The Vancouver Olympics are Here!

Vancouver welcomes the World, as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games begin tomorrow!  And with it comes a redesign of the blog banner.  Can you spot Mukmuk?

Yesterday, the Olympic Torch finally made it to North Vancouver after 105 days of traveling all around Canada.  I snapped the above pic as the torchbearer ran past my apartment.

The 2010 Olympic Torch in all it's glory.  Traumador just arrived in Vancouver and jumped into the photograph!  He's very excited to be a part of the games, but I sure he'll find a way to get himself into trouble!

The Olympic Spirit in mitten form.  Craig, Laura and I paint the West Vancouver red!  These red mittens have really hit it off big - even the Inukshuk and the lions guarding the Lion's Gate Bridge have red mittens!

Here the Torch finally made it's way to West Vancouver - the last stop before heading downtown to light the main Olympic Torch tomorrow!  You can really feel the excitement in the air, as the World's eye turns towards us and Canada shines...

Vancouver

This amazing light instillation is a stunning addition to the Vancouver skyline!  You can submit a design here and the 20 high-powered spotlights will create your design!!

So here's to winning Gold, Canada! 
But first, we've got the Opening Ceremonies tomorrow at 8pm P.S.T.

The Wizard of Oz, or Why I've Been Away from Blogging

Some of you might be wondering where I've been there last few months - 9 posts in the last two and a half months!  Well, I've had my plate full with Ruby Slippers and Munchkins!

I belong to the acting troop SMP Dramatic Society and every year for the past 15 years we've been putting on a pantomime in January.   For the uninitiated, a pantomime is a British tradition of putting on a family fairytale play that appeals to both kids and adults.  There are usually amazing costumes and sets, a lead boy played by a girl, a Dame played by a man, and lots of audience participation.  In short, they are really fun to experience!   This year, we decided to do the Wizard of Oz!

I personally wear two big hats in this production of Oz:  Set Designer and Dame.  Behind the scenes, I have been designing the various colourful sets for the show, and in the spotlight, I've been acting in a dress!

Set Designer

There were five main scenes to design which included Munchkinland (where Dorothy's house lands on the witch), the Wicked Witch of the West's castle, and the Emerald City.  Something I wanted to experiment this year was to use a projector to project part of the set (this would save space in storing painted flats, and allow us a very cool Floating Wizard's Head.)  So far, it's working very well!

Here are a few sketches and photos of the production of the sets for the Wizard of Oz:

Early Munchkinland sketch

Early Castle sketch

Two final flat drawings from the Castle

Watch for more production pictures in subsequent posts...

The Dame

A Dame is an older motherly woman with a healthy libido always played by a man.  It is usually one of the larger roles in the play (both figuratively and literally!)  with by far the most lines to remember!  In the Wizard of Oz, the Dame is Aunt Em - who just happens to come along with Dorothy on her adventures in Oz.

Aunt Em from the movie

Rehearsal pic of cast in the Emerald City (I'm third from the right!)

As for what my costume looks like, you'll have to wait until the next post!  I'll just say it looks nothing like the above image of Aunt Em from the movie...  Imagine a whale with blue hair.  Huge.  Ugly. Dame.

The Wizard of Oz opens on Thursday, to a run of completely sold-out shows!

And this is why I've been too busy to blog!

Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010!

As you may have noticed, Bond's Blog is going through a New Year's refurbishment.  So stay tuned, while I work out the html and finalize the tabs.  And all this on it's 300th post!

With the end of a year comes reflection.  I thought I'd take a moment and recap 2009 from a Peter perspective.

Reflections on 2009:

• It is over a year since I've been back in Vancouver, after living abroad for the previous 3 years.  I've been effectively "stable" for the past year, but I still don't feel "settled."  I'm sure it will come with time.  Just as long as I can repress the urge to grab my pack and run to the airport!
• I did run to the airport once in 2009 though!  Las Vegas, Baby!  A fun Vegas trip with a couple of buddies, along with some camping and cabin-ing around British Columbia, is the extent of my travels this year.  Quite a reduction from 2008, which included Korea, Japan, and the Philippines...
  
• Upon returning back to this beautiful city, I returned to my substitute teaching job.  While I am planning to get my own classroom someday, I was given the opportunity to teach Science 9 in summer school in July!  Quite satisfying to teach an entire course from beginning to end...
  
• 2009 has also seen me in two different apartments - the first: an expensive bachelor with a view, the second: a less-expensive one-bedroom ground floor with a garden (and fireplace!) 
  
• A huge benefit of the Stable Life is an increase in the amount of art I do.  I've painted more this year than any previous, and that makes me happy!
  
• What also makes me happy is my formation of the paleo-art website ART Evolved.  Along with Craig, we've managed to create an expanding community of artists and scientists, who create, discuss, challenge, teach, experiment, and appreciate all things prehistoric art!  ART Evolved has er.. evolved and grown more then either of us expected - culminating with a featured interview and article in EARTH Magazine!  (My thanks to all the talented friends I've made on this adventure this year!)
• With great highs also comes great lows.  2009 was the year we had to put down my dog Toby.  This was one of the most painful experiences of my life, as Toby was part of my life for 13 years.
  
