Pit of Ideas

Between 1908 and 1913, Olivia Tonge travelled India and part of what is now Pakistan, illustrating the world around her in vibrant watercolour renditions. Whilst her work is beautiful and rich in colour, it may not be the most scientifically accurate. Despite this, the notes she wrote alongside her paintings are insightful and eye-opening, especially to someone like me who doesn't have much knowledge of cultural history. And that's another thing that I admire about Tonge's work; she documented a wide variety of subjects from fauna and flora to jewellery, food and small local creations such as the 'Hill Man's Impromptu Pipe' (see below image). I love Tonge's work for the little insights into the past. Packets of Betel Nut and Hill Men's Pipes are things that I doubt I would have ever known existed without her illustrations and brief but lucid notations. Especially as a concept artist, I find these to spark an abundance of ideas. Sometimes...

 Oyster Toadfish - Opsanus Tau Tailspot Blenny - Ecsenius Stigmatura I recently set up a twitter account ( https://twitter.com/arik_burniston ), and came across this awesome weekly sketch called #SundayFishSketch I want to get more into sciArt/scientific illustration whilst also leaving my mammalian comfort zone so this was a perfect kick up the backside. Not only that, but I'm also only doing it traditonally so I'm learning a lot about how to use my coloured and inktense pencils which have sat in a shoe box for almost three years now. My next step will be to learn how to use watercolours and - probably more importantly - how to get rid of grain in photographed and scanned images. Because those full res images are an eye-sore right now haha. But for now, here are my first few attempts - an Oyster Toadfish and a Tailspot Blenny.