Friday, November 13, 2015

MudSkippers and Mangroves

Mudskippers are fascinating fish. They spend more time skipping and flipping around in the dense mud than in the water. Their front fins are elongated for 'walking' on land and they can breath through their skin as long as it remains damp. They can also retain water in their gills to help breath out of water. Once they used up all the oxygen in the water, they need to replace it with fresh supply.

When defending their territories, mudskippers display their dorsal fins and push each other around with their open mouths.

Shown: Blue-spotted mudskipper (Boleophthalmus boddarti) This particular species is very common in mangrove communities in India's west coast and Southeast Asia.


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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Amanda Zimmerman is a scientific illustrator. She has done work for Project Seagrass in 
the United Kingdom and Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA.  She is currently writing and illustrating a book on mangroves. To receive updates about
Secrets of the Mangroves, subscribe to  updates from my studio.

 You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and  Google+

Prints available at  Redbubble and Etsy store.




Monday, September 14, 2015

Mapping the Sundarbans (would drive a cartographer mad)


The ecologically rich Sundarbans are one of the planets largest mangrove communities. Here in Bangladesh, the Ganges, Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers all converge into the Bay of Bengal. It is a meeting of freshand saltwater; a diverse place of forest, beaches, tidal flats, marsh and swamps lands. Once measuring around 16,700 square kilometres (6,400 sq mi), the Sundarbans have now reduced to one third its previous size.

It is home to Bengal tigers, exotic birds, the chital horin (spotted deer), the critically endangered estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.

The Sundarbans are also very time consuming to draw.





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AMANDA ZIMMERMAN

Discover more about Mangroves when you sign up for updates from my studio which include progress reports on my forthcoming book: Secrets of the Mangroves. Subscribers are automatically entered in a drawing each month for a free 5x7 print of their choice form my Etsy store.  


 You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and  Google+

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Thursday, August 13, 2015

Monkey Madness

Last night I had a dream that I was Curious George! It was all from the first person point of view, so I was literally seeing the world through monkey eyes. (It was about the same as a human sees the world, since my brain has no concept of how a monkey really sees the world.)

In the dream I was sitting among a pile of stuffed animals, gazing out a picture window, waiting for the man in the yellow hat to come back.

This is not Curious George. This is a very big Silverback Gorilla. I would not recommend hugging or squeezing him. 

This watercolor study was done from one of the dioramas at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.


Saturday, May 9, 2015

Tolkien was the Original Zentangle artist?

Am I the only one that sees this?

I was recently visiting a friend in Miami who was talking about having been ensnared (happily) in zentangle art. It was a real departure from her botanical art, but I think she was really enjoying the freedom and whimsy of designing with the stylized patterns.

On the plane home I happened to cracked open The Hobbit for a light refresher since I haven't read the book since before the movies came out. (I suspect Peter Jackson hadn't either -at least, the final chapter- but that's another blog...)

In any event, this particular edition was graced with Tolkien's original drawings and I saw some similarities.

I think there is enough evidence to back up my claim.What do you think?









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AMANDA ZIMMERMAN
An illustrator of nature is an observer of form and behavior.  My job is to create illustrations that not only engage the general public with vibrancy and motion, but educate the viewer about the subject and create a connection of memory. It is these connections to nature that we make, a sense of personal contact-even if only through an illustration- that imparts a sense of responsibility to our natural world. http://salamandaz42.wix.com/sciart
If you are interested in receiving updates on nature illustration workshops and seminars with Amanda, please be sure and sign up for our mailing list or follow on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and  Google+
If you are interested in prints please visit my Redbubble and Etsy store.













Monday, March 23, 2015

Elizabeth Gould-Woman in Scientific Illustration

 
from australianmuseum.net.au
ELIZABETH GOULD was born Elizabeth Coxen to an educated middle class family in1804. She earned a living as a governess teaching Latin, French and music, but found the whole situation not to her liking. After a chance meeting at the Aviary of the Zoological Society, she married John Gould at age 24; a marriage that suited them. Through hard work and skill, John worked his way to post of Animal Preserver to the British Museum, and Ornithology Superintendent to the Zoological Society. As for Elizabeth, she wasted no time in launching into her illustration career beginning with drawings for the first volume of a 20 part series: A Century of Birds of the Himalaya Mountains. Within this time, she and John lost their first child at birth, but in 1830, she gave birth to their second child, John Henry.

From Birds of Europe, Elizabeth Gould
At John’s request, Elizabeth received tutelage under Edward Lear, the famed bird artist at the Zoological Society. This professional training increased her skills, depth and breath of work. Even John James Audubon took notice. But as she was working on the next section of,  A Century of Birds of the Himalaya Mountains, she suffered the lose of third child after another difficult pregnancy.

John Gould is often seen as an artist in his own right, an illusion he encouraged. In truth, his passion lie more with the production of the work, and it was Elizabeth’s hand that provided the final product. After A Century of Birds of the Himalaya Mountains was finished, she began work on Birds of Europe. She and John traveled across Europe together to study and collect specimens for the latest endeavor. During this time she gave birth to three more children.

On May 16th 1838, Elizabeth left all but the eldest child with her mother, and set sail for Australia with John. They spent two years in Australia. During this time, she worked on drawing hundreds of specimens for Birds of Australia and A Monograph of the Macropodidæ, or Family of Kangaroos. She also worked with Charles Darwin on illustrations for the Ornithology volume of Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Beagle. Their seventh child was born in Tasmania.

They arrived back in London is 1840, but Elizabeth never had a chance to complete her work on the animals of Australia. She died after giving birth to their eighth child, at age 37. The preparation for lithography printing (transferring to stone) of her last drawings was completed by illustrator H. C. Richter. She did not receive credit at publication. John Gould went on to produce his bird books, using H. C. Richter, Edward Lear, Joseph Wolf and William Hart as illustrators.

Northern Quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), credited to John Gould


____________________________
AMANDA ZIMMERMAN
An illustrator of nature is an observer of form and behavior.  My job is to create illustrations that not only engage the general public with vibrancy and motion, but educate the viewer about the subject and create a connection of memory. It is these connections to nature that we make, a sense of personal contact-even if only through an illustration- that imparts a sense of responsibility to our natural world. www.salamandaart.com

If you are interested in receiving updates on nature illustration workshops and seminars with Amanda, please be sure and sign up for our mailing list or follow on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and  Google+

If you are interested in prints please visit my Redbubble and Etsy store.