day two-hundred-and-eighty-three - spider monkey

you will regret chastising me for posting photos instead of art when you see what 'art' i made today...

© jem barratt

i am so embarrassed for myself... oh my gosh... i just realised something. JEMBARRASSED.

wow. i could have been using that for the past twenty-plus years (when do you learn how to speak? i assume learning to pun comes very quickly after that)

so... do we have to talk about the picture? i mean, spider monkey limbs really are that confusing. i think i have deduced that the top one is the tail? let me know what you think. in the meantime, you should probably become acquainted with the superior posing skillz of the spider monkey.

i do flit between finding spider monkeys amazingly cool and very scary. i like their long-limbedness but their faces are spooky and they can move. really. fast. good thing i was jungle-sick on the day my friends saw spider monkeys in the bolivian rainforest hey? IT WAS A GOOD THING. *sob*

they are also another animal that can stare into your soul with their frightfully haunted eyes. actually, he looks like he barely has eyes. lifeless eyes you could say. black eyes. like a doll's eyes... ahem

xj

day two-hundred-and-seventy-five - francois' langur

oh how great is this day that is definitely not monday jan 30? super great i bet. i mean... i know

ok it's pretty tiresome writing these posts as though it's the future, and i've only written two. in any case, 'today' i drew a francois' langur.

© jem barratt

not bad jemma. not bad at all.

like many other primates, these guys are endangered, and also they have fluoro orange babies. i wonder if that's so they can keep an eye on them while they're too young to look after themselves? i don't think scientists know for sure, but that i certainly one of the theories. maybe i can find out when i, myself, am a scientist? i don't think that's getting ahead of myself...

xj

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-fifty-eight - lion-tailed-macaque

sorry guy-who-named-lion-tailed-macaques... lion-tailed you say? lion-TAILED!?

© jem barratt

they have lion-manes guy, come on! and look how unhappy the macaque is about it.

this oversight has of course prompted me to devise yet another drawing series that i will never do. but i'd better not share it, because the fact that i have said i won't do it means i probably will.

i also have a new blog idea in mind. although it would require a fair bit of work, and as we all know... i... am... laaaaa....z.................y

anyway back to the macaque - he looks cool. as do many other types of macaques. this one in particular can be quite terrifying, super sneaky and... huh?

xj

day two-hundred-and-forty-seven - xmas mandrill

woooo! last christmas card ever! (until next year... but there's no way i'm doing another 365 days)

and he's a goody - the famed yuletide mandrill:

© jem barratt

aww what an awesome ambassador for xmas

tomorrow's post is a little bit of cheating i guess, in that my animal is not drawn, but it was still CREATED by me....

ooo that'll definitely guarantee my two readers (i.e. parents) come back tomorrow

xj

day two-hundred-and-thirty-two - xmas snub-nosed monkey

on the... what is it SIXTH!? day of xmas i made a monkey card:

© jem barratt

yep. i am NOT READY FOR XMAS GUYS!

xmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas!

*shaking fist*

xj

day two-hundred-and-eighteen - douroucouli

or night monkey, which frankly is a cooler name and much easier to type

© jem barratt

i stuffed up the good sketch, so decided to make the whole thing silly. his left-chin should also be 'white' (i.e. cardboard coloured).

in any case, douroucoulis are weirdos and seem to have a penchant for stuffing themselves (and as many friends as can fit) into holes. that's the best example, because each looks different - the baby looks typically cute, the one at the back looks like a gremlin, the main one just looks plain creepy (as most night or owl monkeys do), and the last guy just looks awesome and also shows off his tiny, tiny face.

i bet they also have a penchant for staring into human souls and plotting their demise...

it's really a shame that i didn't illustrate their feet, because that makes them seem even creepier and as though perhaps they'll reach out to stoke your sleeping head before they eat your face (they probably don't do this...)

ok i may have been a bit harsh. they are cool, being the only nocturnal monkey and all, and they live in sout america which is always a plus, but really all i can truly feel about them is unease.

and suspicion...

*squinted eyes*

xj

day one-hundred-and-seventy-seven - orangutan

in phoenix suns colours no less

© jem barratt

he looks more than a little odd, but i like the eyes.

xj

day one-hundred-and-fifty-five - siamang

i sure do love me some gibbons. they pull so many great shapes with their lengthy limbs:

© jem barratt

other reasons to love siamangs:

- they look funny on the ground
- they wave their arms like an inflatable caryard man when they run
- they have funny faces

© jem barratt

- they inflate their throats to make an incredibly loud noise
- and they can fully swivel on one hand

yay for siamangs! go see the trio at the adelaide zoo - they're noisy, they whip around the treetops and they love to start fights with much smaller monkeys as well as the other gibbon couple on show.

xj

day one-hundred-and-sixteen - potto

i'm not creepy, these are actually called 'softly softly' for some reason...

© jem barratt

i'm going to employ some good parenting and encourage you to look it up for yourself instead of asking me why this is the case. that's what my dad did and look how learned i am!

learned enough to not know the background of pottos...

xj

day one-hundred-and-eleven - vervet monkey

i don't feel bad about this being a day late because i dislocated my finger yesterday, and am unable to move my middle and fourth (ring?) finger on my writing hand. waah.

here is a diagram illustrating the transformation my finger went through:

© jem barratt

for serious. that should explain the quality of my drawings over the next week or so...

speaking of which:

© jem barratt

self-deprecation aside, i actually like this monkey. it looks like a cool kid's book illustration or something. i would like to try more simple, stylised drawings instead of realistic sketches.

xj

day one-hundred - gelada

geladas are known for flipping their mouth lips up to display their gums to the world and more specifically their rivals (and lovers alike):

© jem barratt

it is mildly terrifying to say the least.

i have been told that i can do the gelada lip thing well - and if that's not proof of our behavioural and genetic link to primates i don't know what is.

oh yeah... science.
xj

day ninety-six - emperor tamarin

aka i can't believe i haven't even cracked 100 yet, kill me now

© jem barratt

enjoy this tiny tamarin. their moustaches are the most glorious of any animal

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 seventy-two - golden lion tamarin

yes! finally i drew an endangered animal. not that i'm happy this guy is endangered, but i seem to feel better blogging about the one's in need of help.

© jem barratt

it may seem silly to draw a bright orange-gold animal in black felt-tip pen. and it is.

but that's life. it may also seem silly to deforest tamarin habitats. fancy that.

the good news is that they have bounced back from being CRITICALLY endangered, to just being endangered, and that has to count for something.

gold star golden lion tamarin. keep up the good work.
xj

day seventy-one - golden snub-nosed monkey

today's animal is a combination of the subject of my favourite ever animal photo and the subject of my favourite ever peter gabriel song (nicely smushed together so as to snub-ify the nose):

© jem barratt

this guy is even the subject of my favourite ever (and first [and only]) sale under the moniker the mantis and the sparrow. so he's pretty special.

the grown ones look magical and evil and like they might be reincarnated gods or anime spirits. but don't try to appeal to them for help because they gots some scary mouth action going on. there's even a sneezy subspecies. for real.

in fact snub-noses come in many styles and faces (all hilarious). please enjoy them at your leisure...
xj