Andi Pasti's Animal Art

Last year I wanted to find and read comics that are an adventure, and preferably play in a dense, green and lush jungle. I came across the LOVE comics, written by  Frédéric Brrémaud  and drawn by Federico Bertolucci, published by Magnetic press between 2011 and 2021. The first issue is called "The Tiger", which actually plays in a jungle. What's so special about LOVE comics? The 5 comics ( the Tiger , the Fox , the Lion , the Dinosaur , the Mastiff ) are all word-less comics, no speech bubbles, no dialogue. They play out as one day in each of the animals' life, albeit a very compressed day with sometimes exceptional and rare incidents. No animal in the wild would realistically meet that many animals in one day, or experiencing a volcano outbreak is nothing you would see every day. But of course the focus is on story-telling, so showing an animal resting for the most of the day would probably not the best use of 50 pages. But why are they called LOVE? Choosing a title ...

You might have seen that one on an episode of "One Planet". A bird searching for spiders and receiving an unpleasant turn. This scene was genuinely one of the most surprising outcomes in a natural story on television, even for a long-time-nature-documentary-watcher like me. The spider-tailed horned viper is a quite recent, but extraordinary discovery. It evolved modified scales on the tail that form a tail tip resembling a spider. Camouflaged against the rocks of Iran, it imitates spider movements to attract birds which want to feed on spiders. In a split-second the snake attacks with its venomous fangs to kill the bird. The viper was actually first known to the Western world in 1968, where it was captured and investigated in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, USA. Back then, the weird and unhealthy looking tail end was written off as a spider attached to the snake, and later regarded as a deformation or tumour. Only later in 2003, when another specimen was found...

Earlier this year I set myself the goal to print my comic Woolly Wonderful . Even though I finished a digital version almost 2 years ago, for a long time I did not think about getting it printed. It was only through my contribution to the WIP Comics Anthology in 2025 , and meeting with other comic creators who brought along their work in person, where in contrast I did not have anything to show physically. These experiences finally convinced me to give it a go. Especially the learnings and guidance through the comics group and my participation in the anthology last year helped me to better understand the printing process. My comic was drawn entirely in Procreate on the iPad. Here are some tips for getting your comic ready for print: St art with the correct format and DPI Procreate has a template named "Comic", but what is odd about it, is the preconfigured DPI (dots per inch) of 400. Dots per inch means how many ink dots per inch (2,56 cm) the printer will use when printing o...

When  you watch some funny video compilations on the internet with Pandas falling down trees and rolling down hills endlessly, you might think they are not quite equipped for living in this world. Humans on the internet in the last decade certainly have formed an opinion that Giant Pandas are just meant to go extinct, that they are not build for survival and it’s a miracle they are still around. See some proofs here , here and  here . And indeed, their survival was threatened in the past. In this post I want to explore how it came to be why giant Pandas suffer from human misunderstanding and what effect this still has on us and them. Giant Panda - a picture book teddy bear The Giant Panda's magical allure So what is it with Giant Pandas  ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca )?  Why do we cherish them so much? These animals seem to be the unicorn of the animal world, a super model for highlighting conservation programs and marketing, in contrast to other animals. They have tota...

I’ve recently finished this book and need to tell you that it will light up your curiosity about the natural world. In this post I will give a quick review why “ Animal Kingdom - A Natural History in 100 objects ” by Jack Ashby ( link ) might be one of the best books about natural history. Why Animal Kingdom is so enjoyable First off, despite being very informative, Ashby's writing style is super accessible . You won't need to fear that he will throw around terms that make your head scratch, it is written as a popular science book.  And I chuckled a lot, even laughed out loud.   Would you think that many people are interesting in worms? Not so much. Would  you think that a specimen of the penis worm in the Grant Museum of Zoology London would regularly cause interesting looks and comments by the visitors? Sure you would. Did you know that the Echidna displayed in the Grant Museum has its feet mounted in the wrong direction? Echidna back feet point backwards, so that these...

Porcupines are well known, easily identifiable by the massive amount of quills covering their body. Which always and immediately raises the question on how they mate. Well, in short, very carefully. But what about the stages right before that? The first look, the first conversation, the first kiss and bonding on emotional level? Find out! And before you wonder: no, porcupines can not shoot their quills like darts! They fall off or break when predators attack them so they get stuck in their skin. Thanks for asking. The comic - porcupines dating African porcupines form a lifelong bond and can mate several times a year. Because porcupines are equipped with their sharp quills, intercourse is very dangerous. Therefore the female initiates by presenting her back. Gestation period is  around 3 months with a litter of up to four pups, called porcupettes (adorable name, isn’t it?). Because these porcupines are mostly active at night, and although pairs are kept in captivity, scientists and ...

A few weeks ago I signed up for an online drawing session with wildlifedrawing.co.uk . A few times a year I attend these along the in-person ones. They provide a comforting space where you can unwind, draw and learn more about a particular animal. And you will leave more inspired and uplifted after each session. Drawing hairy-nosed otters online This time it was about the hairy-nosed otter, for me a welcome change to the more familiar and better known Eurasian otter or sea otters you hear a lot about. Hairy-nosed otters are home in South East Asia, where they sadly get victimised by poachers and habitat loss. These otters are so rarely sighted that we don’t know a lot about them and they are considered endangered by the IUCN. Instead of a pencil, our instructor Jennie used a brush ink pen, after the work of  Charles Tunnicliffe‘s wood carvings. I haven’t drawn with ink in a long time traditionally too and decided to give it a try. I used Faber Castell technical pens for the most pa...