This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Before I began blogging over 7 years ago, I was already putting bat and insect wings on the extinct aquatic arthropods known as trilobites.
Let's not get into why I am fascinated with the idea of flying trilobites right this minute. I paint them with oil on stone and digitally, I doodle them in meetings, I designed one tattooed on my arm. And I play with variations of flying trilobites from time to time. Back in 2009, I played with making dirigible and trilobite-copters.
There's a book burning inside of me. Perhaps creating it will burn out this obsession for painting trilobites. I will be spent, the marathon I've been training for, over. I don't know. Right now I must run. I have so little time, father of two young kids, working 3 jobs the way artists do. I picture the book as an alternating series of paintings, with the naturalist-protagonist searching for various forms of flying trilobites. All the while, he is so laser-focused, he cannot see the other remarkable things around him in his strange world. That's the idea.
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When I couldn't sleep recently, I sketched this out on my iPad, using ArtRage and my Wacom Intuos Creative Stylus.
The work for our September SciArt Blitz by my supremely talented co-bloggers Kalliopi Monoyios and Katie McKissick raised the bar. I thought this would be an interesting piece to refine as my contribution to our Blitz.
I sketched some more, .3mm pencil on Bristol paper.
But a sketch won't do, now will it? I know. I recently received a copy of ArtRage 4.5 for review (been a big fan since 2.5). I'll paint it.
But the insomnia from last week went away. Exhaustion is back. This painting is unfinished.
Our SciArt Blitz may be over, but we all still have work to do. Don't stop creating. Go go go go go go
Links:
For the third year running, we are turning September into a month-long celebration of science artists by delivering new sciart to invade your eyeballs. The SciArt Blitz! Can’t get enough? Check out what was previously featured on this day:
2013: Putting the Illustrations Before the Text - art by Kalliopi Monoyios
2012: Hyperdimensional Suffering - art by Salvador Dalí