About me

This blog is written and illustrated by Andreas Adam (pen name: Andi Pasti). It documents my creative and intellectual output over the years.

I am a member of the Natural History Museum London since 2021 and Fauna & Flora, a charity dedicated to saving wildlife.

When I write about animals and conservation, I draw sources from animal books, first-class documentaries, live drawings, magazine reports, museum talks and articles, podcasts, papers, conservation organisations and people directly involved.

I am not directly working as a science communicator or in any way related to animals or conservation, but with my curiosity, illustrations and writing I hope to bring you closer to understanding the beauty of our animal friends. And even show you what we've already lost.

I do NOT work with AI. Everything you read and see is done by hand. In an online-world covered more and more with artificial content, it is crucial that we still train to express our human minds and creativity. And at the same time can experience another person's personal and un-optimised thoughts and feelings.

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Popular posts

Funny animal comic - porcupine's strange mating behaviour

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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 ...
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Comic progress - Woolly Wonderful 09/23

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I haven’t posted about my latest progress on working on my comic yet. The last time was end of 2021 . The good news is: I finally settled on a title! Yeah! It will be called Woolly Wonderful . Woolly will also be the name of the main character, that is one that a child would give its toys, not too complicated and overloaded and quite obvious based on its appearance. Here is Woolly and one of the comic pages: Sample comic page. Copyright: Andi Pasti I have pencilled, inked and coloured 11 out of 16 pages. Although I am sure I have to tweak some of these pages a bit still. I also rearranged the layouts of the last 3 pages last summer and did more pencilling. I condensed the story and brought elements meant for issue 2 into the current issue, which created a more interesting ending and brings the story forward. Some of the last pages need still to be inked as well. Which leads me to think again about my workflow for the next issue. Using pencils and ink pens helped me to refine the final ...
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Drawing live reptiles with Wildlife Drawing UK

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In January and February I attended live drawing sessions organised by Wildlifedrawing.co.uk . That was actually a lucky find, since I love animals and they are probably the most interesting topic to draw (for me). And it allowed me to engage in a group of people mesmerised and amazed by our wild muses. The first session was handling rescued reptiles consisting of a tortoise, corn snake, leopard gecko, bearded dragon and a green iguana named Deano who loved a good scratch. Honestly, he really enjoyed being petted and scratched. Usually I start a drawing too small, so this time I started sketching big which was quite the wrong approach. Considering you want to catch the form and appearance of moving animals, it’s probably best to  make small sketches, so you don’t need to move your pencil too far enough. One abandoned sketch I did want to finish as a proper drawing then in the following week after the session. Drawing all the scales was quite time intense, so I learned to appreciate ...
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