Butts end

Decided to come back into work at the zoo today to finish the lion board. There's not much left to do and I know Anna will be busy next week as she will be on her own in the studio, so I didn't want her to worry about having to get the lion finished for me.

Here's me working on the board, tidying up a few lines and adding a second coat to the pale body colour it wasn't dark enough to hide the pencil marks underneath of the traced line of the original lion (which I altered a bit).

Here's the original lion board with the very rotten hole where the small nozzle was. The board has rotten a lot around the small aperture to the point that a child's head could almost be put through it. We are not sure who painted the original board but I think it was probably a great guy called Al, who worked at the zoo for a great many years in the Graphics Dept. He did a lot of the fun stuff decorating cut outs of animal shape and things for various uses around the zoo like the Activity Centre, Zoolympics and puzzles and pictures for the zoo magazine.  

It's a shame his lion has suffered, but it gave a good number of years service and I hope mine will do the same.

So here he is finished....

Everything Butt

The studio was overwhelmingly fumey this morning when I unlocked the door. I was hit with a wave of  gloss paint smell... not one I'm adverse to, but maybe not quite at that strength!! All windows were duly flung open in a bid to ventilate the room quickly.

Looking at my progress I was disappointed to see a few runs in the paint. Because of my shoulder and its limited movement, aches and pains I chose to work with the board standing on the floor leaning against my drawing desk rather than placing it flat on a table or the ground. The latter would indeed get rid of the paint's tendency to run but I would have found it very difficult to work on.

So, just plod ahead and adapt where necessary... I don't really like working to someone else's design... I know for this it needs to be more child-like than correct anatomically so again I need to try and dispense with what I would do and try to work within the design I have been given. I have adapted it a bit but  can't do too much other-wise it wouldn't fit the board shape.

By lunchtime I had got this far and needed to wait a bit for the paint to dry off a little before I continued.

Cracked on with the lion during the afternoon and this is how far I have got....

Butt, butt, butt...

This morning I put up the new signs in the Forest of Birds exhibit that I had put together last week. I got them up before the zoo got too busy with visitors. It is the last week of the Summer Holidays and with school starting up again next week it seems there is a last rush to get out and about by families.

I love going in the Forest of Birds.. not only is it invariably toasty in there but it's like a treasure trove. At first glance it just appears to be greenhouse of plants, but then you start noticing the birds hidden amongst leaves and on branches. Java sparrows, white-rumped shama, roul rouls, turaco's, hooded pitta, bleeding heart doves, Nicobar pigeon's and the splendid ornately headed Victoria crown pigeon's just some of the species in there. How many times have I been in there when people wandered in and said... "there's nothing in here" and wander back out, when I can see at least a dozen or so individual birds around them. Sometimes I have stopped them and pointed a few birds that are close by, surprised, they then start looking for themselves and often then end up spending some time there finding birds with a noticeable sense of satisfaction. That makes my day when that happens... seeing people look and appreciate with new eyes.

Back in the studio I traced the lion tracing onto the new board and mixing one of the greens with a bit of the yellow I started painting the foliage area on the board. I shall leave the lion until after I have done most of the foliage as then I can avoid having to carefully paint around things and paint over instead.

During the afternoon I had a visitor to the zoo, Dr Kate Evans an elephant conservation researcher with whom I am doing an exhibition project. She had dropped some leaflets of her charity 'Elephants For Africa' off to me and I took her on a little walk around the zoo before she had to leave for another appointment.

Tomorrow is my last day at the zoo for a couple of months... I am hoping I can get quite a bit done on the lion. If I don't finish it, then Anna will take over and finish it off next week or the week after.

Clean sweep

First thing this morning I put tape on the laminated IDs and went out for an hour and half to put them up and restick all the signs I had noted were loose.

Back in the studio I photocopied 30 guides for the butterfly house and got them all laminated before delivering them to the Butterfly Forest display. I took away the old, crumpled and rather worn out looking few that were left from the batch that had been in there for a month or two.

Before lunch Lynsey popped over to the studio to check the kowari picture and gave it the ok. So now all I have to do is print that out after lunch, laminate it and get it up on show in Twilight World.

