Wednesday 27th June

Back in work today after resting arm and shoulder yesterday.

So back to the goliath stick insect... had hoped (had I been in) that I would have finished this yesterday. So today's target is to get the little beastie done, checked, scanned and placed on ID sign, printed, laminated and on show by the end of the day.

 Well I got part way there..... got the painting finished, checked, scanned and placed on the ID file by late afternoon. Having sent the text that was to go on the ID sign to the invertebrate animal section (Mark had not yet seen it) I got an email back from him later with a small query on the grammar, so I sent an email to Dave in Education for him to check it over.

I had another email from Nigel on the Bird section late in the afternoon... there was an error spotted on the distribution map of the brown-breasted barbet. Unfortunately we are out of a black ink on the computer printer, so I sent the corrected ID through to another printer... sadly it did not print well and there was no time left to switch on, send and print it on the thrid printer we have at our disposal. Even if there was I had no time to then trim, laminate, trim again and take out to section to put up and then wait for the laminator to cool so that it could be switched off before I left to go home. So it would have to wait and be the first job I do on Monday.

Had no time to sort out the image of the goliath stick insect to post on here either so again.. will do that on Monday.

Tuesday 26th June

No work today at the zoo as have taken an unscheduled day off (sick day) due to a visit to a health centre and being diagnosed with a shoulder impingement.

Birthday

I walked into the studio this morning at the zoo and this was what my desk looked like.

The folks in the education section had decorated my desk at the end of last week, so it was ready to greet me this morning. It was my birthday on Saturday and it is a little tradition within the graphics and education sections to get your desk 'done over' as a birthday treat.The toy animals are used by the education section in their teaching sessions and along with them, the banners and balloons I had confetti sprinkled over the desk!

Sadly the animals couldn't stay there all day, as I needed the space to work, of course... so I returned all but three of them and left a gorilla, lion and lemur to keep me company for the day.

Then it was onto the goliath stick insect... picking up from last week I carried on finishing off the leaves and then worked through the day on the legs and part of the body.

In the afternoon I had to nip over to the Aquarium to check what temporary signs were up so that my colleague, Anna, could prepare the computer files and artwork ready for a print company to make colour transparencies of them.

When I came back I was just going through the info with Anna, when singing interupted the flow. Folks from the education section came into the room singing  'Happy Birthday' - Anna and Phil joined in and I was given a pressent bag and card. My 'secret birthday person' had bought me some lovely gifts (there is a max spend of £10) of a nepalese handmade bird hanging, a beautiful purple scarf and a cast iron lizard.

With the lovely Birthday stuff over I got back to the Aquarium signs. I had a few adjustments to make before the end of the day, before Anna could do her thing with them tomorrow.

Goliath stick insect illustration

Yesterday I wrote how I have to fit the animal into an oblong format shape for the illustration.  This is my drawing scanned in and dropped into the box on the ID file. 

I have adapted my drawing from the photo references by curving the body down at the end and angling the rear near side leg back along the abdomen and up at an angle to grasp a twig. The photo ref had this leg going vertically up which would have meant the animal would have to be reduced in size to fit the leg in had I left it at that angle. The changes I have made allow me to fill the box shape with the animal getting it as large as possible for easier viewing.

I am only representing the female of this species as the two sexes, in colouration, are very much alike, with only slight differences that the public generally wouldn't pick up on. There is a size difference but as is am I often reminded either by myself or my manager, Phil, this is an identification sign  not a scientific drawing and only if there is a marked difference (i.e. the male and female look like two different species colour-wise)  then I only do one of the sexes. As the females  of this speciesare bigger, they are most likely to be seen, which is why I chose to do the female this time. 

This morning was spent colour mixing and testing for the background colour, which I want as a tone light enough to 'disappear' behind the insect but not too light that any highlights or light areas on the insect don't show up. Then again I don't want too dark a colour that the animal is difficult to see against it. Several batches of colour were mixed, applied in rough 2" square patches on a spare piece of watercolour paper and when dry scanned in to see what the electronic process made of the colours. Some pigments in the paint don't scan well and come up a totally different colour, others scan almost perfectly.. depending on the mix of colour. So after playing around with colour I decided on my colour and coated a 10" x 8" piece of watercolour 300grm paper. Whilst that was drying I traced my drawing onto tracing paper,  ready for the final trace onto the painted watercolour paper when it is thoroughly dry.

After lunch I started the painting by first blocking in the main parts of the body with a mid green. Then I worked on the legs and leaves, again by first blocking basic colour in and then gradually building up tone and detail.

