Spiny starfish

Apologies if you have been  following this blog and wondered where my posts have been for the last couple of weeks. I was working at the zoo but sorry to say I actually never got round to putting a post up.

I had been working on the spiny starfish illustration (Marthasterias glacialis).

The reference pictures I had were mainly from the internet; as despite numerous visits to the underwater area of Seal and Penguin where their tank is situated, I could never time it when the starfish were out in good view... they were always hidden down amongst the rocks in their tank.

So I decided to base the position of the starfish on the image in the top right of the ref pictures. 

Despite the starfish hiding from me I knew that their colouring was different to any of the starfish on my ref pictures... there is a lot of variation, but I wanted the illustration to relate to our animals more... so I popped back down after I had drawn the basic shape to get a long look at the animals. Typically one was out in full view... and I didn't have the camera!! So after dashing back to the studio to grab the camera I managed to get a few shots of the starfish before it disappeared back down into the crevices between the rocks.

These would be no good for positioning and the drawing I had done would fit nicely into the box shape available for the illustration on the ID format for fish, so there's no need to change that. But these would be good for details such as the placement and spacing of the nodules on its arms and the colouration.

The illustration itself was done over two days... this is the finished illustration before I corrected the black background to 'pure' black on the computer.

The matt black I paint as the background when scanned in never comes out as 'pure' black so I have to alter this in Photoshop before adding to the ID document. Although this particular fish display does not have a lightbox to display the ID sign I correct the black just in case in the future it is moved to a tank that does have a lightbox. If I did not change the black to '100% black' it would show up greyish on the lightbox and we want the illustration background to join seamlessly with the black of the rest of the ID sign. 

To do this I first choose the brush tool and set the size of the brush to a large diameter to cover a large area of the image in one stroke. I then use the magic wand to select the background and then invert this so that when I brush over the image it will only affect the background area. I then choose a bright colour (in this case red) and brush over the illustration until all of the background is covered.  Then I change the brush size to a much smaller diameter and change the colour of the brush stroke to 100% black. I then cover the red area in close to the starfish. I get as close as I can but not right up to the edge of the painting. 

So the image then looks like the above. Next I change the brush size to an even smaller diameter and zoom right in on the image.

I change the softness of the brush stroke edge from 100% hard to around 50% had so that the colour left by the brush stroke fades out slightly. By doing this I soften the effect on the illustration and it doesn't look 'cut out' of harsh. I take the brush strokes right up to the edge of the painting and in this case it took a long time because of all the fiddly little spines on the bottom of each arm. Until it looks like the pic below all the way around the painting. 

I take this opportunity to 'tidy' up any overlaps or bits of the painting that I don't really want there. 

The illustration just needs one final 'tweek'... I adjust the colour that was slightly lost in the scanning process.

Giant Squid

Yesterday afternoon I received some extra text documents from the Education Section; these came from two new staff editions, Dan and Ben, who had been given  the task of producing text for two bird IDs that currently have no text. this was a great idea as it not only gave them the experience/practise of doing text for ID signs but also filled a couple of gaps on Bird IDs. So this morning I transferred the text to the ID documents and later in the morning I was able to replace the two species IDs with new ones with some lovely new text.

Before lunch I popped up to Bug World to take some photo's of the giant squid mural. This is so that I have a record of what has been painted just in case during the renovations the panels on which it is painted are damaged and not re-useable. If I have to repaint the whole body and front part of tentacles I may be able to project the image and trace around saving me a lot of time and hard work trying to redraw it again.

This mural is based on the size of the largest known specimen and measures over 100 feet from tail tip to end of the two main tentacles. This creature also has the world's largest eye of any creature.. amazing isn't it.. that it is an invertebrate that has the biggest eye on the planet!

After taking a number of photo's of the area of the mural that will be affected, as well as getting a few detail shots of shading effects etc, I wandered from the marine area into the arid area. A new beetle has arrived.

This is the Indian six spot beetle  - Anthia sexguttata and measures 4 cms long (1.5 inches) a carnivorous beetle from Asia. Carmen, from the Ectotherm section, was watching them so when I was unable to get any good reference shots through the window she was able to take me around into the keeper area and get one of the beetles out under a good light source for me to photo closely. I had to wear eye protection goggles as if they get annoyed or upset they can squirt a nasty liquid. I was careful to not get too close and to keep my movements slow and easy so not to make it feel threatened at all. It sat very nicely on the 'log' Carmen had taken out of its enclosure whilst I took some photo's.

After lunch I met up with Eddie from Maintenance again to continue with the Christmas Animal Shape Lights. There isn't a lot we can now do to the lights that need struts repositioned or altered before Christmas so they will have to be sorted out after and made ready for next Christmas. Eddie got the last of the cable tie-ing done on the penguins and the alterations to the elephant and giraffes can hopefully be done next week after the electrician has finished doing the work he needs to do on them.