I have 8 bird IDs left to get laminated - I had left these until last as they also need to be hole-punched for the "book" displays they are used for.

The afternoon started with me finishing off and getting the kowari up on display. I had to fiddle with the image in Photoshop before getting the sign printed, as the background of the drawing was not quite white enough and lightening it in balance levels bleached out the finer lines of the drawing. So with the brush tool set on a soft setting I cleaned up the surrounding area.

Once the kowari sign was up I then started looking at my next project. Painting a lion's rear end!

One of the favourite things around the lion enclosure for kids is the spraying lion. A wooden board painted with the rear end of a lion, was inset with a spray nozzle, which had a pipe to a water supply and by pressing a button water sprayed out of the 'lion' just under the tail. It was well used by the children, who loved the idea of a lion spraying but also just the fact that children and playing with water are a natural mix. Sadly the well loved 'toy' started to suffer and the wood around the nozzle got very rotten. So a new board has been cut in the same shape as the old one and my job is now to paint a replica lion rear end.

I traced the basic outline of the previous painted lion as a guide and then set about searching for reference of a lion's rear end.... I had to word the google search request carefully as I got some very dubious websites to start with!! As you can imagine there are many many images of lions on the internet... surprisingly few, though, of the rear end of one! I eventually found just 5 that would be useful.

A trip to the Maintenance Dept was made so that I could look through their paint store, but after a short look it was decided that it would be better just for me to order new tins. I was given a Dulux paint chart swatch and a quick look through ended with me requesting 5 tins... 2 greens, two browns and a yellow colour which should be delivered tomorrow. Which means I can start painting next week... but not Monday.. that's a Bank Holiday here in the UK so I will not be in work.

Kowari and Sweep

It took me just about half an hour to finish off the kowari this morning... making sure I had remembered to put in its whiskers, of course! So this is the finished drawing....

The grades of pencil I used continued to be 4H, H, F and 7B.. using the 7B only for the black of the eyes and tail. Also on the tail I added some work in with a 9B and took out some 'harsh' details on the fur of the body. The drawing has yet to be checked by the animal section but I have set up the digital file for the ID sign so that once I get that check done, if the verdict is all ok then I can print out the ID straight away. But if I need to do any tweeks, I will have to re-scan the pic and place it on the file. this is what the final sign should look like (without the watermark)... 

The font I used for the text is one called "Sean's other hand", as it closely resembles the text on other ID's in the Desert area of Twilight World, where the text was hand-written by a member of staff (before being scanned digitally and placed on the signs) who is away on holiday at the moment.  

Before lunch I had about 40 mins to go out into the zoo and start my 'Sweep' of IDs to see which need replacing, cleaned, re-sticking etc. Because I was away for about a month recently I had a lot to catch up on when I got back, so my bi-monthly "sweep" got delayed as a result. It was very busy and in some areas I struggled to move easily through the crowds. I managed to get about half way around the site and came back with a relatively small list of stuff to do.

After lunch I continued on my "sweep'. Whilst I go around I also clean up some signs that are cobwebby or have become dirty. Surprisingly there wasn't too much to sort out and once back in the studio I started on the computer, printing out the ID signs needed. I had two already on file that I could use so that left me with only 16 IDs to print - 15 for birds and 1 for mammals.

By the end of the day all were printed out and most laminated.

Kowari

On checking my emails this morning I found I had a request to put up two more ID's for the Bird Section. These two species , Soccoro Dove and white-rumped shama, we have elsewhere in the zoo and ID's have been done for them before, so it was just a question of finding out whether a single or double version was required and then printing them out. As it happened I had a Socorro dove ID on file but the shama had to be printed off. To add to the job I also had to print out a single version of the Palawan peacock pheasant ID also, as the one on show was a double and I needed the space (doubles obviously take the space of two singles) to put up the shama. The job was done easily with no complications or hitches which was nice as the first job after the weekend.

