Andi Pasti's Animal Art - Comics, Animals, Animal Comics

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 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. Did you think that a specimen of the penis worm in the Grant Museum London would cause interesting looks and comments by the visitors? Sure you would. The book’s chapters are mostly 3 pages long, so it is easy to grab the book and start and stop at any time you like. I also heard it helped some ADHD-plagued person to follow the book easily because  of the chapter length. The book structure The book is divided in 4 cha...

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...

More than a year as passed since I uploaded issue #1 of my robot comic Woolly Wonderful. Now I am thinking about plotting Issue #2 - I am showing you which methods I use for story telling and what my next steps are.  My original plan was to work the rest of the story out and jump on issue #2 soon after. In summer '24 I drew an illustration of Woolly on a rabbit to try a new page process to simplify and speed up my drawing. The drawing was uploaded in an earlier blog post . In preparation for the plot creation I've read Lisa Cron's book Wired for Story  which is indeed an excellent book and an inspiration when crafting a story. The book itself is a page-turner, high recommendation from me, though I am not affiliated with that link. But not a lot of progress has been made I have to admit. Woolly is shocked about the slow story progress So where are we with the story? If you have not read issue #1, go ahead and read it first, and then come back. You'll find it when you cli...

I am contributing a comic to this year’s anthology of my comic group. Over 60 creators around the UK will contribute to another magnificent book. The theme of the current book is infinity/loop, so comics will cover anything about infinite repetition and variety. We are running a kickstarter to crowd fund the book and there are less than 10 days left. If you are interested into indie comics and want to support us, please consider backing the project. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mike-armstrong/the-new-wip-comics-anthology Thank you, Andi Pasti

Hey, Exciting news!  WIP comics is a community of comic creators around London (and further) who support each other in finishing their comic ideas and finding ways to promote their work or find opportunities to collaborate with writers, artists and publishers. They have been creating an anthology book every year for 7 years now.  I have signed up to contribute a Comic this year. The book is currently in the making and will be sold from November on at the Thought Bubble convention and online. The preliminary cover, subject to change 60 people will contribute comics around the theme infinity. That means loads of different art styles and interpretations of this year’s theme. If you want to support the project, head over to kickstarter, follow the project and back it when it launches. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mike-armstrong/the-new-wip-comics-anthology Thanks for reading, see you soon! Andi Pasti

Have you watched the dinosaur show "Chased by dinosaurs" with Nigel Marven, a TV program from 2002?  It was made in the aftermath of "Walking with dinosaurs", which was a huge success in the realms of paleo-documentaries. This time, instead of being a serious documentary, it uses a time-travel approach. It features the wildlife presenter Nigel Marven running around in real locations in search for dinosaurs. Well, and what is hilarious is, he gets frequently too close to these supposedly dangerous animals. In real life, you wouldn't probably do that. So that's why I had to make a parody (and admittedly I had enough spare time). (Click on the image to view a bigger version) What is even more exciting for me, I met Nigel Marven years later at a Tetzoocon in 2023, report here:  https://tetzoo.com/blog/2023/12/15/tetzoocon-2023-the-report Nigel was nice enough to stay around and talk with people, but there was such a huge queue that I couldn't have been bothe...