I Have Been Reading About The History Of Landscape Architecture And Apparently There Was This Theory

I have been reading about the history of landscape architecture and apparently there was this theory that humans have an inherent, innate preference for "savanna-like" open grassy environments with scattered trees due to our evolutionary past, with the reasoning that open grassy understories allow us to see predators coming. And for some reason everyone just accepted it as the truth for decades.

And then this lady Margaret Grose in a book called Constructed Ecologies is like "wait, why did we accept this as the truth for decades? How do we know this is innate and not a cultural preference ingrained by European style landscaping? Did the human species actually evolve in mostly savanna-type landscapes, or did we just randomly decide that because we associate Africa with savannas? Throughout millions of years of recent evolutionary history we've been in a shit ton of different environments because there were a bunch of ice ages. Also African savanna grasses get like 4 meters tall and predators can hide just fine in that."

and it's like wow when you put it that way it's kinda stupid that people decided this idea was true for no reason

Today's random portfolio artwork is a life-size model of a small Arthropleura (40cm long – they grew to 250cm long), which I built for MUSE – the Science Museum of Trento, in 2014.

1823 flashback. Full video HERE

200 years ago, Mary Anning made one of her more important discoveries. She was even accused of being a scammer for it at first. This short animated video serves as a prologue for a larger project I’m currently working on

__________

Youtube channel

Instagram

Prints and more paleomerch

Gabe Freeland took some lovely photos of us at Momocon!

The Deflagrating Bawigrat

My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge, from @maniculum

Pencil sketch, then lines in Sailor fude nib fountain pen, using Diamine Sepia ink.

Though process beneath the cut...

"In Asia an animal is found which men call Bawigrat. It has the head of a bull, and thereafter its whole body is of the size of a bull’s with the maned neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted, curling back on themselves in such a way that if anyone comes up against it, he is not harmed. But the protection which its forehead denies this monster is furnished by its bowels. For when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat of which sets fire to anything it touches. In this way, it drives off its pursuers with its harmful excrement."

My initial response to this one was 'oh boy!'... I'm pretty sure I know exactly what this creature is. If my suspicions are correct, there is traditionally a very specific way of depicting it, which might be dramatic but doesn't actually gel particularly well with the description...

Regarding the Bawigrat itself, we have a bull-like creature. I took a lot of inspiration from aurochs (and heck cattle) - the main difference being the horns curving up and back rather than forward and up, and giving it a fuller belly for maximum fermentation. I also tried to reflect the horse-like mane, though it's sitting a little lank across its neck while it's not in motion.

I was wondering for a while how to present the beast, and came to the idea of drawing a landscape, with the fumes slowly crawling across it and igniting anything they touch. Then I had another thought... Apologies Mac, I know you are going to get this reference.... ;)

Hi hello, you all need to see Ray Troll’s kitsch masterpieces:

It’s just too good. this is the pinnacle of cool dad art. I’m getting a t-shirt. Oh yes, i’m getting one. You bet your ass. you bet your bass! Ha! It’s spreading!