learning new tricks

i have never wanted to pursue 3D digital illustrations and animation.  seemed cold and technical.  i love my colored pencils,  pen + ink, and water color.  but, with advice from an expert ("...needs to be part of the production pipeline if you are going to generate the volume of work needed to make a living..."), i have decided to give it a try. 

i will be testing the waters with blender.  it's free, tutorials seem awesome, and the examples of the work created are superb.   getting excited to give this a try.   

another great reason to get out of the city

and this is why i am planning a getaway.  hope to spend some time in the san juan islands this june.  there are several days in a row with low low tides.

looking forward to poking around nature and staying creative.

birds of kīlauea point national wildlife refuge

kīlauea point national wildlife refuge on kauai is a small refuge where you can see hawaii's birds soar.  one of my favorites birds, the booby, makes its home there.  

ss illustrations and photography - sara samuelson

epigenetics for christmas!

check out how this holly uses epigenetics to alter its leaves.  the more its leaves are eaten, the more spiky the leaves become to protect from predation. the dna never changes but the plant can regulate gene expression by turning on or off different genes.

F. Edward Hulme

that's cheesy

no wonder why home made cheese taste so good.  bacteria from skin is left behind when it's made.  yum and gross all at the same time.

ss illustrations and photography - sara samuelson 

look at these neat tiny biological creatures.

seeing the things we can't see can be amazing.  thanks to microscopes, the beauty of these little worlds can be captured for everyone to see.

Mrs. Sahar Khodaverdi

University of Tabriz
Tabriz, East Azerbaijan, Iran
Specimen: Delphinium seed. The image was acquired from multiple Z-stacked images.
Technique: Epi-fluorescence

  

too cute to be vemonus

well, this little guy is too cute.  but his bite is worse than his bark.  don't snuggle him!

http://sync.democraticunderground.com

beetles in disguise

these neat looking beetles have a special partnership with ants.  they have developed special adaptations which trick the ants into accepting them into the ant colony.

http://research.kahaku.go.jp/zoology/hane/data/ILODA.html

poop is always interesting (and funny)

for a similar reason why owl pellets are cool, so is poop.  not only can scat (or feces) tell you what an animal has been eating but it can tell you what animal has been around.  just like tracks, animals leave a little but of them selves behind as they navigate their environment. so, keep your eyes to the ground and watch out for that poop.

http://forums.runnersworld.com

not just for decorator crabs

every since i was little i have loved decorator crabs.  from what i can recall, it started with a trip to the monterey bay aquarium.  they had a tank of decorator crabs.  these crabs were pretty crafty.  in their tank were puff balls and googly eyes.  because they didn't have coral, seaweed and other more traditional inter tidal flora and fauna, they decorated their carapace with puff balls and googly eyes.  i still giggle just thinking about it.

well, it looks like decorating isn't just for crabs.  check out this ancient lacewing larva.

i wonder if only creatures with exoskeletons decorate this way?

An artist's conception of the fossilized lacewing larvae 

with the beginnings of its trash packet.

Illustration courtesy J.A. Peñas, PNAS

http://jamesfreed.com

it was a success!

this is a follow up to the blog post "a creation of a workshop."

i got to spend a few hours with 11 high school students teaching them the basics about science illustration.  we talked about story telling with our drawings, basics of drawing and visited a small wetland area to do field sketching.

i had a good time and sounds like they did to.  

never stop looking...

...you might find a new butterfly.

Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Jeff Gage

do hippie birds prefer american spirits?

next thing you know these birds will be drinking whiskey to cure a cold.  

i love the way wildlife adapts to our urban areas.  but i hope these birds don't get sick from the carcinogens and pesticides in those cigarettes.     

City birds may use cigarettes as substitutes for fresh vegetation that drives away parasites.

MANFRED DANEGGER/NHPA/PHOTOSHOT

bowerbirds - one of my top 5 favorite birds

they are so neat!  the build these elaborate structures, then decorate them.  one (out of many) amazing thing is, these birds are building their bowers with forced perspective.  these birds have some talent.  definitely a bird to look into.

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