Goliaths

Onto a new illustration today... the goliath stick insect (Eurycnema goliath). This bright green beastie is a monster.... the second largest stick insect in the world with the females growing as long as 20cms. The Titan stick insect of Australia is bigger, but is not as heavy or sturdy as the goliath.

I had taken photos of the zoo animals of this species some months ago, so I spent the morning looking through these photo's picking out the ones that I could use and printing them onto A4 sheets of paper. I had managed to get some good reference shots; in particular I had taken a photo of a female and then before she moved I then took a further dozen or so photos zooming in closer so that I got just a leg, foot or head. This will help me get the detailing on the joints right.

Also this morning the Dave, Education Section, asked me what text requests were outstanding. The Education Officers write the text that goes on each ID sign. I get the info from the animal section and then when I need the text doing I send this onto the Education team, which they then convert into a passage of interesting text. Although I have a list of 10 ID requests.. only 4 need text. Once I had sent all the relevant info to Dave I got back to the stick insect.

Just before lunch I was able to start the drawing of the female goliath stick insect. I have to choose the position of the insect carefully  so that it fits into the set oblong picture box on the ID sign. A long insect with long legs can quickly become just a tiny image within the box if the positioning is not thought out properly. The animal stance needs to be oblong.. if it becomes too square (i.e. legs go more vertical than horizontal) then the size of the beastie has to be made smaller for the legs to fit in. So as I was drawing my stick insect I altered a few of the legs from the reference photos so that they would fit into the oblong format.

I finished the drawing by late afternoon and my eyes were feeling tired from the concentration. So I took the opportunity to pop up to Bug World to see the live stick insects on display. I had only a few bad photos of the male and female together - there is a marked size difference so to get the comparative sizes right I hoped I could get some better photos this afternoon. Armed with the departments camera I went out into the glorious sunshine and across to Bug World.

As it was I could only see one male in with several females and sod's law... he was nowhere near any of them! So bang went that idea. I did a quick perusal through the whole house checking for IDs that might need replacing or new species being on show with temporary or no sign at all. Pleased to see all was well and in order. So I popped into the Aquarium which was close by.

I was delighted to see that the three new bichir fish (recent aquisitions) were all out swimming in plain sight! Why should this excite me so? Prior to their arrival, I had only ever seen the zoo's one other bichir once or twice in the 16 years I have been there and the ID illustration is badly in need or redoing; so to now see three at once, was like Christmas! I took loads of photo's... mainly because the tank these fish are in is one of the 'landscape' tanks.. these are big tanks (about 12-15 feet wide across the front, about 5-6 feet deep and about 6-7 feet front to back). The floor level of the tank sits about 2 feet below the floor level of the public viewing area and the light level at the bottom is very low, add water distortion andt a ground loving fish between 1 and 2 foot long in there and you can start to get an idea of how it was not easy getting any decent shots. Still... it was vastly better than anything I had got before.. which was just one or two extremely poor images.


On my way back to the studio I couldn't resist these two piccies...

Guess who?!

A fearsome T-Rex sizing me up for a quick snack!

 

 

Monday 18th June

Today I was rock pooling practically all day... at least painting an illustration of one... maybe not as good as the actual thing, but lovely from the point of view that I could concentrate and crack on with it without other jobs cropping up and distracting/deterring me. As a result I was able to complete it just before it was time to go home.

As is usual for me, I worked from the 'back' of the scene moving forward layering the elements one on top of the other rather than painting around them if I approached it as a whole or started with the main features at the front. Once it was finished I stuck masking tape around the 'underwater' area, cutting it to fit the shape and then with a 2" wash brush I put on a thin blue wash carefully so as not to disturb the paint underneath. Once that was dry i just added a few touches over that of the elements at the front to make them stand out more and that was it...  done.

It has now been scanned onto the computer and put into the computer file for the sign that will go on the rockpool display tank. Now I just have to wait f or the text to come from the Education section and I can get the sign completed and up on show.

My only diversion on this day was a pleasant one in the afternoon... The zoo management have, in the last year, started a lovely idea of once a month holding a 'tea and cakes chat' where members of the Senior Management Team (SMT) invite staff whose birthday falls in that month to join them in the Directors Office. So this month I got 'my turn' along with five others to have our birthday cakes with three members of the SMT.. it was an enjoyable hour of general and sometimes very amusing chat.  

