day three-hundred-and-forty-four - rhinoceros ratsnake

no i did not draw three animals. that is the name of a single being:

© jem barratt

this guy.

apparently they are also known as the 'green unicorn', which is pretty cool. they are born brown, then become grey then end up green - but a select few never make that final step to green and remain grey (and thus young [and thus immortal]) forever.

FOREVER.

look out for them in trees. but probably not where you live. unless you are vietnamese, in which case i am jealous of you.

xj

day three-hundred-and-twenty-four - honduran milk snake

but not your standard honduran milk snake...

© jem barratt

a two-headed albino specimen.

if that's not the most impressive thing i've ever drawn then i don't know what is. true, it's not very representative of the actual species... but to that i say... pphhh.

normally they are black and orange - i.e. BORING (actually they look just as cool in their normal colours), and only have one head - SO BORING

so nature decided to spice things up. and i appreciate it, although the snake presumably has a shorter life span and does not appreciate it as much as i

and hey, if i did draw a snake of normal colouring then i might have to tell you about an experiment i read about that tried to ascertain if milk snakes were coloured so in order to mimic the coat of deadly coral snakes and thus minimise predation

phew! lucky we avoided that!

xj

day two-hundred-and-fifty-nine - matilda's horned viper

a newly discovered viper with horny eyebrow-scales...

© jem barratt

"hissssssssssssssssssss, thissss girl is not very good at watercolouring"

"i look dissssasssstroussssssssssssssssssssssss"

(not really, but it sure is a good word to make a snake say)

xj

day one-hundred-and-ninety-nine - red spitting cobra

or naja pallida (oooooh! sultry)

© jem barratt

see. he's red and he's a cobra. but oh no! he is not spitting! it's a good thing i didn't draw that, because when they spit they go from cute and cartoony to pure evil. and this guy looks just a little bit intimidating...

but really they should be called a red spraying cobra. jeez, get your semantics right naturalists.

xj

day one-hundred-and-twenty-four - grass green vine snake

mehhhhhhhhhh...

© jem barratt

apologies for the terrible scan. i weighed up my options and decided the picture was not of great enough quality to warrant re-scanning.

i have better things to do with my time.
(probably not)

xj

day one-hundred-and-twelve - indian cobra

treat the vervet monkey as yesterday's drawing and this guy as today's:

© jem barratt

i like him. hopefully you like this slightly retarded drawing style too as it's all you'll be getting for a while. at least two of my right-hand-fingers still work!

xj