As I walked across the zoo I saw a grey heron circling over the zoo, that was quite unusual.. usually we get lesser black-back and herring gulls and jackdaws.. so I was drawn to watching it. I saw it circle the centre of the zoo over the lake area twice before peeling off and flying away... with two gulls in pursuit who when they caught up with it took to harassing it to ensure it continued on its way. No doubt it could see the multitude of carp in our lake.. and had fanciful ideas on doing a spot of fishing there. Perhaps it was the enclosed nature of the area and/or the amount of people walking around that put it off. Maybe it is or will now be a night-time visitor.

Next I started on the illustration of the kowari. This is a pencil drawing so should be done fairly quickly. I sketched out the animal's shape first, having though about what position would 'sit' nicely on the finished ID. I have a selection of 6 images that I am using and one of them had the basic position I thought would suit the purpose, however it was sat on some branches and I wanted to put this one on the ground so I changed the feet and added the two limbs farthest from the viewer as they were not in the photo and it would look strange without them as an illustration.

Once I had the animal's body shape mapped out (you can see the circles I used to 'plan' the animal's size and position) I then traced it onto a piece of Schoellershammer paper. This is lovely to work on with graphite pencils. I have a soft wash brush to take away the loose graphite without smudging the drawing, a piece of paper under my right (drawing) hand as I work from left to right. I also have a scalpel to keep my pencils sharp and a piece of test paper to try out pencil strokes and weight on.

I started on the head using 4H and F pencils for the fur and 7B for the eyes (except for the reflected light on the right hand eye, which was done using the 4H). I use strokes short and carefully follow the direction of fur around the face and ears, building up from the lightest of touches with the pencil to darker tones - changing grade of pencil as it darkens to stop me pressing hard and creating indentations in the paper. 

By lunchtime I had got this far.....

By the end of the day I had got this far.....

Finished drilling

My aim to finish the drill illustration today was successfully completed early in the afternoon. There was some last minute changes to the text and some adjustments to do in photoshop to the image before the sign could be printed out, laminated and then put up on the enclosure. The adjustments to the image were in the form of adding to the width of the image using the cloning tool to copy sections of the illustration and adding them to the either side. I had to do this because we have an A4 scanner; I had done the painting to fit onto A4 but as I wanted to do the monkey as large as possible it meant it would not be quite wide enough (image dimensions) to fit into the picture box on the ID computer file without having to add extensions. Also once done, the colours on the hind quarters were just not showing up when printed. So I used the 'magic wand' tool to select the areas I wanted on the digital file to increase the colour saturation. On the computer screen the colours were a bit overly flambouyant but on the printout they looked just fine.

For the last part of the day I started sorting out photo reference and fonts for the next species on my list.. kowari. This little marsupial is nocturnal, so I am at the moment very limited with photo's and seeing as I have just two weeks left at work before my two months off, I can't spend much time trying to get more/better shots. The animal is housed in the zoo's nocturnal house 'Twilight World', so catching them out in daylight is limited to less than 40mins in the morning before the lights go down and darkness takes over and even then they may actually only come out on view for about 5 mins (if at all) prior to the light 'switch-over'. 

Twilight World is divided into 4 sections - Desert, Forest, Underground, House. For the Desert area the ID's are presented as if someone has written some notes on a piece of paper and drawn a picture of the animal. The Head of the Learning Department, Simon, usually does the writing for these signs, which I then scan into the computer and place on the sign. However Simon is away on holiday at the moment so I spent some time this afternoon searching the fonts I have installed on my computer, looking for some nice 'handwritten' typefaces. I found about 6 which I have put examples of on the computer file ready for a decision to be made over which one to use. I then went through the photo's I have and picked out  about 6 to use as my reference for this wee beastie. 

With any luck I should be able to start and finish this illustration next week - for this format of sign I need only do a fine pencil drawing for this species... so hopefully it shouldn't take too long to do. 

Then before I leave for my 'two months working on my own art at home' time I need to do a sweep of all the zoo's ID signs to check for missing, damaged, faded ones that need replacing. I have seen a few in need of replacement but have put priority on getting the illustrations done first.

Oops! I've missed two days of posts!

Been having problems with my little 'laptop' at home, so I am posting this on my work computer in my lunchtime.

Yesterday I started painting the drill illustration again. I over-painted the background, as I really didn't like what I had done last week and then started on the animal. This is what it looked like at the end of the day.