Wednesday 13th June

One of my first jobs this morning was to put a square banner up for the Dino Party Room. There is an old shop that has been converted into a small room for children's party's and as we have dinosaurs in the zoo this summer the marketing Dept. have converted it into the Dino Party Room. The banner goes on the front of the building to brighten it up and give the space its new identity. Firstly I went down with Phil, Graphics Manager, to see where it was to go and to check the banner fitted the window onto which is was to be stuck. The window was rather mucky from dust and sticky fingers so I went back to clean it before starting on the banner. I put double-sided tape round the edge of the banner and, with Anna to help, it was stuck to the window with no hitches or snags... so nice when a job is straightforward.

Then I had an ID sign to do... a Palawan peacock pheasant had been moved into one of the garden Aviaries, this species is elsewhere in the zoo so there would be an ID file on the computer. I went to check the aviary to see what other signs were up and if I had to re-jig them. Sure enough the holder had three species already in there. The holder has room for four single IDs so there would be room once I changed one of the present IDs for the Bali starling from a double sign (with text) to just a single (without text).

Back to the studio I checked my 'hardcopy' file cabinet and found that there was an ID for the Bali starling so that was one less to print off and laminate. The Palawan peacock pheasant computer file was a Quark file so had to be redone as an Illustrator file before I could print it out. This is because I am going through the slow process of gradually changing all the ID files that have been done in Quark, Freehand or InDesign over to an Illustrator file. This is so that not only everything is done the same way but that printing issues are lessened as our printer does not like Quark and won't print A4 files done in this software.

When I popped out to put the two new signs up on the aviary I spotted the female Palawan foraging through the long grass in the aviary. She is a beautiful bird in her own right, but the male is absolutely stunning with irridescent blue on its head and in 'peacock' eyes on its tail feathers.

Whilst out I popped into the Butterfly Forest to check on how many Butterfly Guides they had left. There wasn't many and they were looking a little tatty; they would need some more. Back in the studio I pulled out the hardcopy of the A4 butterfly guide and ran off 32 copies on the photocopier. These then needed laminating, which took me up to and just after lunch. When they were all done I dropped them off in the Butterfly Forest. I do like going in here and envy the staff and volunteers who work in there as it is always lovely and warm, even toasty hot on some days.... perfect! Add to that the beauty of all the butterflies flitting around or sitting on the foliage and food... makes for a lovely working environment I should think. There was a new batch of butterflies just emerging from their chrysalis' - beautiful large white with black veined wings.

Finally about mid-afternoon I was able to get back to the rockpool painting. I continued working on the rocks and seaweeds at the back and, as I am painting, I hold a ruler across the 'waterline' so that I can see just where the seaweeds would float or be exposed and where to stop with the rock highlights etc. I am having fun doing this, it is so nice to not have the normal constraints I have when illustrating a species of animal, which I have to do as precisely as I can and am bound by colour, pattern, form and size. This, I am making up as I go along, albeit following my 'rough sketch idea' for basic composition... but the details I can be pretty free with... putting the seaweed where I like, however many limpets as I like.. the colour of the rocks, the form of the rocks... aaaah... it is a delight!

From rockpools to wrestling with dinosaur signs

This morning at work there was a jumble sale. The company that run the visitors cafe and the conference and event facilities had a clear out of their cupboards and was hoping to shift a lot of tableware, containers, display plates and stands, kitchenware and other bits and pieces, that they no longer use, to the staff and volunteers. Naturally I went along to have a look and came away with some goodies for my home and for my art merchandise displays, so I was very happy. All that was required in return was a donation to a cancer charity... worthy cause for some lovely handy bargains.

Once the excitement of that was done I settled down to paint the rockpool, working on the cutaway rock face. I painted several layers of dry brushwork in varying tones of stoney beige colours to hopefully get a rough textured feel.

Once that was done I started painting in the rock faces at the back of the rockpool and adding various seaweeds exposed above the waterline. This took me a good part of the morning and a bit of the afternoon.

After lunch I helped my work colleague Anna, graphic designer, to put up some sponsorship boards with the dinosaurs. This involved unscrewing the ID board  from a wooden post and screwing in the sponsorship at the top of said post and then rescrewing in the ID board at the bottom... lovely and straightforward.... you'd think! First the string ties that were there for aesthetic value were made up of many strands of rough twine clumped together and tied securely. But with all the rain we have had the string has expanded and the knots were very tight and tough to undo. We resorted to shoving a screwdriver in to wiggle and loosen the knots before we could get our fingers to work the knots open. Under the twine were the screws that held the boards to the posts. Second hitch was that the screwbit Anna had brought with us was the wrong size and being too small just wouldn't grip the screw head. So I held the fort whilst she nipped back to the studio to get the little box of bits. On her return we soon ran into our third problem. Our cordless screwdriver was low on charge and barely got two screws out! So whilst Anna held the fort I nipped back to the studio to get the second battery pack for the screwdriver. Only... it wasn't yet charged up!

