New Blog: "Dinosaur Hunting by Boat!"

There's a new paleo-blog on the horizon - one that follows an epic journey searching for dinosaur bones by boat!

Tyrrell Museum palaeontologist Darren Tanke's blog, Dinosaur Hunting by Boat in 2010, is up and running. It will follow his historical reenactment and reconstruction of Barnum Brown's scow, Mary Jane, floating down the Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada - which originally navigated the river and searched for fossils in 1912.

It will be an exciting project, one I will be following closely! What I wouldn't give to be part of it...

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...

Goodbye Toby

Toby James Bond
1992 - 2009

I've been out of the blogsphere for a while dealing with the decision of putting my family dog, Toby, down. It's been a tough few weeks because, as Toby's body was getting weaker, his mind and heart were still youthful and strong. At 17 years old, his kidneys and back legs were failing him, and it was time to make a decision. My sister and I took him to the vet yesterday, and he passed peacefully in our arms. It's hard to convey how tough it's been, since Toby's been with me his whole life - since I was 13 years old. Through my high schools, universities, jobs, careers, girlfriends, travels. Toby was an smart, energetic, happy, loving dog and I will miss him terribly. He had a fantastic life and was loved by everyone who met him.

Goodbye buddy. You're a good boy.

Happy Flappin' Canada Day

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

Sharkwater

Last Friday, I was lucky enough to catch a free showing of Sharkwater at the Park Theater, presented by the Vancouver Aquarium.

While it has been a very movie-centic week (Sharkwater, Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2, and a Ghostbusters double feature in theaters), I haven't neglected the prehistoric side of life! ART Evolved's third Gallery - Pterosaurs - is opening up on July 1st! Canada Day! My azhdarchid piece is almost finished. Send your submission to blogevolved@gmail.com. Anyway, sharks...

When I was seven, I watched a taped-off-the-tv VHS copy of Jaws (the swearing was edited out by just cutting the sound!) This and the subsequent 99 viewings changed my life. Most people end up scared of the water after seeing Jaws, but me, I became drawn to the sea and to the great beasts within. I fell in love with sharks, so I had to learn to dive.


Sadly, I seem to be unique in my response. What Jaws and the subsequent media frenzy did was label sharks as ugly, mindless, savage, killing machines, unchanged for millions of years, who hunt and kill humans. People became terrified of the animals and felt no remorse for killing them. This shark apathy allowed the explosion of shark-finning operations. Over 100 million sharks were, and are still killed annually, with fins fetching over $300 each!

And if you will allow me to continue ranting, once the fins have been cut off the shark, it is thrown back into the water, still alive and unable to swim. It either dies of blood-loss or drowns once it's on the bottom and cannot move forward. All this just to make soup.

But no one cares because they are sharks.

No one except Rob Stewart.

Stewart is a Canadian film-maker with a passion and a love for sharks. He made the 2007 documentary Sharkwater in the effort to stop shark-finning in Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands. Being one year younger than me and a Canadian with a passion for film and sharks, I feel a certain connection with him. His movie is an amazing and exciting tale of the beauty of sharks.

Please see this movie if you haven't already. Read and learn about sharks. Don't eat at restaurants that serve shark-fin soup. Sign petitions calling for a stop to shark-finning. Support campaigns to save sharks at SaveTheBlue. See them in aquariums.

Should we blame Jaws for the world's terror and apathy towards sharks? Are there any redeeming features?

Sharkwater and Jaws are great films, each an opposing view of a beautiful and impressive creature. The shark.

Review of Transformers: Rise of the...Ugh. I can't go on. It's a terrible film.

Dear Micheal Bay,
Why? Oh my gosh, why? Why didn't you learn from the first one?

I have just returned home after the midnight screening of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and I am just so disappointed. Unlike the first Transformers movie - which was silly but still fun and exciting - this one is silly, crude, dull, confusing, and offensive.


