Posting:

Due to the current troll infestation we will be requiring you to sign in to leave a comment. Also, please note that we will be very nice in the regular posts, but we will not be gentle in the Sunday Blaspheme posts. You will be expected to back up any ideas with facts.

I am always happy to answer any questions I can:)

New Rule! Staff reserves the right to cuss you out and post your correspondence if you send us annoying emails.

Best!

Brett

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Another teaser

Just another teaser fro the new project. It's been edited to obscure anything that might give it away. It's supposed to be announced at the NY con next week (I think it's next week.)

I'm sure most of you won't know what this is even if I put up the actual piece but better safe than sorry. Someone actually guessed what I would be doing over on DA, so I want to be careful not to steal the thunder;)

Best,

Brett

Friday, January 30, 2009

Last Chance to See

Tetrapod Zoology has an article today on the Kakapo, a type of parrot from New Zealand. They are very interesting and quite weird creatures. This prompted a remembrance of Douglas Adams' Parrots, the Universe, and Everything, a talk he gave which was on UCTV (University of California.) Brett and I saw this years ago and if you ever get a chance to see it, it's worth it. For those of you who can download large amounts of data (we can't), it is available on YouTube. It runs an hour and a half.



This is based on Adams' book, Last Chance to See, in which he talks about some of the most endangered species on earth. The book is more than ten years old now, so the species may have changed, but it is still worth a read if you want to hear about booming parrots and trying to buy condoms in China.

Striped Tiger in S. America

Drawn as an anthro here, a somewhat mythical striped tiger. At least that's what it's been called. Apparently there have been reports of a striped big cat in S. America for years, the differenec between this cat, and say, the ABC in England is that for this one they actually have a skull for. So what is it? We're still waiting for the description but it's larger than a Jaguar and somewhat similar to a tiger. Could it actually be a tiger? Maybe, perhapse an escaped population breeding, or a bit more out there, Tigers made it to N. America after the last ice age but didn't fare as well as the American Lion


Until the paper is actually published I guess I'll have to wait. But this makes 3 possible large cats besides the Jaguar living in S. America right now (and no, I have not included the aquatic smiledon), so what the heck happend to all the cats in N. America?

We have one main big cat, the puma, which can be devided into the 2 subspecies,the Florida Panther and possibly the Onza. But N. America used to be populated with lots of big cats, everyone's favorite, Smiledon, the American Lion, the American Cheetah, the Jaguar, Homotherium , Cougars and Tigers.... it seems we aren't as cool as we used to be:(

Best,

Brett

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Watch Out, Austin

Hackers evidently change the messages on those lighted road signs you see along the freeway. I rather like this one. It's funny. The TexDOT guy did not think so:

"It's sort of amusing, but not at all helpful."

Unless there really are zombies ahead.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Blast from the Past!


I happened across this website the other day. Who would win in a battle, Backash and Gambit vs. Spiderman and Grifter. I got a kick out of it and thought I'd share with any other old comic geeks out there.
The site can be found here! This was draw in '96 so be gentle;) Colors by Jess!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Salawa Samurai


I watched about 4 hours of Afro Samurai last night, so I thought this would be appropriate;)

Brett

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Original Spinosaurus

When first uncovered Spinosaurus was thought to be related to the Allosaurs, so I thought I'd draw him as he was originally envisioned.

Best,

Brett

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Basic theropod anatomy

Ok, Mark, I finally got it scanned! I drew a basic Neovenator with the large major muscle groups, or what I have been doing. There are a few other drawing out there with a slightly different structure a bit more chicken like in the back legs, which looks great on chickens but a little odd on a dinosaur in my opinion. But see for yourself.

The other lines are to show dimention. This will vairy depending on the theropod, Dilophosaurus would be very narrow while T. rex will have a more barrel chest.















The heads of most theropods are hatchet shaped with the ear located behind/above the jaw hinge.

I drew a cutaway outline of the 'roundness' of the body, and to show you how the legs look without the body in the way. The thighs are mor elike slabs while the calfs are more cylindrical then the foot is again more slablike. There is a tendon that goes along the back of the calf and around the ankle joint all the way to the toes. And they did walk on their toes. I hope this helps some:)

Pogeyan

A new mystery big cat from the old world. You can read all about it at Tetzoo.

I drew it as an anthro fro the fun of it. I tried to add a tone but I suck a today!

Best,

Brett

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Comments fixed...

.. But we lost all the ones we already had, so we're starting from scratch.

Best,

Brett

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Tyrannotitan-feeding time!

I happened across the pencils for this the other day... I don't think they were posted yet so I decided to color it up:)

Don't worry Mark, I have the muscle things drawn I just have to scan them:)

Best,

Brett

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Toned-a-saurus aka Aerosteon

Just a quick tone job on this guy. I'm figuring out a quick coloring technique for the 'less important' images.

Brett

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

When horses fly

Done for a fellow anthro artist's comic book called Wandering Trails here's a link to his DA page: Pegasus316

I armored him up a bit but it was all in good fun:)

Best,

Brett

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Megalosaurus

The first dinosaur ever described... oooohhh! You can read all about it's 'scrotum' here;)

Best,

Brett

Friday, January 9, 2009

Maybe I'm Just a Bitch...

