?
What do you think these weird drawings mean to me, enough that I would actually get one tattooed on my left forearm?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and interpretations.

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

Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: Krismas Classic

(Oil without digital.)

(Oil with digital.)

Merry Krismas and Happy Holidays everyone!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Geology in Art by Andrea Baucon

Paleontologist, geologist and artist, Andrea Baucon has a deep interest in trace fossils, the little marks made by the passing of extinct organisms. Fittingly, he has put together a book tracing geology's path through the arts.
Geology in Art: an unorthodox path from visual arts to music is a large coffee-table of a book, covering the imagery and influence of that natural earth upon which we stand in music, paintings, fiction and even wine.

From the book's site:

"The contemporary art world is analyzed through interviews, in the belief that artists’ opinions and statements are valid source materials for the study of Geologic Art.
With its large format and more than 100 illustrations of art works, this is both a coffee-table book and an educational experience that informs, inspires and entertains Art and Geology enthusiasts alike."

Months ago, Andrea emailed me to ask if he could interview me and include some of my images in the book. I agreed, and I have seen the earlier incarnation as a more scholarly .pdf document. This blows it away. What a wonderfully rich book. I feel honoured to be in the same collection as Andy Goldsworthy and Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics and so many others.

You can preview the entire book on Blurb. My contribution includes an interview along with a photo of my tattoo, both configurations of Haldane's Precambrian Puzzle and in the fiction section, Life As a Trilobite.

(Thanks to my paleo-art peep Peter Bond for posting the news on Art Evolved!)
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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

Art Monday: steampunk trilocopter sketch

My last day before returning to school tomorrow. Had a bit of time to monkey around some more with ArtRage and I loooooovvvve it. For the first time in my life I have a new computer; triple-core, 4MB ram, 750MB hard drive and magic elves. I know this may sound ridiculously provincial, but the screen is awesome. And it takes my digital tablet strokes beautifully.

I used my Intuos 3 tablet to sketch out this rough idea in the amazing ArtRage. I cannot recommend this digital painting program enough. The interface is so close to using real paint & pencil (but with an undo key!) it's stunningly elegant for a greasy oil painter like myself to use.

Steampunk flying trilobites: I've had this idea kicking around since my first year online, and I figure with the technology upgrade in my art I might as well give the little critters an upgraded mode of flying. The big one in the middle is a dirigible (I love that word.)

Here's the first one, sketched to simulate pencil. This is a digital sketch, not something I scanned. Obviously I'm happy with the software simulation of graphite.Here's a duplicate, transformed and re-worked, this time adding some digital paint to it. Again, this is just me goofing around.Tomorrow I'm back at York U, and this term I'm taking Drawing & Narrative. Seemed like a wise thing to take in this portion of my semi-illustrator career.

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow
under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

A graffiti prezzie!

Artist and nature illustrator Carel Pieter Brest van Kempen who blogs at Rigor Vitae: Life Unyielding gave me this via Facebook's graffiti application for my birthday earlier this month:Hee! Wait - what's in that luggage? Not clothes...?

You can find Carel's book of astounding art here. Check out that juicy hippo maw!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
Except this piece above, this art came from a Master to whom I bow my head.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

New poll: Flying Trilobite load times

Does this blog take too much time to load?

I've worried about this since its inception, and tried loading it on multiple computers. Usually I'm okay with it, but then again I'm the author.

Have your say in my sidebar poll, or in the comments below!

Currently I have it set-up to show the last 10 posts. I've been considering jettisoning more of my sidebar gadgets & widgets as well. (Tag cloud? Does anyone even look at those any more?) Typically I also try to save my images at a resolution that maintains a compromise between image quality and load times.

Anyway I'm curious, and the poll is anonymous. Thanks!

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Original artwork on The Flying Trilobite Copyright to Glendon Mellow under Creative Commons Licence.
Flying Trilobite Gallery *** Flying Trilobite Reproduction Shop ***

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!

Why the "Flying Trilobite"?

"The brain is a three-pound mass you can hold in your hand that can conceive of a universe a hundred billion light-years across." -Marian C. Diamond

There is true beauty in how the human brain can comprehend the truly strange. All my life I have been fascinated by fossils and evolution. Trilobites became extinct 275 million years ago, and yet, I can hold a fossil trilobite in the palm of my hand, and understand some things about it. They are gone; but understood, remembered, and interesting.

I also paint in oils and draw (love that.3mm mechanical pencil!) Along with reading books on biology and evolution, I have an urge to create paintings, even to the point where the need is stronger than any pleasure I am deriving from painting. Artists out there know what I mean. You just have to do it, or the muscle memory and welling up of ideas starts to make you mentally itchy. This is another amazing aspect of being alive.

On a piece of mine called The Forever Painting I painted a trilobite, free of the water, hovering on delicate wings. Some trilobites of sub-Order Redlichiina, genus Balcoracania have these nifty spines halfway down the body, that just lent to my imagination wing-coverings. (I highly recommend www.trilobites.info , an excellent site by Sam Gon III!)

Chitinous wings are buzzing. This is the start of The Flying Trilobite Blog. There will be images up soon.

--Glendon Mellow