Dr. Kira Krend and “Oahu Amakihi”

So this is pretty rad… here is recent Ph.D. recipient Dr. Kira L. Krend holding up “Oahu Amakihi,” which  I designed specifically for her.  It was commissioned as a graduation present for Kira by her friend, the illustrious scientist/writer Christie Wilcox (of “Observations of a Nerd” fame).

As mentioned in my original post, the islands in the pond are the Hawaiian islands where Kira studied the Oahu Amakihi honeycreeper (perched on Oahu) and the disease ecology of malaria (mosquito). I couldn’t really figure out a good way to get a Plasmodium into the image…

Oahu Amakihi

Commissioned as a graduation present for a Ph.D. student in Hawaii (notice the islands in the pond) studying the Oahu Amakihi honeycreeper (the bird – note the island it’s perched on) and the disease ecology of malaria (mosquito). Modeled & rendered in Blender 2.57. Post-processing and texture creation in GIMP. Textures based on photos taken by the student. See Dr. Krend with the artwork here.

 

Octopus vs. Velociraptor – T-Shirts!

Do you like Octopuses? How about Dinosaurs?
Then check out this new T-shirt I designed. That’s right – it’s an Octopus eating a Velociraptor in a tree.
(note: this is a compressed jpeg version – the original and t-shirts are much higher quality).

Buy this T-shirt at the
Laughing Mantis Zazzle store.

Octopus vs. Velociraptor – Detail

You can get it in black or white (or multiple other colors I believe).

Octopus vs. Velociraptor – Black T-shirt

It’s basically a re-rendering of my detailed digital artwork “Octopus arborealus”

Ocean Invasion #1: Octopus arborealus

Ocean Invasion #9: Lionfish 1, Springbok 0

A voracioius lionfish on the heels of a springbok in the African savannah.

This is the ninth in a series of pieces, “Ocean Invasion,” which finds ocean creatures living in absurd land habitats.

This piece was inspired by a marine biologist friend who is currently studying these invasive fish in Hawaii (Christie Wilcox of the popular “Science Sushi” blog at Discover Magazine).

Detail:

Lionfish detail
Springbok detail