So back to the studio to sort out the photo's I took this morning of the giant squid. I upload them to the computer and them weedle out the ones I don't need or want. Then open them in Photoshop and save. Then I looked to my illustrations 'to do' board to see what species was next. Another fish.. the short-snouted seahorse - Hippocampus hippocampus. I had a few photo's I had taken previously of this species but again like the pipefish they weren't great. So I turned to an internet search and pulled a few images that may be useful. These again were opened and saved through Photoshop and filed in a folder. Then I studied the collection of images in this folder picking out the ones that would serve me best as reference. These were then placed onto an Illustrator file to print out. I found a file I had made previously of ref images for the spiny starfish - Marthasterias glacialis so printed that out too, as I then thought with the time hastening towards Christmas and my last day at work being the 18th, the starfish might be quicker to get done.

Lastly before the end of the day I mixed up some black and painted a piece of 300grm watercolour paper ready for the illustration.

I have tomorrow off to work at home on the gorilla commission that I will soon do a post about on my other blog.

Checked out

Missed Wednesday's post last week - got the pipefish painting checked by Sam from the Aquarium and  he picked up on the tail section. I had found it very hard to get any reference either from the live animal or from any photo's that I took myself or found on the internet. Sam pointed out that the fish was more sectioned and square rather than round as I had done it. So I looked again at the live animals trying to work out what was happening. It has differing 'planes' to its body that change as it passes the dorsal fin. So I tried again, and again.. finally think I got it on the fourth try at the tail from the dorsal fin back.

So took it back to the Aquarium today for Jonny to see and check. Thankfully I had managed to get it right this time...

Scanned it to the computer and blacked out the background in Photoshop and then dropped the finished picture document into the ID document and printed, then laminated and trimmed it and put it up next to the tank the fish are in in the underwater area of the Seal and Penguin Coasts exhibit. This is how the illustration looks like as the ID sign.

I also managed to get the red-bellied lemur illustration checked and ok'd and also printed off three copies of that ID - one to put up now and two more to go up in the Lemur Walkway when it reopens for the school half term at the beginning of February. 

Emily from the Mammal Section checked the illustration for me whilst we stood by the indoor area of the ring-tailed lemurs. The young ring-tail, a female called Dizzy, was bouncing around the wooden poles and other adults like a looney. Her name certainly suits. I recalled how, a few months ago, I watched her pogo-ing the distance of several feet between two adults (one of whom was her Mother) during her early forays and adventures off her Mum.  

I also had a meeting today with Ben who works with Projects. They are planning some alterations in Bug World and this means moving interior walls to accommodate new tanks and make the keeper's areas bigger for better husbandry and access. Unfortunately in the area there is to be a lot of work one of my life size murals will be affected. The giant squid covers the walls and in some parts the ceiling so there will be a lot of repainting of said squid... if we keep it. So the meeting was to discuss what was involved and any other ideas.

Monkeying around

This morning I was due to meet Eddie from Maintenance to start tweeking the Christmas animal shape lights. I went to our arranged meet point and waited. After a while I started pacing, not through impatience as such but to keep myself warm as although it wasn't really cold, standing around for half an hour soon had me feeling chilly. To amuse myself I practiced the steps for a waltz, which was fine as being not long after the zoo had opened it was still quiet visitor wise.
One of the groundsmen passed by and I got him to contact Eddie, who was apologetic but he had been detained on another job, so we arranged to meet later.

Back in the warmth of the studio I started working on the pipefish painting and as the text had arrived back from the Education Office for the red-bellied lemurs I also set about compiling the ID document for that. The text needed adjusting a couple of times to fit into the space and there was also a small adjustment on the wording. I am still waiting for the animal section to come and ok the illustration, but it'll have to wait for a  bit as Lynsey, who is to check it, has a lot going on in her section at the mo. It's not a problem as the animals aren't officially on show yet, although they can sometimes been seen when they are in the ring-tailed lemur indoor area during the' mixing' stages. The process of integrating new animals to established animals is a long, carefully monitored procedure with the animals being given plenty of time to get used to each other before they become fully integrated.

During the morning Eddie called the studio to change our meet time to an earlier one as he would be free to to the lights sooner than he expected. So just before lunch I donned my warm coat and hat and went to meet him. As I waited I watched blackbirds and robins picking through the fallen leaves looking for tasty morsels of insects or crumbs dropped by the public. The lorikeets were in a big aviary close by and their noisy chatter filled the air.

Eddie brought the 'cherry-picker', a small motorised platform with an arm that can be raised and maneuvered into position high off the ground. He needed this to get at the monkey shape lights in the tree I had met him by. There were 4 monkey's that needed adjusting, two had to be re-hung in better positions (one was wrongly hung upside-down) and the rest needed their shapes pulling/bending back into the form they are supposed to be and/or having the light tubing cable-tied to the aluminium frame to create the form of the animal. As they are a few years old now some of the cable-ties had come off over time so the finer shape of a face or foot would be lost. We finished the tweeking of these 4 monkeys in about half an hour by which time it was lunch.

I took these two photos in a previous year of two of the monkey shapes lit up in the dark, the first one still had some 'tweeking ' to do on the light tubing around its back legs and feet. The shapes are pretty near to life size as we could get.

