summer_jackel

Awesome cepphies, charming scientist, and the story behind the amazing invisible octopus video. Good stuff.

OK, I haven't posted any art here for awhile. First, have two new pages of Bone Shard, finally completing this scene:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4025381

As always, navigation through the comic is in the caption. This was a fun and very important scene, and I think it did what I wanted it to. I reallyreallyreally need to get off my butt and send all of the older material to Radio Comics like I told them I would.

I'm pleased to say that I have the rest of Book One, up to page 52, finished to the point of rough pencils. This is why there have been no finished pages for awhile; I've been working on it a lot, just not anything I can show you yet. It's exciting and satisfying to have a more or less coherent and written unit of story, finished at least in terms of the writing if not the art. Bone Shard is a huge project, and I am permitting it to take its time, but the four books and roughly 200-page outline are still feeling like something that I am on top of and will finish. I feel more confident about it than I did when I began, which is good.

I've also found myself wanting to paint more recently. The last few years have been hard on me in a lot of ways, and my artistic drive has been pretty funky in everything but Bone Shard. I suppose most artistic types angst about their work now and then, but I've been feeling inadequate and unmotivated in most everything but the comic for awhile. I'm working a little in these acrylic inks now, and they're so fun; maybe this is a sign of the general healing that's going on, but I'm trying to get back feeling solid with the art thing.

Here's something else furry, a pair of West Coast swingin' ocelots. The scanner really doesn't portray these inks nearly as accurately or pleasantly as it gets watercolors, unfortunately.





And here are a bunch of little okkies. I like the teal one best.

My friends keep sharing awesome ceph news from the internet:

This cuddly octopus makes me very happy. I want that woman's job.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/01/friday_cephalopod_affectionate.php

Here's a little clip of various deep sea wonders, including some adorable cephs:



And here's a newly discovered rarest-of-the-rare...a fossil octopus. Can you think of anything else that would be less likely to leave a decent fossil? Sweet!

http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jan-feb/090

Cephalopods: squishy and weird and betentacled and awesome. Love.

You all know how much I love cephalopods by now, I'm certain. One of the highlights of Disney World was the cuttlefish tank. They were in breeding mode and so were being very active and adorable (ok, so cuttles are always adorable). The water was cloudy because someone had inked, my camera doesn't much like aquariums and of course I didn't flash them, but still, I got some good shots. The best aquarium shots I've ever gotten, actually.

I showed one of the cuttles her picture on my camera screen, and she very distinctly turned towards it, looked and flashed color. They are so amazing, smart, and of course oh so cute. Here's my best one.



( You want more adorable tentacled things, right? )

Yip!

Check out This really awesome article with video of a big-fin squid. Link via spacebabie. SO neat. And, of course, adorable.

Slightly lower than my general taste, but it's all in good fun and for a good cause. It also includes a beautifully animated octopus, although I kind of wish they'd given him more accurate eyes.

I would be all too happy to welcome such a guest. ;D And my house lost most of its carpets after Rogue's puppyhood, which is actually a pretty good, if embarrassing, story.





A bit of a gripe, though...the new, more energy-efficient bulbs are slightly wider or longer or something than the old ones. This means that they just barely don't fit some of my fixtures. I discovered this the other day while perched on an unstable stool, attempting to wrestle with the light above my head, whilst uttering many colorful metaphors and trying to selectively forget my aversion (it doesn't quite rise to phobia level, but I'm less comfortable than many) around glass and the possible breakage thereof. rrrrrrrrrrrrr. It would have been so hard to make the new ones match the size of the old ones? /plaintive kvetching/.

As always, if you love me, send me cephalopod tidbits. ;)

This is awesome. Not only does this person breed a species of small cuttlefish in captivity, his tank set up is this beautiful steampunk-esque work of art. My eyes are green as Magic's with pure envy, let me tell you. Actually, I'm just happy that cephalopods are being captive bred now---ok, any marine life, because casually stripping reef wildlife for sale to the general public is painfully unethical on so many levels, but that's another soapbox.

I just happen to love cuttlefish extra. If I had a bigger house (couldn't live with the white noise caused by the tank) and was willing to have a dedicated generator for the tank when our power goes out, which it does every winter, oh, and unlimited funds, I would SO do this. My mind always drifts to this when I'm riding the bike trainer. I mean, how can you not love them? They are so cute.

Make sure you see his gallery

I'm sad, and few things cheer me up as much as cephalopods. So here I am searching youtube for good ones. This first is awesome, but, corpsefairy ,sorry, the narrator got the plural wrong. (Don't worry, I will still use it).



This National Geo one is, if anything, even cooler. Stunning!



Pretty sure this one is Vampyroteuthis , which is a cepphie that falls taxonomically somewhere between the octopodes and the squids.



gorgeous squid, cheesy music:



A cute little okkie explaining why you need a tight lid on the tank if you're keeping a captive:



A lovely little reef guy



Try and spot this one before it changes color!


Amazing mimic skills:


And this one made me sad again. Yes, I'm a hypocrite, I eat calimari whenever I can (favorite food) and squid are just as smart and cute. Still. I wish people would treat their food with more respect.



Octopodes are love. Hope you all enjoy these as much as I did.