I don't even know where to begin. Before the film started, my friend and I made a list of everything we didn't want to see from the first movie: less comedy, no stupid robots and robot personalities, no complex story, more robot fighting, more cool. None of what we wanted happened. The story was just as complicated and confusing as the first one, but this time, I didn't care.


First off: Language, Autobots! I couldn't believe the amount of foul language uttered by not only the humans in the film, but also by the robots! Why does Bay/Spielberg/Writers have to give the robots such ridiculous personalities and dialog? And why all the sexual and crude humour? No one was laughing. I really miss the cartoon.

At one point, Optimus Prime - defender of the good and moral safe-guardian of life - actually says, "We should kill them." And then sticks a glowing metal sword through a defeated Decepticon's skull. Kill them!?! There is an unconscionable amount of death and gruesome dismemberment in this film. It feels very cold.

I am also surprised by Egypt allowing this production to film there. It portrays Egyptians as solely desert-dwelling, goat-and-chicken-raising nomads, and basically shows nothing but destruction of the glorious places in Egypt.

Speaking of offending others, there are a number of Transformers who portray offensive stereotypes. The worst being a couple of Autobots (the Twins) who seem to be derogatory black stereotypes, including gold teeth, the inability to read, and ..ugh.. horrible slang speech.


And what of the women? I was happy to hear the ArCee (from the cartoon) was joining the cast this time round. Sadly, she was on screen for 5 seconds and did nothing to advance the plot. There is also another female transformer in the film I won't reveal, but let's just say I was appalled and disgusted by her use. Unbelievable.

For a positive slant, the only thing I can think of is that there are one or two cool robot fights. But, as usual, Micheal Bay ruins them by getting the camera too close to the action. Shiny metal bits tumble through the frame and I can't tell who is who. After a bit, I don't care. At least no one got peed on.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has fallen for me as the worst movie of the year. It is worse than Wolverine...and in my mind worse than Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull - which is really saying something.

Original Transformers cartoon. This is cool! Why not more of this?

Epilogue - The Good: So far, this summer, I've loved Terminator: Salvation (for it's action and story), Star Trek (for it's fun and awesomeness), and Up (for it's heart, comedy and wonderful animation). Still want to see The Hangover, Night at the Museum 2, and Ice Age 3 - hopefully these won't disappoint me as much as Transformers did.

Palaeo-cake

I just had this brainwave about a palaeontology-themed birthday cake!
Dig site cake, complete with "strata"-cake layers, grass icing, and plastic dino bones and palaeontologists. Could be Lego men with a red Lego truck.

Please somebody make this for me!

A Love Letter to Canada

What would you do if you had one day, one week, or one month to live?

This is the premise behind the new film "One Week" (now on DVD). It stars Joshua Jackson as a young man diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, who decides to motorcycle across Canada - from Toronto to Tofino. Filled with stunningly beautiful images of Canada along with Canadian icons, such as the Stanley Cup and Gord Downey of the Tragically Hip, "One Week" really is a love letter to my country.

For those palaeo-people out there, Joshua does ride through Drumheller (poses with the World's Largest Dinosaur) and stops at Dinosaur Provincial Park, where he takes a moment to equate his potential fate with that of the long-lost reptiles. The breathtaking shots of the badlands took me right back to 2002-04, when I lived amongst them...

But it was the film's central question that made me think. What would I do with a week to live? I identified greatly with Joshua's character in the film; both the same age (30), same career (teachers), similar look, similar decision making processes... I often found myself intensely emotionally invested in his choices.

But what would I do if I had one week to live?

I don't know. Until I'm faced with that situation, I don't think I could say. But I do have a few ideas...

• Travel Canada and the USA in the circle - cross Canada, down the East Coast, through Texas, up through California, Arizona, Montana, back to Vancouver.
• Be alone for a day. Reminisce. Write a book.
• Spend as much time with family and friends as possible. Laugh.