The afternoon was spent working on the pipefish painting and popping up to The Heap of Trouble exhibit with Anna, to remove a sign or two.  I have almost finished the pipefish, I'm leaving it overnight to see what it looks like with fresh eyes tomorrow, I think it still needs a bit of work and I'm not entirely sure about it as I've had to do some guesswork on the tail structure as my reference photo's can't pick up that detail and it's too dark and the fish are too small in the tank to see properly. So Hopefully when I show Jonny tomorrow, if he's available, he can let me know if I need to do more work.

Greater pipefish

I started off the day with a quick visit to the reptile house, to photograph the ID sign for the Malayan box turtle- Cuora ambionensis. This is the old sign that I got a request for last week to duplicate as they have another enclosure with this species in, but because it was done many years ago it is no longer on the computer file system I have built up. So by photographing it I could easily see what text to put on the new ID document I was making for this species and also the range on the distribution map... rather than taking the old one down and leaving it with a sign for a while.
Whilst I was in the reptile house I took advantage of two lizards being out in good view and got photos of them too. These two lizards are species that are on my board - due to be done. So it always helps to get as much reference as poss when the opportunity presents itself.

I had seen Joe, from Maintenance on my way across to the reptile house and grabbed him to get some varnish for something I have been commissioned by the zoo to do. (More about that project on my other blog) And then on the way back to the studio I stopped off in the central office to pick up post and speak to a couple of folk in the offices there.

I took a few photo's on my way but once I got them uploaded to the computer I wasn't happy enough with them to keep on file. Then I got the info onto the new Malayan box turtle sign document and printed it off just after lunch.

Laminated and trimmed I then delivered it to the animal section. next job was to start on the greater pipefish.

This fish is long and thin and after a discussion with Phil, it was decided it would be ok for me to illustrate it curved round, as if it was changing direction as it was swimming along. The problem is if I painted it straight and side on because of it's length, to fit it into the space on the sign it would end up as very small and difficult to see. So by having it positioned curving round on itself I could have it larger in the space. As I had seen the fish doing this, it was a natural position to portray them in.

I took the basic shape from one of the photo's I had taken, altering the tail position so that it was more easily seen and better on the eye position -wise, but still keeping it natural. The caudal fin (tail) reference was another photo, as was the head, body lines and dorsal fin details. I have three other photos to use for the colouration and marking details.  I sometimes make notes with my drawings and with fish this usually relates to the number of rays in the fins as these are species specific. So I need good photo reference to be able to count the rays in the fins.

Last week I had painted the watercolour paper with my black mix (Lamp black, Ultramarine and Alizarin crimson) so once I had the drawing right (checking head lengths and comparative tail to head sizes etc) I traced it to the black background. Then painted in the base colours.

Whilst that dried I went out to walk around the Christmas animal shape lights, now that it was dark, to make a check on what they looked like 'lit up'. Not all of them were, but I was able to see some and add some more alterations to the list that are to be tweeked tomorrow. I have arranged to meet with Eddie in the morning to go around and fix those that have got a little mis-shapened or are placed/hung wrong. 

The zoo sounded quiet today... Kamal our Asiatic lion was put to sleep last week, so there were no calls from him sounding out across the grounds. He was 18 years old and his health had deteriorated badly, despite great veterinary care from our team of on site veterinary staff. Please read more about him here It is very sad when an animal dies or has to be euthanased, especially for those who cared for them on a daily basis. Kamal was loved greatly by his keepers, he was a fabulous lion to work with apparently, very gentle and tolerant, he will be missed terribly. I know I shall miss him, and I didn't have that wonderful experience of him that his keepers have. Rest in peace Kamal.

Rain stop play

Woke this morning to hear reports of flooding around the area and to see the rain still lashing down. The drive to work was fun negotiating many deep puddles trying not to drench pedestrians in waves of wash from the wheels. Had come to work prepared though, having packed a spare pair of trousers and a towels as I was due to spend some hours with Eddie tweeking the Christmas Animal Shape Lights into order and had expected to get a wee bit drenched from the bottom of my lovely warm waterproof coat down.  Met Eddie from Maintenance just after 9am in the pre-arranged place beneath one of the trees with the monkey shapes in. However the Maintenance team were dealing with a lot of flooding issues around the zoo grounds so the lights would have to wait til next week. We arranged to meet on Tuesday to do the lights.

On the way back I stopped for a few minutes in the meerkat house, where it was lovely and warm and my already very damp trousers could start drying a bit. All the troop were inside and they must have been expecting food, as they kept coming over to me and looking up at me with pleading eyes. But it was obviously playtime as they never stayed looking at me for long before they either went off looking for someone to wrestle with or someone pounced on them. So entertaining to watch and listen to.

Back to the studio and I was able to carry on with and finish the red-bellied lemur illustration.

Before it can be put on the ID sign file, it has to be 'ok'd' by the Animal Department so I contacted Lynsey, Assistant Curator of Mammals, to arrange a time where she can look at it.  Hopefully she will be able to come over to the studio this afternoon. 

