Darwin Day 2011

Happy Darwin Day everyone!

Fawlty Towers Poster Design

design © 2010 Peter Bond

Something non-paleo this time:  Here is the final version of the poster that will advertise the upcoming SMP show, Fawlty Towers.  In the show, which will be made up of two of the television episodes, I get the honor of playing Basil Fawlty.

Yes, him.

While learning John Cleese's many ad-libed lines, I have also thrown together a smaller, bookmark-sized advertisement for easy distribution.

So if you happen to be in the North Vancouver area during late October, stay for a spell at Fawlty Towers and see this amateur artist make a complete fool of himself!

Happy Crawlin' Canada Day!

a Canadian Trilobite: Olenoides serratus of the Burgess Shale 

 - see this and a lot more trilobite art at ART Evolved.

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 3)

Added a simple background...

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 2)

This is Mixosaurus!  Say hi!  As you can see above, he's been given a basic blue colouring.  This is only the beginning...

Liveblogging: Ichthyosaur Edition! (Part 1)

Without a full day to dedicate to liveblogging (aka doing art for 15 hours consecutively in one sitting!), this edition of liveblogging will be an ongoing event where WIPs will be posted often.

For this edition, an ichthyosaur is the subject (to be included into May's ART Evolved Ichthyosaur Gallery!)  While teaching Math yesterday, I managed to throw down a quick sketch of an ichthyosaur I kinda liked.

I like how droopy his snout is - he looks very Muppet-like.  And, yes, his tail is completely wrong!  He was sketched in pencil, then the brightness was digitally lowered to give him an inked look.  From here, I plan to digitally colour him and place him in a created environment.

Any guesses as to his name?

A Special Event of Phenominal Preportions

Medals:  USA  39  -  Germany 29  -  Canada 25  -  Norway 22 -  Austria 16  -  Russia 15
GOLD:  Canada 13  -  Germany  10  -  USA  9  -  Norway  8 ...
 
Today was the Greatest Olympic Day yet!  3 Gold Medals!!!  Canada is now third in medal standing and leading in Gold Medals!

With Craig staying with me in Vancouver (and spending all our time enjoying the Olympics!), we are finally able to sit down and do something arty and creative.  So we've decided to do something radical and potentially damaging to our friendship.

Craig work with computer graphics, while I work with pencil and paper.  We thought that it would be interesting to work together and see if we can create something together - a joint dinosaur project using both of our skills!

For this, we're taking on the most famous of dinos - Tyrannosaurus rex!  The progress of this Epic Event is being documented on Craig's blog Weapon of Mass Imagination. 

The process works like this:  Craig creates a tyrannosaur in CG, and I create a tyrannosaur on paper in pencil, and then we digitally lay one over the other to see the difference between the recreations.  The point is to use both our interpretations, along with reference material from the internet and books (specifically Tomas Holtz's) to create an uber Rex.  The final product will be in CG, as we are able to walk through each body part and discuss and tweak it much more easily that on paper.

Step 1: Our two images, side-by-side (left-mine, right-Craig)

I am extremely interested in where this project will lead.  This is the first time Craig and I have worked together side-by-side on the same thing.  We both have our strong opinions, and have already come to blows over honestly stupid details, such as adding muscle grooves and ear-placement.

Anyway, check our progress out here and let us know how we are doing!  Here come the King!

Berlin Brachio...er... Giraffatitan Reconstruction

Giraffatitan brancai Restoration - The New Berlin Mount

With ART Evolved's Sauropod Gallery up in all it's glory, I quietly added one more piece from me - a brachiosaur in pen-and-ink with dot-shading. Officially, it is a reconstruction of the new mount of the Berlin Brachiosaurus ...err... Giraffatitan branchai.

Giraffatitan. A name just not as cool as ol'Brachio. If you're interested in why this specimen was renamed, check out here and here. My interest lies not in the new name, but with the new mount.

Back in the summer of 2002, I traveled around Europe by train (good ol'Eurorail!), checking out the many museums and beer halls the UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Germany has to offer.

Besides the beer, wine, rich food and chocolate consumed, one of my favorite things I found in Europe was the Berlin Brachiosaur - yes, still Brachiosaurus in 2002 - at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. It was huge - a mighty testament to an amazing animal as well as to the scientists who discovered, prepared and mounted her. Umm, created her mount. Yeah.