...I just realized as I wrote this that my first and third point seem mutually exclusive. Hmm. Being selfish and doing what you think needs doing, or sharing your time. Can these be reconciled? Time is precious when there isn't much of it.

I guess that is one of the points of the film. For all my fellow Canadians out there and everyone else around the world, see this movie. Not just to ponder this deep moral question, but also to experience just how damn beautiful Canada is!

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)
   

----

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.

My Amazing Acting

This post is guarantied to be slightly embarrasing for me. But let's throw caution to the wind - as it is insanely funny!

Delta Patrol is a film that I helped make in 2006, and it is currently being edited by Craig at Prehistoric Insanity. He needs your help deciding which version of the following clip to use in the movie, ie. which version is funniest. Oh boy...



Click here to vote on your favorite version!

Art while Bored

I've been busy, but I'm back. As a substitute teacher, I often end up with spare time on my hands. Be it giving a grade 7 math test, supervising an Electronics 11 work period, or enjoying a NIT (non-instructional-time = prep time in BC), I often spend the time dabbling in creativity!

I produced the following two oil-pastel pieces last week during recess and lunch while in a French Immersion grade 5 class:

Midnight at the Foothills of the Rockies

I am quite happy with the theropod and the medium (pastel on black construction paper looks great. Remind me to use it more often!) Unfortunately, in the 15-mins it took to make this, I failed in capturing the ceratopsian well. The arms don't realistically work and I couldn't decide on an effective colour scheme. The mountains are too simple as well.

Pterosaur and the Sea

This one is done as an experiment with pterosaurs! I rarely work with them as I find their wings so difficult to draw. I am focusing my attention on this group of animals now to get ready for the next ART Evolved art gallery: Pterosaurs.


If you've been following the ART Evolved blog, you'll know I've got a healthy month-and-a-half to get a kick-ass piece ready. Which I want to do - because last time, for the Permian Synapsid show (which is amazing - Check it out here!), I created my "Dimetrodon" a day before the show went up! Yikes!

So this time, I plan to do some sort of painting of some flying reptile... I'm just not sure which genus of Pterosauria I should reconstruct. Any ideas?

Lost Treasures (Part 4)

And now for the main event: "The Adventures of Flat-Foot, the Deinonychis!"

Up till now, we've been seeing work I did as a kid. Hopefully showing you the evolution of my passions. This will be the last Lost Treasure for the next little while, but it is one of my most favorite projects I created!

Saving up the best for last and here it is - my earliest attempt at writing and illustrating a kids story book. I have to laugh at a lot of bizarre plot points and twists. Go ahead, we will laugh together!

I have reproduced the text below each page word-for-word, in case the old computer text is too difficult to read. I have rewritten it as is, complete with spelling mistakes and punctuation errors. Enjoy!

Cover Page

Adventures of ..... Flat-Foot the Deinonychs

Once long, long ago dinosaurs ruled the earth. There was a deinonychs called Flat-Foot. He had a big claw on each of his hind feet.

One day Flat-Foot went to see if enything was in the mailbox. He levitated the mail to his hand. He ripped open all the mail at once. He opened one with a mark on it. The envelope was a letter from: Torro the Tyrannosaurus rex!!!


It read that a bomb was planted in Sanfrancisus, his home city. Flat-Foot took the earliest ride to Sanfrancisus. He went straight to his mom. There he found a note that said, "Dear Flat-Foot, I will meet you on 15th Death Lane at 2:30am."


At one Flat-Foot dashed out because it was 2:20am. He waited 10 minutes, then saw a spaceship. It landed on a builing and Torro slid down. They both floated into the desert by a tractor beam. There was a huge volcano in the middle of the desert. While Flat-Foot was looking around, Torro jumped up and bit Flat-Foot's back. Flat-Foot ran as fast as he could to the volcano. Torro came and pushed Flat-Foot into the volcano!!!