Just before lunch I went through the photo's I had sorted previously for the Greater pipefish, Syngnathus acus, to choose the ones best to work from. I had taken photo's of the animals we have here at the zoo, but they did not come out very good at all as they are in a dark tank and the fish are relatively small, thin and like to hide making them very difficult subjects to photograph. I had a job finding good photo's on the internet too, so my references for them are very limited. I have looked at several websites getting written descriptions of them too which will help with the tiny fins that don't really show up on the photo's. This looks like it won't be an easy fish to get right. I think I will pop down to the tank they are in this afternoon with a camera just on the off chance of getting a fluke better shot.

The sun came out and was giving us a bright beautiful afternoon.... so after lunch I headed to the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit to get some more photo's (hopefully) of the pipefish, who are housed in a tank in the underwater area.

On my way through the exhibit I could see the South American fur seals having a training session. This seal was practicing presenting his flipper... this training enables the keepers and veterinary department to examine and treat the seals without putting them through the stress of knocking them out with drugs.

Moving on down into the  underwater area I reached the pipefish tank. I got a few more photo's, nothing marvellous or particularly handy to work from, it doesn't help that flash photography in that area is not allowed so I was having to bank on natural light filtering down through the water of the penguin pool which was seen through the pipefish tank. I also adjusted the camera settings to get the best out of the low light situation.

As you can see not great photo's for details. So this illustration will be a bit of a challenge, especially when the animal itself is difficult to see in any light to get colour and details.

Whilst I was in the underwater area I looked in on the fur seal's pool, as there was some lovely light effects going on in the sunshine beneath the water. Whilst I was looking I noticed just in front of me a small white oval object drifting around in the gentle current of the water, it intrigued me and on closer inspection I saw that it was a pumpkin seed with a hitch hiker clinging on for dear life.  

This poor little insect was deep underwater on a life raft that showed no signs of rising to the surface... was it doomed to a watery grave? It might last a while as it was enveloped in a sheen of air that covered its body, so who knows... maybe the seed would eventually surface and the insect could fly away.

I had a couplke of requests come in for duplicate signs from the reptile house, one of which was no problem and was soon printed out and laminated ready to take to the section but the other one, a Malayan box turtle, was not so easy. It was not on the computer... I looked at all the other box turtle ID documents, all the relevant and not so relevant files. I checked the back ups and archive files... no sign of it apart from the illustration. Very confusing. 

Anna and I had to pop over to the Aquarium late afternoon to cover the blue-spot grouper sign from public view; he had, alas, died. Such a shame as he was a stunning fish and one of my favs. On our way out of the aquarium we popped into the reptile house next door so that I could see the Malayan box turtle sign they had on show. Having a good look at it Anna noticed that the font was very slightly different (as a graphic designer she can pick up on such things easily) and we both could see that the map was hand painted... so that made the sign a really old one... and it now made sense as to why I could not find the file on the computer... it was done many years ago and was probably a file of an old application that became obselete and unable to be read on the Macs as we updated them over the years.

We had a little look around the reptiles and watched a huge amethystine python newly emerged from sloughing... but with its middle section still cocooned in its old skin. In its new skin, the scales and colours looked beautiful and vibrant with a slight sheen of iridescence. 

We spoke to one of the reptile keepers who took us round the back into the keeper area to let us see the baby West African dwarf crocodiles close up. Not only that but we held one each too. I love baby crocs.. they are really quite cute and have beautiful markings, though I was sad that they never made that unmistakable baby croc call. They had been fed yesterday and their tummy's felt quite solid and full... once in the hand they calmed down quickly and it was wonderful to be so privileged. The one I held rested one of his hind feet on my thumb and his little digits wrapped round the curve of the end of my thumb as I gently moved his leg slightly up and down. I was in heaven...Anna wasn't so sure. At first she did not want to hold one, she said her mind just kept saying.. it's a crocodile! But she succumbed to their cuteness and held one. She took a photo of one in my hand.. so when she sends it to me I shall post it here.  

What a fab way to end the day and our working week..... she had something really cool to go home and tell her young son about.... I had another great zoo memory.                                                                                                                          .

Red-bellied lemur illustration

By the end of yesterday afternoon I had got the background done. Keeping it simple, I've painted a flat pale blue for the sky and a flat two tone effect suggesting a forest habitat. I took care mixing the colours for the background and had several attempts at getting the blue the right tone and two greens that would to 'sit' together well and be of a tone to suggest some depth.

This morning I painted the branch of the tree it is sat in. Starting with a dark brown I blocked in its shape, then before proceeding with the branch I put in the lemur's tail. This I did by starting with a black that I made from Lamp Black, Ultramarine and Alizarin crimson. Then I built up the furry effect by using a splayed brush and painting several layers of an 'earthy' blue with a blue-brown. 

Once the tail was in I painted in the branch using dry brush strokes again I added several layers of pale blue-browns and greens mixed using the background greens as a base.

Then onto the feet and hands.... blocking them in with a dark brown then marking in the shadows with black over painted with a dark blue-brown. Adding the mid tones of a reddish brown and working up to the highlights of pale chestnut. At the stage of the photo above the feet and hands are still in progress.