Still the tallest mounted skeleton in the world, the Berlin Brachiosaur was updated when the museum underwent renovations. Gone were the elbows-out arms and draggy tail. Now she strides elegantly in lovely Greg Paul-style, head held high and arms underneath.

You can see the transformation from the original pose in these 2002 pictures (before digital panorama ability!) and the new pose in the Wikipedia picture at the top of the post. Next to that new mounted Giraffatitan is my pen drawing of the animal reconstructed. As you can see, I moved the positioning of the back legs, to make it look more stable where it stands.

I love this specimen - one of my favorites out there, and when sauropods became the next ART Evolved gallery, it seemed right to reconstruct the Giraffatitan. (Though she'll always be the ol'definitive Brachiosaurus to me.)

Having delved into these old European museum photos, I feel the need to share them. And so begins a new series here on Bond's Blog - A Photographic Tour of Museums I've Been To: Europe - Part 1: Berlin. Coming soon...

Creative Spaces

I was invited by Sean Craven to share my creative space - the inspired area where the art and magic happens. Of course, I said Yes!

Welcome to the Chateau de Bond, a small and cluttered place with a wonderful view. My creative space occupies the main table (cleaned up for guests!) as well as the surrounding floors and walls.

My creative space: desk, chair, computer, paper, pens, paints, books.

Opposing view of my creative space: books, films, view.


The flat surface for painting, the digital box for photoshopping and blogging.
The larger screen is new (birthday present - a few days old!) and triples the size of my digital workspace.
It is so much brighter than my little powerbook! Another Mac user.

The acrylic paints I've been using for the last 9 years (Delta Creamcoat and Liquitex)

A selection of inspiration from the shelf.

A model of the stage I am designing for as Stage Designer for SMP's new pantomime - the Wizard of Oz!
(I should blog more about this, as it's an exciting project and takes up much of my summer time off.)

More inspiration: the view out the window = East North Vancouver and Burnaby. I love the sounds of the seabirds and trains...

So there you go. The tour of where I do my work, though sketching and developing ideas happens in the sketchbook - which is portable: on the couch, in bed, on the beach. Art can hit you anywhere!

Look to ART Evolved soon for a collection of Creative Spaces from other artists.

Longest Heat Wave since 1880 in Vancouver

Today was the hottest day EVER in Vancouver! 33.8C downtown and 42C in surrounding towns!

Whew, it is hot. We in Vancouver are not used to this heat (899 degrees F...maybe. I don't know Fahrenheit.) This is the longest stretch of over 32 degrees weather (3 days) since 1880! Yuck!

It makes it harder to work on Mr. Anomalocaris!

Anomalocarid sketches - developing ideas for the next ART Evolved Gallery

The Making of Two Pterosaur Pieces!

With a bit over one month to go before the September ART Evolved Gallery (Anomalocarids), I felt that I needed to do a little "making of" of both of my Pterosaur paintings from the last Pterosaur Art Gallery.

The first piece is "Arambourgiania Family Unit" and I have documented it's creation and composition on ART Evolved here. Check it out!

Arambourgiania Family Unit - 2009

The second piece I created was more patriotic! As the Pterosaur Gallery when online on July 1st (Canada Day), I thought it important - as a Canadian - to celebrate just a bit. So "Canadian Quetzalcoatlus" was born.

It began here, as an acrylic painting on white paper. The shape was designed to subtly resemble the iconic Maple Leaf of our flag. Once this image was digitized (using my camera), I imported it into Photoshop, where I tweaked the colour contrast and brightness. Two red bars on each side of the "flag" were added, along with shading and shadowing.

Canadian Quetzalcoatlus - 2009

Tada. and now, onto Anomalocarids...

Happy Flappin' Canada Day

a Canadian Quetocoatlus - see this and a lot more pterosaur art at ART Evolved.

Everything Pterosaurs

With ART Evolved's next gallery - Pterosaurs - coming up fast (opens July 1st!), I have been reading tons and learning a lot about these wonderful animals. Anatomy, musculature, behavior, locomotion... and reproduction. Not sex per say, but birth and babies!

With the wonderful discussion on pterosaur locomotion and wing attachment here on ART Evolved and through searching reliable sites on the net, such as Pterosaur Net, I found answers to few of my questions: Did pterosaurs lay eggs? Yes, pterosaur eggs were found in 2004. Hard or soft shelled eggs? Soft, like those of turtles and crocodiles. Were parents involved in raising their babies? Maybe not, as pterosaur babies hatch with a mostly formed bones and wings, so it could walk and maybe fly upon hatching. Thus having no need for parents to bring them food, etc.

