Help Elephants!

Elephant Managers are having an AUCTION.

I've submitted two paintings (below) but there's also an original and a print by Andrew Shek and a couple of paintings done by real live Elephants ..and some other stuff.

Mysticetian nomenclature

Here's a quick 3d model I did after doing a couple of quick digidoodles of a Humpback.
Humpback is possibly the second-least imaginative name in a strong field of whale nameage.
Those huge pectoral fins and general body shape give it one of the most recognisable silhouettes in all whaledom but it got named 'Humpback' because it bends it's spine when it dives.
But the winner is definitely the Blue whale. The least imaginative and useful name in the whole animal kingdom. I think if I discovered it and had to give such a whale a name, it's blueness wouldn't be the most striking attribute.
Silly scienticians.

Oh, before I go. A quick 'did you know?'
Those lumps you see on a real Humpback aren't barnacles or infections of some kind. They're called tubercles and some clever boffins have observed that they improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the fins. They've even put some on a wind turbine and found that "Turbines fitted with tubercles to the leading edges of each blade are able to produce more power at low fluid speeds, are quieter, and perform much better in turbulent fluid streams."
READ ALL ABOUT IT
So there you go.
Now go.






This post is dedicated to my good pal Scruff 'cause, to me, nothing screams Autumn like a humpback whale.

K'nuckles!

A birthday painting for Finbar.
Captain K'nuckles from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack

Flock of paintings

I was in Sweden for a week recently and spent some of the evenings doing these little paintings in my hostel room to pass the time. Each bird is a separate little painting that I left behind me on buses, trains, in hostel rooms etc.
Sparrows, Blue Tits and a Duck. Watercolour on watercolour paper.
You can make your own joke about Swedish birds and tits, I'm too tired and can't be bothered.

Oil Painting

Ink Animals

Calligraphy pen and black ink.

August painting

Paintings for Swed'n. Not the monkey though, he stays with me.

Digidoodles 1

I'm not getting any work done on my own stuff recently for a variety of reasons. Some good, some bad. Here are some quick digidoodles I've done when I've had a few minutes.
I don't like the much-too-prevalent assumption that anything drawn or painted is good and warm and friendly and "charming" and that anything digital is cold and soulless and other stupid phrases. So I'm calling these digidoodles to make them seem more fluffy and cuddly to luddites.

Kitten

I really don't like cats but kittens are nice. I reckon I'd have this wee fella if he was real ...but then when he finally turned into a proper cat it'd be time for a brief but eventful trip to a nearby canal..

Character designs for a little story containing a cat amongst other elements. ...also a bit of watercolour practice.

March "Watercolours"

I was drawing some things the other day and thought it'd be cool if you could draw but with colour so I opened photoshop, printed out some colours, crushed the colours into a powder (I call it "pigment") and then suspended the pigment in water to use it as a medium. So, essentially, it's liquid colour. I've decided to call it watercolour. Preferring the British spelling because it's correct.
I "painted" these images using this "watercolour". Some of them are from photos I've taken, some are from photos from a magazine called National Geographic which I established back in the late 70s and two are from a book called "Sweden, The Forest Kingdom". A lot of people think I invented Sweden but actually I just own it. I don't remember who invented it.

Mother's Day

A mother's day card for mother's day. In this case, the mother in question particularly liked a photo I'd taken of a robin singing his heart out, so I painted it.

..and, for the cynics reading, I am aware that "Mother's Day is a sham, invented, just like Father's Day and Valentine's day, so card companies could make more money from idiotic consumers who blah blah blah fuckin blah blah..."
Put your pseudo-Marxist shite to one side and realise it's just a good chance to show people you know and love that you know them and love them. Obviously that should be a year-round concern but people are busy and don't often express themselves very well for fear of being seen as overly emotional.

Hooray for Mothers.

Hibernophobia

Fear of the inevitable.
Tying leaves to trees to halt the onset of Winter.

Swimming

Sapiens

A birthday card for my brother's 30th. The message on the back reads 'Congratulations, you Homo.'
I like mature, intelligent humour.



For anybody interested, the equation hovering about the human's head is a simplification of The Price Equation.