During the afternoon I started work on the body after finishing the feet and hands. Painting the body all over in black first I then laid in the fur directions with a purple-brown. This colour also acts as my base colour in the shadows. I then gradually built up layers of chestnut browns, blue-browns and peachy colours working up from the dark tones to the light to create the thick coat of fur. I started with the black as this helps create depth in the coat where tiny 'pockets' of this colour is left after building up the layers. 

After scanning this in I started on the head positioning the eyes and nose in base colours of black, grey-blue white and burnt sienna. I'm not sure how much I will get done tomorrow on this piece as I shall be working with Maintenance to sort out the Christmas Animal Shaped Lights from 9am. It'll be nice if I can finish it by tomorrow home time.

During the afternoon I emptied the kitchen compost caddy as it was more than full... on the brink of over flowing. I took it down to the yard by the side of the Education building to empty it into the compost bin... and this is what I found in there on the side of the bin. It's a beautiful leopard slug Limax maximus...

This species of slug should be encouraged by gardeners as it  doesn't damage healthy living plants  - they eat rotting vegetation and even other slugs.... so quite a gardeners friend. I was quite excited to find this beastie... haven't seen one (not that I've been looking) for some years although they are apparently fairly commonly seen around the zoo.

Animal shapes

The Christmas animal shape lights have been appearing around the zoo grounds over the last week or so, although they are not yet 'lit up'. There is a lot of work done by the Maintenance Dept to get the animal shapes out of storage, checked electrically and then put out in position in the grounds, poles to be sunk into the ground securely to fix the shapes to, some of them such as the giraffe are life size and so need good strong support. Then the electrics have to be laid out safely and to top all that they then have the zoo artist (me) coming round to check the shapes for correct grouping, shape adjustments etc.

So this morning I met up with one of the maintenance chaps, Eddie, and had a quick chat about the lights and fixed a day this week (Wednesday) to go around with him making the alterations I pick up on. Then I went round to each of the light displays and checked what needs attention, noting where light tubing needs to be cable-tied where it was 'straying' from the shape formed by aluminium strips; what legs/necks/backs need to be bent back into a more desirable shape (they always get a bit bent out of shape in the storing process); which support struts need adjusting and which animals need to be moved so they 'sit' in their positions better.

That done, it was back to the studio to make a start on the red-bellied lemur ID... at last I get to do a bit of drawing! Been back 3 weeks and no drawing/painting til now.

As mentioned in one of last week's posts this species is sexually dichromatic, which is to say that male and females markings look different.. in this case the males have white markings under their eyes (the females do not). Females have paler coloured undersides, males have the same reddish fur colour underneath as they have on their upper body and legs. So the position of the animals have to be done to show these differences, also to show the general species markings like, for this species, the darker fur on the back from the shoulders to the tail.

We currently have two males and there are no plans in the near future to breed this species, so no females are due to join them. Therefore there is no reason to show the females in the illustration as there are none for the public to see. But there is always the saying, never say never.. so just in case females are brought to the collection in the future I need to allow room in the composition for a female to be added. So although I am not yet to draw/paint one I still have to think about what position the female is to be drawn and where in the composition she will sit. I had a good idea of how I wanted to do the composition and this is a rough showing that idea fitting the oblong shape format that the finished illustration has to fit into. 

These are the photos I am using as reference - one sheet is for the male and the other the position references for the female. I am combining the photos to get the animals into a position that shows off all the elements I need to illustrate - for the male it's all about his eyes, back and tail and for the female it will be (if it ever gets done) about her eyes and underside. Where the feet are dark in shadow I enlarge and lighten a copy of the image so that I can see better the anatomical details and form.

And so onto the drawing of the male. I start with a rough shaping in of the limb angles, comparative sizes of head to body and general body shape. No detailing or refinements yet, not until I get this basic drawing right first.

Then onto refining and getting the detailing better established ready for the painting.

This afternoon I will start the painting, working on a simple background first before starting the animal.

Wednesday 14th

First job of the day should have been a five minute one, but it is a very fiddly one and sometimes takes ages to get done...far longer than it reasonably should. In the Forest of Birds the IDs are presented in a 'book' form with the IDs hole punched with metal eyelets that are threaded onto U bolts fastened to wooden backing boards. The bolts are done up underneath with nuts and on one book the two back bolt and nut are situated very close to the fencing, making undoing and in particular doing up of nut onto bolt very trying at times. Today was such a time.. the situation wasn't helped by my dicky shoulder and having to keep resting it between threading attempts. I got there in the end, but it was a very frustrating half hour!

However this is very much offset by the company I get to keep and today I was treated.. maybe they could sense my troubles and came over to be curious and in doing so gave me some welcome respite from the annoyance of 'naughty nuts'. I had the roulroul partridges come and check me out first. A group of six (three pairs of males and females), they gathered round me less than a foot away for the most part and at times even less than that as they investigated signs, spanner and nuts on the floor. Then the Fischer's turaco's came down to check out what I was up to, followed by a red-billed leiothrix (pekin robin) and a Victoria crowned pigeon, who flashed his wings up at the roulroul's sending them off in a hurry. Big bully!

