day two-hundred-and-seventy-four - orangutan

hello, what a fine tuesday this is. yes, the weather is... grand, and the day's happenings are quite surprising indeed!

enough jibber-jabber, it's orangu-time:

© jem barratt

it's not the worst thing i've ever painted. let's put it that way. i really don't have time (or money) for a watercolouring course, so maybe i'll just have to teach myself.

oh no! that reminds me i was going to refresh my spanish... i guess that tells you how likely teaching myself watercolouring is.

if you look at this guy, you may be forgiven for thinking orangs are not faring too poorly.but it's a trap! the more mcdonald's you eat the more their habitation is destroyed. that is OBVIOUSLY a direct correlation - and i should know, i've almost enrolled in science already...

xj

day two-hundred-and-seventy-three - bearded seal

hey it's technically the next day. unless you live somewhere weird, like not south australia...

© jem barratt

meh, i like the angles

but where IS his (/her) beard?

xj

day two-hundred-and-seventy-two - potter wasp

a sri lankan muddy potter wasp to be exact. very exact.

© jem barratt

well, i'm off to the eyre peninsula tomorrow, but i have pre-drawn the next eight animals and i will pre-post them tonight. be sure to still check them out!

it is going to seem like such a luxury when i get back and only have one animal a day to draw again.

xj

p.s. yeah ok so i'm not up on wasps, sue me

day two-hundred-and-seventy-one - leaf beetle

when i first spied this beetle's golden spots, i thought it would be the perfect animal to draw today as i own a gold posca pen.

unfortunately it does not seem to actually resemble gold when used:

© jem barratt

but, for once, i think i did some pretty nice watercolouring. you win some you lose some. next time i'll procure some gold leaf and win at drawing golden animals...

oh right, you want to know about the beetle and not my lack of arting supplies?

well, they store toxic chemicals in their bodies, which is why they're so bright - to warn predators off. how thoughtful of them!

if i was toxic, i'd let animals eat me so they would die and learn their lesson... in ghostworld...

and also i'd be dead.

touché leaf beetle.
xj

day two-hundred-and-seventy - harpy eagle

ah the harpy eagle. so noble. so grand. so ferocious.

yes?

© jem barratt

and so harpy to meet you.

next year's challenge will be 'drawing 365 things when too tired to draw'. catchy hey?

oh yeah, young harpy eagles do actually look this ridiculous. see? i sure am asking you a lot of questions tonight. (aren't i?)

i don't have much else to say. it's a stupidly bad drawing of a stupidly hilarious bird. if i'd drawn the mature harpy it would have been far too classy, what with their leg stripes and sleekness. they also have a mighty fine scientific name - harpia harpyja - which i am going to count as one of those double scientific names i so dearly love... at least phonetically

hmmm
xj

day two-hundred-and-sixty-nine - philippine deer

hi there. so for the past four or five days i've actually been drawing two animals a day in preparation for an eight-day trip i am taking on monday.

don't worry, i am also surprised by my organisation. who knew i could have called this blog 730 animals all along...

© jem barratt

this looked a lot better when i was imagining it.

oh well. here's a dark deer from the philippines. they are considered 'vulnerable' (aww), and this one only has three legs (AWW).

apparently the locals eat them, which is always a tough situation to condemn. it's like icelandics eating puffins. you can't really get all haughty about the survival of the animal if it means the local people have no food to eat.

though i would still choose the deer... what's so special about humans?

xj