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Science-Art Scumble #28

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


This week's featured image:

Prehistoric Ninja Turtles by Peter Bond.

Fanart © under CCL-BY-ND-NC 2011 Prehistoric Mutant Ninja Turtles, Original Ninja Turtle licence © Nickelodeon


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Medium: Pencil and Digital colouring.

About the image, Peter notes:

Raphael = Proganochelys quenstedti - Late Triassic (210 myo) - Germany and Thailand - first full shell - 1m long

Michelangelo = Odontochelys semitestacea - Late Triassic (220 myo) - Guizhou, China - oldest turtle (incomplete shell) - 40cm long

Leonardo = Placochelys placodonta - Late Triassic (200 myo) - Germany - paddle-like limbs - 90cm long

Donatello = Archelon ischyros - Late Cretaceous (75-65 myo) - South Dakota and Wyoming, USA - HUGE - >4m long!

For more artwork by Peter Bond:

Portfolio

Print Gallery

Bond's Blog

BondArt - DeviantArt Gallery

ART Evolved profile

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Now for this editon's science-art links! It's a big list, as the Scumble was on hiatus in November.

Wish you weren't here - Gurney Journey. Dinotopia creator James Gurney discusses copyright infringement.

Scrap-Fabric Herpetology - Omegafauna

Advent Medicalendar - by Medical Museion. Only in Danish this year, and a fun idea.

Orion - LucyJain's Blog. New painting by the stellar (harhar) Lucy Jain.

Moron Journalist Finds New Way to Embarrass His Blog Network - Biodiversity in Focus

Flinchy Sale - The Tiny Aviary

Introducing Art Cards - Heather Ward Wildlife Art

Ankylosaurus, like no living animal - Weapon of Mass Imagination

Eco Art + Science: Printmaker Lisa Studier - biocreativity

A dinobot! - Carnosauria. Comic illustrator Brett Booth does a robot raptor for Teen Titans.

Tiptoe's Beauty - Street Anatomy

Turtles + Architecture - biocreativity

The story behind the world's most famous drawing - Jamie Condliffe, CultureLab.

Artistosuchus Pusillus - Paleoexhibit.

So long, Little Robot. You Tried. That's all we can ask - Maggie McFee, Mad Art Lab

Friday Favorite: Sage Dawson - Mary C. Nassar. Continuing the exploration of artistic maps.

Mixed media local artists accumulate, reduce, reuse, make awesome art - Hybrids of Art & Science.

Selective Skeptics - Sci-ənce! - I love the X-Files reference on the background poster.

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Scumble: ”A painting technique in which semi-opaque or thin opaque colors are loosely brushed over an underpainted area so that patches of the color beneath show through.”

From The Artist’s Handbook, by Ray Smith.

This began as a series of posts on my personal blog, The Flying Trilobite, as a way to brush highlights over the tremendous amount of science-based art that’s out there. I can’t begin to cover it all, so here’s a scumble over some recent posts that I found interesting, provocative, or otherwise caught my eye from the Science Artists Feed, and other sources.

Science-art is becoming an increasingly popular form of science communication and entertainment. Drawing from fine art, laboratory work, scientific illustration, concept art and more, watch how artists spread scientific literacy and play with the inspiring concepts in science. Doing the Scumble posts, I hope to connect artists with each other, and expose their work to a wider audience. Remember, a lot of these artists are available for commissions and have online shops for original art and reproductions. Why not put some art on your wall that means something more than “weird for the sake of weird”?

Put your feet up, make yourself an eggnog latte and enjoy the science-art on the links above.

Click here for recent Scumbles and here for even earlier Scumbles.