Back to sorting stuff for the red bellied lemurs..... I discussed them with Phil... The species is sexually dichromatic and although we have just two males at present with no plans to get females, we know from years of experience that it is possible that may change. So the question was... do I illustrate the species with both the male and female showing, or just do a male. The answer is to do the latter but allow room in the composition for a female to be added later if necessary. Then looking through the photos I had, one of the individuals has a white spot (again bare skin) on the forehead between the eyes... but looking through internet reference I found most did not have such a marking. Was this an individual marking, age related or something else. I trawled through internet info and several books before asking a lemur expert that we have at the zoo. Seems it is probably an individual marking and may not be permanent. So I must not include such a marking on my illustration. So looking through my references I was looking for positions that would show the female and her paler underside  and a position for the male that would fit with that into the oblong format I need to do the illustration in. Once I had those picked ot I printed some of the photos off. Again another five minute job that took longer as the print came out very magenta.. so I spent sometime trying to colour match the original photo with a print copy.

The last part of the afternoon was spent having my appraisal with Phil.

Tuesday 13th - met the new lemurs

This morning a group of reception school children visited the zoo. Nothing unusual there, we have many such visits, but this one was a little different for me because my brother's girlfriend was one of the adults accompanying the group. She is a teacher's assistant and I had arranged to meet them to say hello to the children and welcome them to the zoo.

I met them up by the entrance and after quickly telling the children what I did at the zoo I got them asking me questions - favourite ones among them were all related to dinosaurs, which have sadly now left the zoo. I walked with them on their journey along the enclosures of the top terrace, dropping in a few facts about the animals they saw, which was hopefully interesting to the children and adults and then said goodbye. I saw them again a few times during the day, as I went about my tasks outside.

Not long after I returned to the studio I got in touch with the mammal section. We have a new species of lemur settling in and I had the ok to go and get photo's of them. The two male red-bellied lemurs Eulemur rubriventer were not actually on show to the public, as the walk-through exhibit they are in is now closed to the public through the winter. However, it is possible to see them through the mesh fencing, so an ID sign needs to be done.

The two lemurs are in the process of being settled in and will shortly be slowly introduced to the other lemurs that share the enclosure, the mongoose and ring-tailed lemurs. So whilst all was quiet and the animals were happy being out and about I was able to go in the walk-through with one of the keepers to see them.

Now it is probably undisputable that all lemurs are very cute... and these two boys were no exception. They have a beautiful chestnut brown coat with a black face and tail. From the corners of their eyes a patch of bare white skin forms almost 'teardrop' shapes either side of the bridge of their muzzle. This gives them a very appealing and adorable 'expression'. The two lemurs we have are very friendly and although no contact is encouraged between human and animal, they both seemed very comfortable around us and had no qualms about getting close and even jumped onto the keeper a couple of times without encouragement. I was able to get a variety of photo angles of them and would be working from these as with the introductions soon to take place, I would not have access for long periods of sketching.

Photos done I returned to the studio to upload and provisionally sort through them.
In the afternoon I also put up all the ID signs (except the two that go in the Forest of Birds) around the zoo. Whilst in the nocturnal house I got chatting to a couple from Taunton who were visiting the zoo for the first time in many years; decades in fact. They were both very impressed and were thoroughly enjoying their visit.

I finished putting the new signs up and resticking some of the old ones just as it was getting dusk, the light was quickly fading. I finished the day off going through the lemur photo's more thoroughly.

Signs and little jobs

Started this week more or less as I left last week.... on the computer getting replacement signs sorted out and doing lots of little jobs in between. So nothing really interesting to report today and I didn't even get out of the studio for a walk around the zoo grounds, so no animal observations either.

So the only real thing to report is the continuing process of getting signs printed.Again I had a number of signs that needed to be converted from Quark to Illustrator files before I could print them which can be a quick thing to do or a little more involved if maps need to be redone, or text adjusted etc. I also needed to set up two new files. As we are running out of the coloured paper that we use for the bird blank IDs we are going to go start printing paper with the same colour we use for the signs. This will have the advantage of the printed signs and the blanks matching in colour better than before when different papers meant an exact colour match was very difficult.
 

Signs

There was one last Dinosaur sign to take down and that was in the zoo's gated car park. So I popped across first thing to removed that and also to take out a sign on a post in the maze. The post was quite firmly in place so I had to do quite a bit of wiggling to loosen it enough to pull out. 

On my way back to the studio I passed an aviary which houses the little black-cheeked lovebirds Agapornis nigrigenis and the brown-breasted barbets Lybius melanopterus. Back in the summer the two barbets (which were newly paired) were being observed by the keepers as it was suspected they had nested and laid an egg in one of the old tree trunks; these had been placed in their aviary just for such a purpose.  When I went past today I saw three barbets, so it looks as though the pair successfully reared their first chick... :)

The animal houses have switched over to the winter-time opening and closing times now, so at 11am I took over the 30 butterfly guides I had photocopied and laminated this morning to the Butterfly Forest house. These are to replace the shabby looking few that were all that was left from the last batch done a few months ago. I had to take out the old and put in the new guides into the holder very carefully as two large butterflies had taken up resting positions on the edge of the box and weren't keen to move. I'd love to work in the Butterfly Forest.. it's always so lovely and warm in there.