So after tracking down someone in maintenance I crossed the zoo to pick up a screwdriver from them. I had a slight delay there as I couldn't see the signing out book for equipment, but was eventually pointed in the right direction. I then hot-footed it across to Anna waiting by one of the dinosaurs... she had just rang the studio on her mobile wondering where I was... my little excursion had taken longer than planned.

So now armed with a super dooper DeWalt cordless the screws flew out and in in a flash... quite a contrast to our poor cheap screwdriver that has to work really hard, even when charged to get a job done.
We had three sponsorship boards to put up today and once we had ironed out our little series of hitches, we finished the task fairly quickly.

Then it was back to the studio. I had an email from Lucy, in PR, asking if I'd like to put something forward in response to an email she had from The Bristol Magazine. They have their 100th issue coming up later this year and are looking to do a feature on Art relating to the city of Bristol by Bristol artists. Of course I jumped at the chance. So I then spent a little while toing and froing emails with Lucy on ideas, sorting out  and sending a short biography to her and finding some interesting images of my illustration work at the zoo.

I have one or two images of paintings that I have done as a wildlife artist that might be of interest, being of prominent zoo animals.. so job for this evening is to sort out some copies of those to send to Lucy too.

Delving into the rockpool

I was back at work today after an 11 day break, thanks to a double bank holiday at the beginning of last week and having booked the Wednesday of the week off as well. The usual check of my emails revealed no outstanding requests for replacement signs or new IDs to be added to my list. There had been one request but in my absence my line manager, Phil, did the replacement sign.

So, onto the next illustration on my list - the rockpool. This is for the British rockpool display that has been set up in Bug World and will go on the general information sign. All the ID's for this display are being done separately so this illustration needs only to show a general view and as it will be reduced in size to about 5"x 3" it does not need to be complicated or massively detailed... however as it is a 'general' illustration it may come in useful for something else, so I need to paint it with that in mind (i.e. that one day it may be presented at a larger size).

I started by gathering all my reference pictures of rockpools, some photos and some illustrations/paintings done by other artists. I looked through these to get ideas on how to present the rockpool .. do I paint it as if viewed from above, as a cutaway view or at a bit of an angle somewhere in between? Do I portray the rockpool as a whole or go in close on a part of it? What elements do I want to incorporate - seaweeds, stones, rocks, shells, inverts, fish? I studied the reference and made note of the things I liked and after a quick discussion with Phil on what he would like, I had a plan.

I printed off the reference pictures that would help me compose my rockpool and did a quick rough sketch of a cutaway view - the shape and form of which I made up completely, but that had been influenced by my reference. For example I liked the steepsides one picture had so I gave my rock pool steep sides around part of it, another showed loose stones so I added my own, throwing in a large slab rock lying on top of some. I liked the idea of showing half buried seashells and pebbles in sand, so I will have something similar.

I showed Phil my rough sketch to see if it was what he was thinking of and was pleased to get the go ahead. So I sized my sketched to fit comfortably onto an A4 piece of paper and then scanned it in on the computer. I then droppped the image of the sketch into the 'picture box' on the sign file to make sure that the composition fitted the shape format okay. Having done many illustrations to fit into this shape over the years, it was not difficult to draw something freely that would sit comfortably within it but I just needed to check it wasn't to wide or too deep, before I start throwing on the paint.

After lunch there was a delay of just over an hour as I had to attend an all staff meeting before I could get on with the next stage.

I traced the outline of the rockpool shape and main rocks onto a piece of 300grm watercolour paper and began mixing colours. First a good blue for a summer sky to form the basic colour backdrop behind the pool and then a bluey grey to be the colour of the cutaway rock that the pool sits on.

As I was mixing colours for most of the afternoon I spent a lot of it sat holding my colour test paper under the table lamp - the heat from the bulb dries the paint quicker. The one drawback with gouache is that whilst fluid and wet it looks a lot lighter than it does when it dries. So much time is used waiting for colour tests to dry to make sure I got the mix right/as I want it. 

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I can start really painting the rockpool - this will be one of the most 'free' paintings I have done in my 16 years at the zoo. Almost everything else has to be exact... this is made up and if I paint a rock a little bit bigger than planned or a different shape or colour... it's not going to matter at all. Aaaaah the luxury of that feeling and freedom!