My work station has changed... my normal desk is a designers drawing board that I have set horizontally. I sit on a high stool/chair with no arm rests and a small seat. This working position was causing me discomfort with my arm/shoulder so whilst I have this frozen shoulder problem I shall be at my 'new' desk. This is a low ex-school formica topped bench table and I can use my computer chair (comfy seat with arms and full back) at it which puts my body in a better position for my arm/shoulder. It has made such a difference to the feel of painting at the mo, so much better. Rather than packing my old desk away, the new one is positioned next to it and whereas I used to sit facing the wall with a diagonal view out of the window to my right I am now sat at right angles at the window, giving me a more panoramic view out.

This morning Anna and I met with Mike, from Maintenance, to discuss the job requests we had sent in yesterday and that he had been allocated to do. First Anna showed him where and how high she needs a post putting for a directional sign she has done for the Reptile House and Aquarium. Then I went to Bug World to show Mike where  I need a backing board positioned for the rock pool ID signs. We discussed it a bit as there were various things to consider such as lighting, height, corner hazards and the amount the board should come out from the wall.

As I walked across the zoo coming back from Bug World. I watched little Kukena (the one year old gorilla) playing on a rope ball hanging from their wood climbing frame. He was wrapped around the ball at the end of the rope swinging around and jumping off to leap back on again. His mother, Salome, sat next to him eating and twice put her hand on the rope to steady its swinging motion. Then she put her forearm forward between Kukena and the rope and he dutifully climbed onto  and wrapped himself around her forearm as she walked away.

I got back to the drill illustration and have continued to work on the actual animal. It is so nice to be painting a fully furred animal after doing fish and inverts for such a long time. I know some of the spiders have been furry but painting the hairs on them and depicting a furry mammal is different. The scale makes a change on how you use the brush strokes.

Sitting this morning painting away I was treated to watching a young magpie on the roof of the portacabin right next to my window very close. It was chattering away and turning over all the decaying leaves on the roof, presumably looking for insects to munch on. I could quite clearly see its brown head as opposed to the deep black of an adult. Its feathers are also quite close to the head giving the appearance of a much smaller head. The adults have a 'full' head of feathers that give it a very rounded domed head. It was very intent on its search and when it did realise I was quite close, it stopped, checked me out and then bounced further away across the roof, chattering loudly as it did so.

Popped out during afternoon to put up the ID's on the newly made and positioned backing board in Bug World for the rock pool display. The zoo is busy today, the sunshine and end of school hols in sight may have encouraged a few more visitors.

Back in the studio I continued with the drill illustration and when the text came through via email for this species ID sign I placed that, and compiled a distribution map onto the sign's computer file. By the end of day I had got most of the body done and hope to have it finished by tomorrow.

Little lemurs

Shoulder/arm very sore and touchy today, had an awful nights sleep with it and am wondering if it was working at my drawing desk yesterday that kicked it off. Unavoidably, at the desk, my arm is positioned higher than it has been comfortable to do so over the past month or more. Although sitting there yesterday didn't feel particularly bad, it was starting to feel sore by end of the afternoon. So today again I tried to find other things to do rather than sit at my desk again for most of the day. However I do need to get on with the drill illustration and so spent time there to trace my drawing ready to transfer to the watercolour paper on which I shall paint the illustration. Once I did that I sploshed some paint on to start the background. It has been  about a month since I last painted and though it felt good to be holding the brush again, I'm not sure what I produced I shall be happy with.  To help blow the cobwebs away I tried working loosely  - wet into wet - to get a foundation for the background in. But looking at it later I wasn't terribly enthused with it... so I may end up painting over that next time. I didn't get much further with the drill.

I sorted some more photo's out on the computer and having received two lots of text from the Education dept for the panther chameleon and the blue spiny lizard, I set up the ID files for those two species and added the text in on both. I had to get Jim who wrote the text, to come and look at it again to take out one or two words so that the text block fitted the space on the sign. Then I did an internet search for the distribution ranges of both species... neither were amply represented in the images.. so I will have to contact the reptile section to confirm/source better maps.