On my way back I walked through the Meerkat Lookout indoor house. The youngsters are quite grown up now and almost the same size as the adults. It was a bit chilly outside again but with no sun today so all the meerkats were indoors making the most of the warm sand in there. Two adults were lying nose to tail on their backs having a tussling game which was great to watch and two of the youngster were running around playing something akin to 'Tag'. I couldn't resist standing and watching them all for a couple of mins, listening to their constant murmur of contact calls and watching the play behaviour. Our group has now grown to 20 animals; this year the two litters gave their numbers a great boost.

Then I spent the rest of the morning getting the printing of my 'signs to replace' list underway as the printer inks had at last arrived (after another call to the suppliers and them being despatched by car right away!)  I carried on with these during the afternoon, changing 7 reptile species across from Quark files to Illustrator files in the process. This sometimes involved me re-doing map distributions to fit in with the different application and editing text to fit in a smaller space. Then I duplicated 4 of the species ID's to add extra wording with the species name saying 'juveniles' or '(hatched 2011)'. Then I printed, laminated and trimmed them to size before taking them across to where I was meeting Tim (Curator of reptiles) in the quarantine area. Here I was to take photo's of the common chameleons Chamaeleo chamaeleon that have been with the zoo for a month, after being confiscated by UK customs and border control at a British port off a ship that had arrived from Morocco. 

The animal above is thought to be a female and the one below a male; so to help to try and deduce this Tim put the two together and we watched the colour changes, which are strong indicators of mood. The  'female' was a plain green until the other was put in her vivarium and then she showed some black spotting and the creamy white dashes appeared on her sides. The 'male' stayed pretty much the same colouring as he is below. If the two had been males it is highly likely that they would have both gone extremely dark in reaction to each other. More trials of this sort will be tried to get a better idea of the sexing... a less invasive and stressful way to determine their sex as they are not sexually dimorphic and look mostly similar in body shape and size. Even the casque on the head is similar in size and shape.

They have a definite sexing on one of the four animals as she laid 14 eggs soon after arriving. These are now being incubated, which takes a total of 300 days as they need a period of 'quiet cool' incubation to develop and synchronise properly (mimicking the natural incubation of these animals in the wild). Tim's research on the correct husbandry on these animals has shown that shorter incubations at normal incubation temperatures have produced badly developed young.

Last job of the day was to upload all 106 photos that I took of the chameleons and start sorting through them to see what I can use as a temporary photo for the ID and the photo's I want to use as my reference for the illustration will do of it in the future (it lies about 10th on my illustrations to do list!).

Tuesday 6th

Went out this morning after a cuppa, to see if I could get any worthy photo's of the Autumn colours.. but sadly there wasn't much to see now. But I did get  a couple of other photo's.... now that the leaves are almost fallen, it is easier to see the red pandas as they perch high up in their tree.

I also saw the T.rex sat waiting to be taken away... he was tied down - presumably so he couldn't escape or harm anyone. However, he did manage to grab a workman's hi-viz jacket!

Kera and Namoki were playing on top of the outside den.. there was some chest slapping and playful tussles.

Young Kukena was being adventurous and kept wandering away from Mum, Salome; curious about the jackdaws and anything else that caught his attention. Poor Salome was kept on her toes trying to keep him in her sights. Several times she had to follow him and bring him back to the sunny side of the outside den where she was trying to sit and enjoy the warmth from the sun.

 I spent the afternoon on the computer changing a number of reptile ID's from Quark files to illustrator ones, adding the word 'juveniles' to some as replacement signs are needed for the young of several species. The process of re-doing a sign from one format to another can throw up a few problems like text not quite fitting in to the new format or maps having to be re-done. The printer inks still haven't yet arrived so I still can't print anything from my printer.

At the very end of the day Jim, from the Education Section, came into the studio to use the phone. He was waiting for a call from the Simon Mayo show 'Drivetime' as he was to talk to him live on the radio about Chameleons. 

November 5th - Back to work

Today was my first day back at the zoo after two months off to work at home. I started the day with a cuppa and catching up on what's been happening at the zoo whilst I've been away. Then with notepad and pen, cloths and water I set off on an 'ID Sweep'.

The Sweep is for me to check all the ID signs in the zoo around the grounds and in the various animal houses. I am looking for missing, faded or damaged signs that need replacing, noting what signs have slipped in their holders and need re-sticking and giving any a clean that are grubby. It is also a chance, after a period of absence, for me to see if any changes have been made in the animal sections  - like new arrivals or moves to other enclosures. And just to get myself back 'in touch' with the zoo - seeing familiar animals again and saying hi to folks that work around the zoo.