But I have a few unanswered questions that maybe a few of you in the palaeological community might help me out and make my art better!

1. How many eggs/babies did pterosaurs have each season?
2. How well could baby pterosaurs fly?
3. What would baby pterosaurs eat? (I am specifically interested in azhdarchids)
   

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As for my piece, here are quick sketches of four ideas I had. I am pulled toward the last one:

The last sketch shows an azhdarchid feeding its child. Since sketching it, I'm leaning more towards the parent NOT being so important in baby pterosaur lives. So I developed the next sketch:A mother azhdarchid leaves her nest, while three babies pop out of the vegetation covering their eggs and stretch their wings. I really love Mark Witton's quadruped interpretation of these huge pterosaurs, so this painting will be an homage to his style!

Any help making this reconstruction more accurate would be greatly appreciated.

Minmi and Thoughts on Palaeoart

I recieved an email from Craig at The Tyrannosaur Chronicles wondering if I could provide a little art for an upcoming post about Australian ankylosaurs. He was looking for a life-reconstruction of Minmi, the small dinosaur from Down Under.

Great, I thought and I asked him for money. He laughed in my face (monitor?) and told me I'd get the traffic from his site as "commission." Ha.

Have you ever visited the Tyrannosaur Chronicles?!? It's about a puppet dinosaur! But it's also great! An exciting and hilarious fictional adventure that stars a new theropod hero for our times! Of course I'd do it. What are friends for?

You can learn about Minmi, the cute Australian creature here.

So here it is, a reconstruction of Minmi paravertebra, done in watercolor and pen - step by step:

The pencil sketch

The finalized pose, outlined in ink.

The base watercolours and ink detail applied.

The Final Result:

Minmi paravertebra in Sunshine by Peter Bond

Thoughts on Palaeoart:

Artists on blogs such as the Flying Trilobite, Raptor's Nest, and Druantia Art produce wonderful work everyday. But how much palaeoart is needed in the world? Is there ever enough? I don't think so, but I am confused.

So I looked. Below is a selection of other artist's reproductions of Minmi I found using Google Image Search:

Whoops! This is Minmi, the Japanese hip-hop singer!

Not to be confused with our cute little ankylosaur:

As you can see, there is a huge variety in Minmi's shape, musculature, armour, spikes, and colour. So much so that each picture looks like a different animal! This is strange as about 95% of the skeleton has been found. Some artists chose to represent Minmi more like a stegosaur while others chose an ankylosaur-like style. I chose more of a nodosaur-like shape for my painting. But the question is: which one is correct?

None of them, ... or all of them. The point is we don't know and it's almost impossible to "know" what a prehistoric creature looks like. Also, as more and more material is unearthed and new discoveries come to light, palaeoart evolves. Does this accounts for the variation abong the Minmi reproductions? Or is it just artistic license? Do artists need to follow the scientific literature?

"Palaeoart links Scientists to the Public." Thoughts?

Cheers! These thoughts on palaeoart are mostly question, but maybe you have some answers.
So long, and one more Min-mi for the road!

Art Prehistoria #1: Megalosaur

Art Prehistoria - a new feature on my blog where I detail the process behind creating piece of art, from sketch to signature. The prehistoric theme is by no means meant to be restrictive but inspiring. I also just love to draw dinosaurs!

Our first piece of art is a life reconstruction of a generic megalosaur for The Tyrannosaur Chronicles blog's post on New Zealand dinosaur fossils:

First, I sketch a few different thumbnail sketches until I am satisfied with a pose. Using the skeleton and anatomical reference pictures, I decided on a menacing walking pose with its mouth open. This initial pencil sketch was changed and tweaked quite a bit before I was happy with it...

Next, I outlined the pencil sketch in black pen ink. This is the final (happier-looking) pose.

I had decided that this New Zealand Dino project would be created in watercolour. Here, I apply a base coat of watercolour paint over the body. The black ink begins to run with the water...

Then, I add more detail in fine watercolour lines and the black pen is used to smooth out the seeping ink...

A Megalosaur by Peter Bond

Finally, I add the third fingers, small details, a shadow and a signature, and we are done the first piece of Art Prehistoria. I am quite pleased and taken with the little theropod! Artistic and scientific feedback and suggestions are much, much appreciated!

More from the New Zealand Collection soon - including a sauropod and a raptor...
Check out Prehistoric Insanity Production's blog for this and more palaeoart from PI's team!