Late in the afternoon Anna and I went across to the Aquarium (via the Maintenance Dept to pick up a tall set of steps) to put up the last two fish ID panels that were replacing the temporary paper ones. On our way there we passed through Monkey Jungle, the zoo's main primate exhibit. The ring-tailed lemurs recently had a baby; it is now about a month old and we just had to stop to watch. The mum and another adult were indoors chomping on some delicious fruit and veg put out for their afternoon feed. The baby was clinging to the Mum's back, its fur a pale tawny colour compared to Mum's grey back. As we watched, it shakily clambered off Mum and made hesitant moves away from her side. Soon it grew in confidence and took comical  stiff legged bounces between Mum and the other adult. These  gradually gained speed and accuracy the more it did it. It appeared to be having fun, bouncing back and forward in a jerky animated way; it was certainly endearingly funny to watch. We could have stayed there for many more minutes but we had to get onto the Aquarium to get the job done before the staff locked it up for the night.

Our progress in the Aquarium went smoothly and it didn't take long to get the new ID panels in. We are a bit concerned that the panels aren't black enough, so we need to ask if we can double up the panels (extra cost of course) to get them looking as dense and black as the other panels.

Drills

Before I started on my jobs list this morning I had a chat to Phil, my line manager. I was worried about the length of my to do list and knew that some species would likely be given priority over the others. A brief discussion with him had my to do list reassessed. Now first on the list is the newest species in the collection.... Drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus) followed by the kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei).

Drill  males are truly impressive weighing up to 20kg (44lb - just over 3 stone almost twice the weight of a female) with short stubby tails, colourful rainbow buttocks, heavy built shoulders and neck, black face with raised ridges and a pink chin. It looks almost like a mandrill, but with a less colourful face. They are a rainforest species found only in Equatorial Guinea where they have been declining in recent decades.  Illegal commercial hunting, habitat destruction, and human development have reduced them to perhaps as few as 3,000 in the wild, with the highest population estimate only 8,000... making them Africa's rarest primate.

A Kowari is a small carnivorous marsupial from the grasslands and deserts of central Australia. It measures about 16-18 cms long with a 12-14cm bushy tail and is mouse-like with a pointy face, bright beady eyes and large ears. As cute as it looks, I wouldn't put my hand anywhere near one as they are apparently voracious little critters. They have at least 5 other common names that they are known by such as brush tailed marsupial rat and is classed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red Data List.

So first job was to try and get photo's of these two species.

The kowari are in Twilight World and after observing them last week (for the first time) and chatting to the animal section staff... they are still very elusive and have not been seen out much. My chances of photoing them looked slim. Last week I waited by their enclosure just before the lights were due to dim for the change over (reverse hour lighting - their nighttime is our daytime). They stayed in their little shelters, only poking their cute little faces out of the doorway until the lights went off and the night time lighting came on (very low level blue light).

Then they came straight out, but of course, the camera could not function in such darkness and flash photography is out of the question. So I returned today about 15 mins before the light change over, kept still and quiet to one side of the window and was delighted when one ventured out in the daylight! The light is still quite low so I had to reset the cameras ISO and white balance levels and hope that the little critter stayed still long enough for me to get a half decent/in focus/unblurred shot. Took lots of images and managed to get a few that I could work from.


Pleased with my luck I went out into the daylight and walked the short distance to the drill enclosure. I have not seen this species before either, so was looking forward to seeing them. We have two males and from the looks of them one looks to be more mature than the other as he has a much more impressive shoulder/neck area and the colours on his butt and chin were much more vivid.

 The two boys were quite inquisitive and took a lot of notice of the people who stopped to look at them, including me, and were obviously still investigating their new domain. As I was watching and taking photos of them I saw that they were 'worrying' at some wood surrounding a window pane of their enclosure. It didn't take long before, between them, working seperately, they pulled a strip of wood off. That little act of vandalism I would have to report to the animal section when I got back to the studio. I couldn't fail to be impressed by these animals, they are quite stunning...maybe not exactly beautiful or pretty but definitely full of attitude and strength. The colours on their butts are quite surreal.. and if the animal didn't look like it could flatten me in a single boxing bout I'd say the colours were almost girly!

The dominant guy yawned and just like a baboon the teeth were awesome! Scary fangs in a gape so wide... as Phil said... you could fit your head in it!

