day three-hundred-and-forty-eight - australian sea lion

i envisioned something much better than this:

© jem barratt

oh well. i didn't envision sleeping on a couch last night, but that also happened.

oh life. oh liiiiiiiife. doo do do do.

you know what. i think i'd rather see a ghost than eat a piece of toast. if you don't know what i'm talking about then you are...

- a) not tired enough
- b) not familiar enough with 90s music

maybe i can end with more appropriate lyrics.

sea lion! sea lion! sea lion! sea lion!

xj

day three-hundred-and-twenty-two - golden brushtail possum

here's an interesting fact about possums:

© jem barratt

unless they die in your roof that is. in the middle of an adelaide summer.

and then your dad has to climb into the roof and scoop the mess into a garbage bag and dispose of it. and he won't let you see it because it is actually just liquid.

gross.

but that probably won't happen to you. i mean it's happened to me twice but maybe i'm WHY it's not happening to you.

in other news, possums are actually exceptionally cute and native, and therefore you should ignore their general nutjobbedness (and also that possum-covered-man/lady who kisses possums in a park at melbourne by moonlight [seriously]) and just accept them already.

pleeeease?

xj

p.s. plus they're not as crazy as opossums, or anti-possums as i like to call them

day two-hundred-and-eighty-one - eastern grey kangaroo

what? you're going to boycott my blog if i repeat an animal i've already drawn? well see ya later sucker(s)/no-one.

i was camping last week, and there were many of these kangaroos in the national park we stayed in, so naturally that's what i photographised.

and THUS:

© jem barratt

i like that the second kangaroo is like his shoulder angel. if he wasn't there the main roo might've eaten me just like he ate my friend's sketchbook - for reals. we also saw a dead baby dolphin beached on the shore with its guts all about the place, but i thought this would be a nicer post...

see what i do for you.

xj

day two-hundred-and-sixty-three - bilby

as if i haven't drawn a bilby yet!?

unnecessary question mark, get out of here! (...never ? muah?ha???ha)

© jem barratt

i didn't mean for him to be so cute, but i stuffed the face up and just went with it. and now i love him. although he does look like he should be in that kid's show 'arthur'. what was arthur by the way? a rat? a gopher? i have no idea.

also have you ever noticed all the lines in that cartoon are broken. it's really weird.

trust me. and trust this guy too. doesn't he just look so trustfulworthly?

*shudder*

xj

p.s. oh yeah, some facts. in australia we eat easter bilbies not rabbits because rabbits are evil in australia. well some of us do - people who can afford (and like) fancy chocolate. um what else? surprisingly they are only 'vulnerable' and not 'endangered' - in south australia our zoos are trying to breed them like crazy for reintroduction. AND they like to stick their heads in the sand. the end. you couldn't possibly learn anything else about them!

day two-hundred-and-sixty-two - moorhen

things i know about moorhens:

- they can be violently protective of their young (i knew this from experience before i read it at melbourne zoo)
- they have proportionally-wack (scientific term - obviously i don't even need that degree) feet, best illustrated on their awesome chicks
- um... yep

ok so i do need a science degree

oh yeah! the drawing!

© jem barratt

is that an anticlimax or what?

i'll tell you what's not an anticlimax though...

...

........
..

...........

READY!?!!?

....

.

..............(xj)

day two-hundred-and-fifty-six - sugar glider

delicious!

this blog has not been informative (at least not about the animals) in a very long time. so today i will attempt to teach you some things:

firstly, i am a liar...

© jem barratt

i did draw with the colour-splash background again. lesson? don't trust me!

secondly, while these marsupials are australian it is americans that are most obsessed with them - there is a big sugar glider pet market in the US and they are sometimes (sickeningly) referred to as 'pocket pets'

thirdly, that is so so stupid america. they are NOCTURNAL! and they cannot be toilet trained. perhaps because they are wild-freaking-animals-and-should-not-be-kept-for-your-selfish-purposes

fourthly, they live off sap and gum - hence being sugar gliders and not insect-gliders

fifthly, their goal in life is to attack the moon (obviously) so that it is always night

lastly, bolding words is a nice alternative to dot points. just so you know

xj