It was a sunny, if slightly chilly day; a lovely one to walk around and be reminded what a lovely environment it is to work in. The yellow, golden and orange leaves of a few trees glowing in the low weaker sun of Autumn, but a lot have already lost most of their leaves. We have many beautiful tree specimens in our grounds as the zoo has always been a Zoological Garden as well as for animals. At this time of year as the colours ripen on the leaves before they fall, the grounds harbour areas of Autumnal glory. because I have been away for most of the Autumn I have missed the best of the colour and just the remnants remain.

The large stump from the old tulip tree (a grand sentinel that once grew near the Top Terrace) was now removed completely. During the summer I had noticed it was now very rotten, the tree having been felled some years ago, and each time I had passed by, another chunk had been kicked off by kids (or even adults) doing what comes naturally when presented with  a decaying tree. We just can't help poking and proding.. our curious and investigative natures brought to the fore.  After it had been felled it had become an 'exhibit' with a pane of glass mounted over the cut section marking out the yearly rings of growth with notable events that happened during its lifetime. Decking had been laid around it mainly for the large 'bouncy slide' that sat nearby during the summer months. I was sad to see it now gone forever, the last vestige of it levelled to the ground and covered with decking - it had been a favourite tree of mine, a beautiful grand old friend that was often missed in its glory because not many look up to see its impressive towering canopy. But the sad day came when it was discovered it was no longer safe... strong wings in several successive winters brought down large branches and boughs... the tree was old and now in the natural scheme of things, shedding some of its weight. But in the zoo with people walking around, it was deemed unsafe and the grand old tree was carefully dissected where she stood and was soon reduced to just a large stump. A sapling tulip tree has since been planted not too far away but it has over a hundred years of growth before it matches the grandeur of its predecessor.

The dinosaur exhibits were being removed today, so there was no dinosaurs calling across the grounds... they remained ominously silent as I walked by each of them. But the beauty of the bird calls were now uninterrupted, as is Kamal sending out one of his long roaring calls.  "Aaarooon. Aaaroon"; followed by the 'chuffs' that seem to be expelling all the air in his body until he has none left. I counted 28 chuffs before he ran out of wind.

Further around the zoo  I went through the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit, a few signs cleaned but otherwise ok. Going through the underwater section as I was in one of the perspex tunnels I could see a diver slide into the water. In all the years this exhibit has been open I have never seen the divers in to clean the perspex windows and tunnels. So I waited..... another diver jumped in and after donning their flippers they bobbed across the surface until they were over the areas they had to clean. One diver submerged right over the tunnel I was in and I realise it was Jonny... he waved before applying his suction cup contraption to the surface of the tunnel and started work on cleaning the algae off. I left him to it and carried on on the last leg of my sweep.

I finished just before lunchtime and went through my notes listing signs I needed to print and other points that needed action by others like, maintenance, Phil or the animal sections;  sending emails to those that needed them.  After lunch I discovered that I could not print anything because one of the ink cartridges was out in the printer and our replacement supplies had not yet been delivered.

Later in the afternoon Phil and I went out with a large wheelbarrow to remove the signs that were with the dinosaurs and swap over some interpretation boards in the Monkey Jungle exhibit as some animals had been swapped around. Surprisingly all the signs had survived the duration of the Dinosaur stay very well.. the only damage to one was caused by the guys who were dismantling the exhibit! A quick call on the radio from Phil to those in charge of the contractors removing the dinosaurs ensured that the other signs were left alone for us to deal with.

The last job of the day was swapping the interp boards over, by which time it was almost dark and there were very few folks left wandering the zoo. Back in the studio Phil gave me the forms for my appraisal which should be in the next couple of days.

Artist in Residence

Last week I was an artist in Residence at the Nature In Art Museum and Art Gallery in Gloucester. I have been lucky to be able to be part of their Artist in Residence programme every year since 2000 (with the exception of one year). Each week from February to November they have an artist or artists set up in their studio space to spend the week (Tuesday to Sunday) working so that visitors can see an artist producing their creations- whether that is sculpture, paintings, print-making, drawing or any number of other skills.

It is a long time since I have shown any of my zoo artwork as part of my display simply because I have shared the studio space with another artist and therefore have had to limit what I can show as the studio space is not that big.

This year I was flying solo again, the first time in many years, as I felt it was time to show my zoo work again and as I wanted  space to show my Botswana project work too. Too much stuff to fit into a shared space.
So here are a few photo's showing my zoo display. For more photo's of the whole display in the studio please click here.

On the table I had a selection of sketches, a portfolio of examples of my illustrations, a book showing examples of other work I do such as murals and a photo of Distinctly Different (Dee Dee) the gorilla sculpture I painted.

In a handy glass cabinet I put some original illustrations on show; one, the Kowari, also had a copy of the finished ID sign next to it so it could be seen as a 'before and after' example. 

On the wall I put up another couple of examples of finished ID signs, a couple of posts from this blog and a description of my job at the zoo.

If I am there again next year, and solo, I will add more to the display.

Sadly my time at home is nearly at an end and I will be back at the zoo to work from Nov 5th. I had so many plans to do to this blog during my two months off, but my preparations for a couple of workshops and the week at Nature In Art took up nearly all of my time; but the plans aren't forgotten I will add them as and when I can.