Once back at the studio and after passing on the info about the drill's little DIY activity to the animal section, Phil adjusted my chair height and re-angled my desk top so that it would be more comfortable to work with my gammy shoulder. Then for most of the day I uploaded and sorted the  photo's I had taken and set about drawing the drill. Its distinguishing features are its head/shoulders and butt, so I need to draw it in a position to show off all three. Using the photos I took, I pieced together a position that I hope will suit. In drawing them, I noticed how small their hands are in comparison to the bulk of their heads and shoulders.  The head looks massive on the body, which is emphasised by the thick fur on top of the head and round the neck. By late pm I had refined the drawing to a point where I think I'm ready to start painting.

Last job of the day was to put up some of the fish ID panels that we had produced by an outside company. The IDs are printed onto a thick film/plastic to go into the lightboxes in the Aquarium. Anna had sorted all the artwork files ready for the printer company and now between us we needed to put them up. Because of my shoulder I could only stay at the bottom of the steps to make sure they were stable whilst Anna climbed up to remove the temporary paper ID panels and replace them with these new ones. We got all the lower lightboxes done before 5pm, when the Aquarium is quieter public-wise, as we only had a small pair of steps. Tomorrow we have the last few ID panels to go up in the higher lightboxes.. so we'll need to get bigger steps from the Maintenance Dept.

July 30 - Aug 1

I returned to work after almost a month's absence due to a frozen shoulder problem. My shoulder started the 'freezing' process during the last week of May and throughout most of June I had assumed I had a pulled muscle in my arm that would heal. It didn't and the pain got worse - eventually I woke up one morning with such pain that I then went to a GP and was diagnosed with the onslaught of a frozen shoulder, put on strong anti inflammatory painkillers and signed off work. I was given the option of a steriod injection into the shoulder joint, which I really didn't fancy due to the risk that goes with it, the imagined pain of the injection and the fact that I have a distinct aversion to needles! However staying at home in constant pain unable to do anything bar lie uncomfortably on the bed or a couch propped up on pillows to watch TV, read a book, play for short spells on the computer led me to reassess  the option. Plus I had and a week long batik workshop (I was to tutor) coming up at the end of July that I was committed to.
I relented and had the injection on the 9th and a week later the pain level had dropped sufficiently enough for me to tutor the workshop. Throughout the week the pain continued to ease and so on Monday 30th I was able to return to work.

Although the pain level has dropped (for now) I am not completely free of it and the mobility of my shoulder is limited. So for my first 'week' back I kept away from working at my drawing desk, which is currently too high for me to sit and work at. Instead I had much catching up to do with filtering through my emails and sorting out the various text documents sent from the Education department and placing the texts on the relevant ID documents. There was also a number of new species to add to my 'to do' list bringing my illustrations to be done up to 5 fish, 4 reptiles, 1 bird and 1 marsupial. I did reference searches for the new species and lots of 'little' jobs on the computer. to get these ID's 'on the go' Next week I hope to get my drawing desk height sorted so that I can start work on the illustrations.

It was lovely being back, not only for the company of my work colleagues but the sights and sounds of my work environment. I never try to take these for granted but when you've been away for a while they do come at you all fresh again.  Here are a few highlights that I enjoyed on my first days back.....
Hearing the agile gibbons dueting and the Sumatran laughing thrushes call across the zoo to each other did bring a big smile to my face. Going out and watching the seals play as they swim effortlessly through the water in their excitement before being fed. Waiting patiently for the new marsupials - the kowari - to come out as soon as the lights dimmed in Twilight World (our nocturnal house) and then watching them for a while in the low light. Seeing how big the youngster Kay is now against her Mum Shiva (the Asiatic lions). Watching how the spider monkeys, recently moved to another enclosure, make different use of it than the previous occupants - the howler monkeys. Watching the male okapi twist his long tongue around leaves to strip them from a long bendy twig. Looking in on the rockpool display to see how much the seaweed has grown.  Watching the gorillas exit their indoor area one after the other, after the morning's food had been scattered on their island. All little things really, but in my mind such a delight to be able to witness as an 'everyday occurance' in my workplace.