Scrap Paper Tigerthe online home of Sonya Hallett

sketchbook from the triassic

Illustration Friday: Scary

Now I want a frog hat.

Illustration Friday: Disguise

This started as a sort of sweet image in my mind about literature-loving foliage, but now I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it…

 

In other news, I caved in and bought a massive box of crayola crayons the other week, and after hours spent obsessively arranging them in various colour combinations on the floor, I’ve started playing with them and ink/watercolour washes. Crayons are so great.

 

Illustration Friday: [link]

Save the Chinese Pangolin

Out of all the pangolin species, the one that perhaps has the most cause to curl up into a protective ball (but preferably on a steep slope so it can roll away) is the Chinese pangolin, who’s not only horribly endangered, but still absurdly sought-after for its scales and blood, which is harvested brutally for its supposed medicinal qualities. Despite laws restricting the hunting and trade of Chinese pangolins, numbers are still in decline across Southeast Asia as a result of illegal trade and destruction of its natural habitat.

 
You can help the Chinese pangolin and many other endangered species by supporting EDGE - http://www.edgeofexistence.org/
and also by supporting us in a comic/animation-a-thon to raise money for EDGE. Information is here: http://artfordotdotdot.wordpress.com/

Otr

There is a Norse myth about a dwarf prince who could turn into an otter, apparently so that he could sit by the river all day eating fish. Unfortunately he was too convincing and a passing god killed him for his pelt. I won’t reproduce the whole of the story of the Ottergild (or Otter’s Ransom) here, but suffice to say those Norsemen really loved their gold.

 

Anyway, this picture doesn’t really have anything to do with the Norse myth except that it contains a creature that looks very slightly like an otter (wrong ears, though hey, if it’s actually a dwarf prince in disguise maybe he wasn’t too bothered about detail). I do like the idea of being able to turn into an otter though – all those crazy swimming skills and the fresh fish – just as long as there aren’t any bored Norse gods around.

Fly.

First iPad animation attempt.

I made this late at night, in bed, so all sound effects are made from bedding, apart from the breathy crap whistling. That was me.

Next time I’m gonna try and at least plan the keyframes in advance, then fill in the tweens – even a simple clip like this started getting confusing when I wanted to go back to change things. For some reason the app I used also cut off the last few frames of the clip when it encoded for youtube, hence the sudden ending. Will have to remember to pad it out a bit more next time.

Soviet raccoon dogs!

Though originally from East Asia, the raccoon dog was introduced to Eastern Europe and Russia by the Soviet Union for potential fur and game. I couldn’t find out if this ended up being of any use to the Soviets, but these creatures did so well that they are now found as far south as France, Germany and Switzerland.

Interestingly, raccoon dogs are canids, which suggests they aren’t actually related to raccoons at all, even though they kind of look like a regular raccoon that’s just been inflated.
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Also, I’ve been experimenting with drawing on tablet (above is drawn on iPad).  Here’re my impressions:

belated happy world tapir day!

It was World Tapir Day last Wednesday, and I thought how great it would be, now that summer’s here and the evenings are warm again, to sit out in the cool damp woods (before the mosquitoes mature), smell the fresh grass… and have a friendly giant tapir for company.

Sadly, all four species of tapir across the americas and south east asia are now endangered due to loss of habitat, with the biggest species, the baird’s tapir, facing extinction in the next 20 years. As the world tapir day website put it:

“the plight of tapirs is symbolic [of] the wider threat to their habitats [...] and the world’s ecology in general. [...] their disappearance from their home ranges often marks a point of ‘no return’ for the natural environment.”
To find out more about tapir day and tapir conservation, go here: Tapir Day

Curiously, tapirs, despite looking like a mixture between a pig and an elephant, are actually closer related to horses – check out pictures of horse evolution and you’ll see something very tapir-like amongst their earlier ancestors, before their three-toed feet evolved into modern hooves.

I can’t help imagining what would’ve happened if somehow rather than domesticating horses, we ended up domesticating tapirs for riding (they probably have had to evolve to be a bit bigger, but just indulge my imagination here for a moment). We’d have these great lumbering equestrian events, and everything horse-shaped in this alternate universe would be tapir shaped: knights on tapirs, the classic novel Black Tapir and film The Tapir Whisperer, rockingtapirs for kids, clothestapirs to dry our clothes on…

Sneak preview – new book

Just finished working on a new book with Our Place Books, based in the US.  Here’s a sneak preview of some characters: