day ninety - great crown crane

these guys look smashing:

© jem barratt

better than you'll ever look. you got a problem with that? well why don't you draw me a picture for once!?

yeah.
xj

day eighty-nine - golden eagle

guess who's running out of time again? the earth. TWIST!

oh and also me...

© jem barratt

this eagle is stressing me out. he looks ok, but i tend to feel disappointed when my sketches don't look exactly like the photos i draw from. to which i am told "THIS is a drawing, THAT is a photo". yeah yeah, thanks mantis...

however, today i drew from the most amazing photography ever: bird by andrew zuckerman. so my level of disappointment is higher than usual. but also i'm so happy just looking at birds so it balances out. seriously buy that book NOW (or at the very least look at the website) because you've never seen photos so clear and detailed and breathtaking.

unless you've seen it already, in which case touche.
xj

day eighty-eight - dusky langur

dodgy, yes, but such a cool animal:

© jem barratt

now imagine the baby is bright orange and you have successfully imagined what you have missed out on at adelaide zoo (yes again!). you should still see him though as he's still babyish, he's just not a cool colour anymore.

much like the colour of a 'spice' game cube controller if that helps. which it wouldn't, because surely i'm the only person who even still owns a game cube...

RELEVANCE!
xj

day eighty-seven - sumatran tiger

admittedly i have been very adelaide-zoo-centric lately. not only because i so badly wish to work there, and not even because it's the only zoo in my city. no, no, no. but for the much lazier reason of me drawing in my lunch break and just happening to have the zoo times in my bag.

and thus, tiger:

© jem barratt

someone remind me to learn how to screenprint - i think a bunch of my drawings would make good t-shirts. like the caracal. yep, linking to my own stuff...

xj (love from increasingly-arrogant-jem)

day eighty-six - northern white rhino

yes again. and i'm even drawing the exact same rhino that i did before:

© jem barratt

because he's just. so. CUTE!

also now i know his name is digger (cute) and i drew his mum for scale (cute). i'm pretty obsessed in case you couldn't tell. i'm not sure why, he just makes me so excited and smiley.

that said, i haven't actually seen him in person at monarto yet. but this time next week i will have.

join me!
xj

day eighty-five - tasmanian devil

personally i find tassie devils to be quite cute:

© jem barratt

but they are definitely still ferocious (although that gahoole owl movie made them seem like straight out monsters [should i not have just revealed that i actually watched that movie?]).

unfortunately their face tumours are even more ferocious because they spread like a contagious disease. in case you don't know, devils have been ravaged pretty recently by a disease called devil facial tumour disease (DFTD). it's horrible.

the facial tumours can interfere with eating and the devils usually die within months of infection. yes this is a downer, but maybe you can do something to help? the disease has affected more than sixty per cent of tasmania, so the more people that know about it the better.

i'ma donate right now.
xj

day eighty-four - california quail

coolest quail in town:

© jem barratt

if the town is california.

xj

day eighty-three - flying squirrel

© jem barratt

evening.

nat geo reckons these guys should be called 'gliding squirrels' instead. yeah well guess what nat geo, flying squirrels think YOU should be called international geographic. both names are wildly inappropriate. wildly i say!

xj
(a fellow pedant)

day eighty-two - wattled smoky honeyeater

here. quick. look!

© jem barratt

wow i really like this one! pity i can't tell you much because i'm running late. so quickly in dot points:

• found in 2005
• lives in the 'mist-shrouded foja mountains of indonesia's papua province'
• doesn't make much noise
• read more on nat geo

that's all i know. but to be fair i don't think much is known about them at all. how about you tell me for once, jeez. demanding.

xj

day eighty-one - bison

in honour of the recently-born calf at monarto zoo i drew this:

© jem barratt

like cows, bison used to be my favourite animal, but unlike cows that's not something i'm ashamed of (sorry cows). i even had a little metal bison figurine on my bedside table. super cool.

but then i moved on to others, many others, because i'm a floozy when it comes to picking a favourite animal. (for the record i think it's gibbons at the moment...)

not only are bison noble creatures, but they're also in the ilk of rats and gorillas because of their double scientific name: bison bison. and they have huuuuge heads. which is cool.

now if you would like to see a photo of a bison being born click here. if you would just like to see how adorable a baby bison could be go here. haHA! i tricked you. they was both the same links!!

and now i bid you a devious goodnight.
xj

day eighty - quokka

© jem barratt

this is a less-well-executed version of an idea by my colleague the mantis:

when i am feeling less like a waving blow up caryard man that's been shot in the head (coupled with the sound of pacman dying) i will draw a series of australian 80s pun-imals.

in the meantime enjoy the cuteness of quokkas.
xj

day seventy-nine - flamingo (again)

it may seem lazy to draw an animal i've already drawn when there are hundreds of thousands of others to draw. well it's not. get off my case fictional reader!

© jem barratt

plus these are flamingo chicks, which are fluffy and hilarious and white. plus plus there are no rules, i could draw 365 flamingos if i wanted. but only if i started again...

if it makes you feel better, i hate drawing this blog as much as you hate reading it. we're in this together!

not really. how could i hate it when i get to enjoy tiny flamingos frolicking in a bowl of water? i can't that's how.

huh? (i'm sleepy)
xj

day seventy-eight - elephant seal

aww isn't this sweet and not at all sinister?

© jem barratt

hmmm. let's look at some more evidence. yep they're creepy alright.

the male ones anyway. i have actually been to the argentinian peninsula that hosts the fourth largest colony of elephant seals. cool hey? yeah, probably should mention there weren't any there at the time. well no bulls anyhow.

what i did see was some filthy sea lion bulls crushing the ladies and their babies and making lascivious noises. i mention this because like sea lions, elephant seal bulls have harems of several dozen sea-ladies (if they're highly ranked. they might have none if they're at the bottom of the hierarchy).

very interesting behaviour to observe, although hearing hundreds of sealions do it is more than a little revolting - and i imagine if you add an inflated proboscis to the mix like these elephant seals do it would be all the more off-putting.

xj

p.s. google 'elephant seal noise' to hear their fart-squelch-pig-squealy-calls

day seventy-seven - some kind of deer

here, lunch time antlers:

© jem barratt

belonging to a vague deer
haiku posts are great...

xj

day seventy-six - atlantic puffin

aren't puffins adorable?

© jem barratt

yes. even more so when you learn that their young are called pufflings. PUFFLINGS!

i always think of puffins as being magical, and believe i could rely on them to give me directions in the form of riddles if i was lost. but i'm sure everyone thinks like that...

i'm aware of how hypocritical i am for telling you not to eat all these animals i draw as i munch on some lamb for dinner. believe me i know. incidentally, icelanders (or icelandics if you wish to be rude) traditionally eat puffins. and who am i to argue? they're not threatened, and just because puffins have cooler beaks than chickens doesn't mean they're above being human fodder.

although i can't believe they 'fish' them out of the sky with nets. if hunting's not your thing you might still want to watch that to see gordon ramsay get bitten by a puffin...

xj