He fell 10 meters into the volcano. Torro thought he was dead but all of a sudden .... Tery the Pteranodon swooped up and caught Flat-Foot!!! Seeing that, Torro raced to his spaceship and flew to his fortress. Tery and Flat-Foot followed him.


In his fortress there were lots of cages. They hid behind a cage and put Triceratops meat in the cage. Torro saw it, he went inside and Flat-Foot closed the cage. Torro was trapped! Flat-Foot levitated the meat and ate it himself. Torro said, "O.k. O.k. The bomb is planted in the sewer."

They went and stoped the bomb. Flat-Foot, got a modal for saving Sanfrancisus.

The End.

About the Author:
Peter was born in 1978 in Canada, B.C. He likes dinosaurs, sience and sharks

Lost Treasures (Part 3)

Last post, I promised sharks - so here's a shark. The story (in French again) is called "La Requin et la Pecheur" or "the Shark and the Fisherman." It is the thrilling account of the meeting between these two adversaries, written and illustrated in 1989 by yours truly.

If you know me, I have a bit of an obsession with sharks. Started when I was 5 and watched JAWS on TV, taped it and rewatched it thousands of times. (Sometime, I'll have to do a post on influential movies that defined who you are...) Ever since then, I've had a longing to confront the beast. Ultimately, I have decided that before I die, I must cage-dive with Great White Sharks. This will happen someday. Two steps towards that goal were taken last December: learning to scuba dive and swimming with Whale Sharks. I'll let you know when I'm ready to face the big boys!

Anyway, here is my story from Grade 6 - translated into English below. Please feel free to laugh along with me while we read it!

"The Shark and the Fisherman" By Peter

A story written and illustrated by Peter, from Grade 6, North Vancouver, 1989.

One day, a fisherman called Joh went to sea to catch a fish.

When he was at sea, he saw some fish.

All of a sudden, he saw a shark.

The shark tried to eat the fish.

The shark caught the hook on the end of the fishing rod.
The fisherman pulled the shark onto his little boat and killed it.

Joh brought the shark to his house and ate it.

The end... I guess. Kinda predictable and again brutal. I liked my high perspectives in a couple of the illustrations. Poor shark.

Next and last (for now) is the Main Event, the book I am most proud of - "The Adventures of Flat-Foot, the Deinonychis."

Lost Treasures (Part 2)

Another in this series of Lost Treasures, or Artwork from my Childhood. This piece I am the least proud of. Not because it has no title, nor due to the quality of art, but because it is only an experiment. An experiment created in the computer lab, using Paint on the old box-style Macintoshs.

Again, it is in French (I went to a French-Immersion school) and again dinosaurs are prevalent in my work (still are!). Apperently for spice, I do include hearts and a viking ship. I have no idea why, though the project may have been created around Valentine's day. But that doesn't explain the vikings.

Again, I will translate the French for those not French-enabled. Enjoy.

Page 1 - "Brontosaurus and Tyrannosarusa urus rex" Hmm, may not have spelled that right...
And I don't know what "G65 PETE" means.

Page 2 - "Saint Valentine" Big hearts and, um.. Cupid in the top right...skating.

Page 3 - "The Dinosaurs/Evil and Terrible/Catch, Kill, Eat/I like them/The Tyrannosaurus rex"

Page 4 - "I have three horns/I am as big as a rhyniceros/I eat plants/I am a savage animal/Who am I?"
Savage? Well, he certainly looks a bit scary standing on it's hind legs!

Page 5 - Viking ship. I don't know why.

Page 6 - "(jumbled) Catch/Break bones/roar/kill/eat/defend/teeth/big/attack/...a tail"

There we go. No story, but computer-based art. In fact, this project incorporates both digital art and traditional art in the form of felt markers over computer line work. I direct you to Glendon's blog, who is currently discussing the use of digital art in his work.

Next up: The Shark and the Fisherman, by Peter Bond.