...but am I the only one who doesn't feel the slightest bit sorry for Jemima Harrison, producer of the documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed, that PeTA has co-opted her work to push the USA Network into abandoning their airing of the Westminster Dog Show?

To get our Non-Doggy Readers up to speed: PDE is an 'expose' of the sordid world of purebred dog breeding, complete with convulsing seizure dogs and unethical, ribbon-chasing breeders who repeatedly breed dogs with brain defects. It highlights breeds like the Pekingese, with conformation so extreme they cannot function as a normal dog, and the Cavalier King Charles spaniel, who suffers from a brain problem that causes excruciating pain. PDE aired on the BBC and has caused a shitstorm of anti-breeder backlash in the UK; the UK Kennel Club has asked for legislative power to police dog breeders and has begun the process of changing breed standards in response to the bad publicity. As you may have guessed, the Animal Rights people, the ones who believe breeding is evil, are all over it.

PDE is hardly 'balanced' journalism; it's sensationalistic and one-sided. It highlights breeding for the show ring and cosmetic appearance over health, and the consequences of inbreeding and closed registries. It makes no mention of breeders that are breeding first and formost for functionality, no mention of the myriad of health tests available to breeders, and no mention of the considerable research currently ongoing into health issues in purebred dogs (much of it funded by breeders, I might add.)

{Some definitions for our NDRs, from Wikipedia:

In a closed stud book, the parents must also be registered in this or another registry for the breed that the organization maintaining the registry will accept (such as that in another country).

In an open stud book, animals can be registered without their parents having been previously registered. This allows breeders to strengthen breeds by including individuals who conform to the breed standard but are of outside origin.}

I'll let Jeffrey Bragg, a big proponent of open registries and revamping the 'show' system (and someone you'd expect to jump right on board the PDE bandwagon), say it in his own words:

"I fail to see how this production can do anything other than further harm to the dog world by feeding the animal rights extremist contingent who would put an end to dog breeding and ownership altogether."

PDE resulted in the BBC dropping the Crufts dog show, after forty-two years of airing it. Sponsors pulled out, big bruhaha. Many Animal Rights Activists nattered on and on about greedy, uncaring, ribbon-chasing breeders. You get the picture.

So, not an organization to let such a sterling opportunity pass by, earlier this week PeTA called for the USA Network to drop the Westminster Kennel Club show. Now, I am not a huge fan of dog shows. I don't think winning ribbons is of real value in deciding whether a dog is a 'good' example of the breed (not if you've a bit of common sense or knowledge of anatomy), or as a criteria on whether a dog should be bred. But, you cannot tar all breeders with the same brush. Yes, there are ribbon-chasers, just like there are hunters that will shoot a dog that's not performing up to snuff, and pet owners who will leave their dog tied out in all weather. There are bad apples in every barrell. But the annoying people who run PeTA are not stupid, and they weren't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. This documentary was almost tailor-made to get their point across:

"Since dog breeders routinely use incestuous inbreeding and genetic manipulation to achieve a certain desired trait like a slanted back or a concertina face, it's not surprising that as many as one in four purebred dogs is plagued with a serious genetic problem."

In other words, purebred dogs are bad. Only mutts are good, and every dog you buy from a breeder means a poor little shelter puppy will die. I'm not going to link to PeTA because I don't want to drive traffic to them, but you can Google their site and read all about it, if you've a mind to.

Miss Harrison, producer of PDE, is outraged that PeTA has used her work to further their own agenda:

“I am horrified that PETA is using the film to further its own, warped agenda,” says Jemima Harrison, of Passionate Productions, which made the film for the BBC. “Our film is about animal welfare, not animal rights."

Boo-hoo-hoo. Then maybe you should have presented both sides of the purebred dog breeding story, instead of a one-sided, designed to outrage, tabloid style work that played right into AR hands. A single pro-breeder segment celebrating the concientious dog breeders who are breeding for diversity, performance, and health would have made most ARs stay far, far away from your little show. You have only yourself to blame.

You've made your bed, now lie in it.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Stolen artwork... again

It's a bit old, but this was published in a book called Freaks! in 2004. Written by Steve Miller, whose a friend of mine and a regular commenter.

Well someone on DA basically redrew this (that's cool, it was in a how to draw book!) And turned her into a tiger by simply drawing spots instead of stripes. The version in Freaks! had a bra thing added so as not to expose the kiddies to breasts.

This was brought to my attention because the Furry/Anthro people HATE and I do mean HATE art thieves. I usually get a few of these a month. It' not a big deal, basically of you use someone else's art you give them credit saying after so and so. I've done myself. But the person who drew the stolen image basically is saying they never saw the book Freaks and that there's is original (I was not a part of this conversation but since they now refuse to abmit they took this from my original I have weighed in.) I don't have a colored version of this (It was not colored by Jess or myself for the book, but it is on page 43.) So I'm posting this here so I can link back to it.

Here's a link to the stolen image if you're interested.

Best,

Brett