• This was also a great year for visiting friends.  My English roommate Emily came to visit for a few weeks in April, as did a couple of my Lookout Crew friends Marianne and Duncan in the summer!  It was a blast seeing them and catching up.  Miss you all!
• For the past 15 years, the local theater group I belong to, SMP Dramatic Society, has been putting on traditional pantomimes every January.  This year, it is The Wizard of Oz and I've delved headlong into the production - not only as Set Designer, but also acting as the classic Dame, Aunt Em!  Yes ladies and gentlemen, this role requires a bit of cross-dressing, but don't fret - this is classic pantomime!  But I'll tell you, double H-cups are really big!

So ends 2009, a transition year.  A creative year.  A year of coming together.  But what of 2010?  What do we have to look forward to next year?

• The Wizard of Oz run at the end of January...
  
• A month of artistic collaboration with Craig, as he visits for the Olympics in February...
  
• And of course, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games! 43 days until the torch is lit...
  

Hmm, after February, 2010 is quite open...   Suggestions?  Come visit!  This is an open invitation to you to come see this beautiful city of mine.  Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas Bloggers!

Finishing the Stegosaur

Continuing the progress on my Stegosaur, it became apparent that the background I painted just wasn't cutting it.  The decision was made to keep the painted dinosaur with all it's millions of scales and put him into one of my photographs (a beach in Donsol, in the Philippines). 

Add a few pterosaurs (Kepodactylus insperatus), and we have a lovely Stegosaurus stenops in a recreation from the Morrison Formation!

Evening Stroll on the Beach

(Click to see every scale!)

There was a reason behind creating this moody Stegosaur piece:  for submission to Prehistoric Times magazine!  Along with Mr. Stego, I'm also submitting my Anomalocaris painting and cartoon, with the hope that at least one of these getting published.

Anomalocaris and the Burgess Shale

Anomalocaris Regret

Either way, look to the next issue (#92) of Prehistoric Times for some great art, and just maybe you'll see one of these guys here!

A Quick Stegosaurus

Photo reference:  Stegosaurus stenops at Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC - taken by midwinter.

Materials: pencil on glossy paper, acrylics, brushes, water...

Progress:  Fair, but this WIP still unfinished.

I plan to add more detail to skin and scales, and contemplate a subtle sunset...
(Click on any of the pics to enlarge them.) 

UPDATE Dec 3rd:

Here I have begun adding scales to the stegosaur. 
So far, only the hind leg and part of the tail has been scaled...

Happy Origin Day!

Today marks the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin publishing his masterpiece The Origin of Species! 

One of these days, I'll have to actually finish reading the whole thing through...




(left) The triptych painting of The Evolution of Darwin: Boy, Traveler, Thinker I painted for this year's Darwin Day Celebration.


... I leave you with a picture (below) I took of the man back in 2006 at the London Natural History Museum, before he was moved.

Darwin and Huxley having lunch with their adoring public!

This was before they moved Darwin to the top of the steps in the Main Hall, replacing Richard Owens.

I wonder where Owens ended up?

Museums I've Been To: Europe - Part 1: Berlin

Berlin, Germany. 2002.

Our tour through the museums of 2002 Europe begins with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Established in 1810, this is a world-class institution containing two of palaeontology's crown jewel specimens - the Giraffatitan (Brachiosaurus) mount and the Berlin Archaeopteryx. I visited the museum in the summer of 2002, and it has since had a major refit and renovation, so much of what I will show here has changed. If anyone has descriptions of the new layout, I would love to hear it.

Archaeopteryx lithographica

Upon entering the museum, you are immediately dwarfed by the huge main gallery and its centerpiece, the brachiosaur (I will henceforth be incorrectly referring to the Giraffatitan as Brachiosaurus as I was in 2002 and because I want to. She will always be Brachiosaurus in my heart...) Flanking the gigantic sauropod are two more: a cast of the ubiquitous Carnegie Diplodocus and a lovely Dicraeosaurus.

(left) Me and Megalodon's Jaws.

The rest of the photographs speak for themselves. Most of the dinosaur fossils on display were collected during the 1903-1913 Tendaguru Expedition to East Africa (southern Tanzania). Led by Werner Janensch and Edwin Henning, over 250 tons of fossil bone was collected from this 150 million year old Late Jurassic deposit.

Giraffatitan brancai (Brachiosaurus)

Dicraeosaurus hansemanni

See the new mount in this wikipedia photo!

Kentrosaurus aethiopicus
It's new mount can be seen in the dicreasaur photo.

Plateosaurus engelhardti

Elaphrosaurus bambergi
Click here for the new mount!!! It doesn't even look like the same animal!

Dryosaurus (Dysalotosaurus) lettowvorbeck
See the updated mount here...

Stenopterygius zetlandicus

Some nothosaur (name?)

The Second Oldest Turtle = Proganochelys dux

Case of Swimming Things: Fish, seals, penguins, dolphins, ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.

The museum and some of the collections were damaged in February of 1945, when an allied bombing raid left the east wing in ruins. It is now finally being rebuilt.

Amazingly, Wikipedia states that less than 1 in 5000 specimens are on display! I'd love to poke around in their extensive collections and see what treasures I could find...

Thank you for joining me on this quick tour. But don't take my word for it, go to the Museum für Naturkunde the next time you're in Berlin, and say hello to my Brachio!

Halloween This Year

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...

The Sauropod Gallery is UP!

Check out the HUGE Sauropod Gallery over at ART Evolved - it really is as gigantic as the beasts we reconstruct!