Time for Part Four of the Bookshelf Tour!

These next two shelves are... eclectic.  They've got nearly all my nonfiction after all.



Predatory Dinosaurs of the World: A Complete Illustrated Guide, Gregory S. Paul - Still the most-referenced dinosaur anatomy guide I have. My copy is practically loved to death.

The Dinosaur Heresies, Robert T. Bakker - The classic.  Still a must-read.  She isn't shelved yet but I've got Raptor Red around here too.

The Reader's Digest North American Wildlife, The Editors of Reader's Digest - This kind of has a cute story behind it.  It was my grandparents' field guide and Grammy gave it to me before she passed.  Yes, it's outdated like crazy, but it's still not a bad reference and by golly it's staying in the family.

Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, Thor Hanson - Gorgeous book that simplifies a surprisingly complex subject.

Picture books by Michel Gange, Tiffany Turrill, and Bill Peet - All are very nice.

Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic - Not much to say here, I've loved these books since childhood.

Retro Hell: Life in the '70s and '80S, from Afros to Zotz, The Editors of Ben is Dead Magazine - I've seen a lot of "Oral history of the late 20'th Century" books but this is my favorite.

Future Evolution, Peter Ward and Alexis Rockman - Got this for the title expecting something akin to Dougal Dixon's books. It's very much not that, but it's worth a read for anyone interested in speculative biology. Speaking of...

The Snouters - Harald Stümpke and Leigh Chadwick - The classic tongue-in-cheek speculative biology.

All Yesterdays and Cryptozoologicon 1, Darren Naish, John Conway, and C.M. Kosemen - Spectacular speculative art of animals real and imagined.

Expedition - As I said before, Barlowe rules and his books are essential.  I've got his Guide to Extraterrestrials and Guide to Fantasy on another shelf.

A Field Guide to Mesozoic Birds and Other Winged Dinosaurs, Matthew P. Martyniuk - Beautiful guide and such a wonderful idea you wonder why it hasn't been done before.

The complete Field Guide to Little Known and Seldom Seen Birds of North America collection, Cathryn Sill and John Sill - I've been planning a long post about these books for a while. Maybe this year...?

The Noble Approach: Maurice Noble and the Zen of Animation Design, Tod Polson and Maurice Noble - Haven't had the chance to properly read this yet but it looks fabulous.  Looks like the focus is on design and layout, making this more valuable than just a collection of Noble's art, though that'd be enough.

Magic Color Flair: The World of Mary Blair, John Canemaker and Mary Blair - Outstanding, must-have collection of Mary Blair's art and design.



Picture books by Chris Van Allsburg, David Wiesner, and Maurice Sendak - All are outstanding.

Hark! A Vagrant Collection, Kate Beaton -  If you're unfamiliar with this comic, it is adorable and hilarious.

A Creative Companion, SARK - OK, so SARK is a little "woo-woo" as the TetZoo crew would say, but I haven't found another "get that imagination going" book that worked for me as well as this.  Your mileage may vary.

Legendary Northwoods Animals: A Farcical Field Guide, Galen Winter and John Boettcher - Terrific woodcut-style illustrations highlight this guide to mythical North American animals.

Cartoon Animation, Preston Blair - A must-have. I'd even go so far as to say this is the one animation/cartooning instruction book you really need.

Puddles and Wings and Grapevine Swings, Imogene Forte and Marjorie Frank - Dated but excellent arts and crafts instruction book with tips on (to borrow a phrase) raising a Wild Child.

Crafts and Hobbies: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creative Skills, the Editors of Reader's Digest - Another book I "inherited" from my grandmother. It's a good all-around reference guide.

Tetrapod Zoology 1, Darren Naish - A fine collection of some of the earlier articles on Naish's terrific website.

My Year of Flops, Nathan Rabin - Print collection of the very funny former Onion AV Club feature.

Inside Disney, Eve Zibart - An essential for the Disney theme park geek's library.  Insightful and fascinating.

Dragons, Leonardo's Notebooks, and Peterson's Birds - A small selection of economical art books I've collected over the years.

And, of course, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Omnibus, Douglas Adams.  Happy belated Towel Day!

And right next to that, the most beautifullest thing in this world, space for more books!

I'll be taking a little break from the Blog, but I'll be back in July.

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Sketch of the Day!


More original "Final Fantasy" weirdness

"My Life as a Turkey" Sketches

So the other night I technically sketched some live animals in my living room. The animals in question were in the excellent "Nature" episode "My Life as a Turkey". Yep, today we're briefly discussing the act of sketching from television.

"Now wait, Trish. I know you've gone on and on about how you need to sketch animals from life whenever the opportunity presents itself, but isn't sketching from a documentary cheating?" Well... that's up to you. The fact is, some people might not have a decent zoo or natural history museum near them, and it's absurdly difficult to find good motion and/or anatomical reference on certain species. Since my heart belongs to winged theropods, an entire documentary about wild turkeys and their life cycle was too good an opportunity to pass up.  I apologize if the notes are a little hard to read, but I originally wasn't planning on sharing these here. The first picture has one note that's kind of important though:



In the bottom-right of this page I have some notes on feather tracts. Note that the spine is essentially bare. A little while ago on Twitter, Aaron Diaz of "Dresden Codak" expressed his annoyance at artists drawing known species of feathered theropods with a handfull of quills running down the spine and calling it a day. Since he's mentioned that, I'm seeing that everywhere. And as you can plainly see, it's physically impossible. Go figure.

I also don't know what's up with that one kid in the beginning of "Jurassic Park". A six-foot version of one of these things would be horrifying.









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A Few Links of Interest:

* I want to see how many people who don't know much about animation I can convince this was an actual 80's cartoon.

* Speaking of 80's cartoons, check out Comics Alliances' rundown of the craziest episodes of "Jem".

* These quilled paper illustrations are amazing and kind of insane.

* Topless Robot has a great primer on Douglas Adams' work.

* There is apparently a football game happening this weekend and I have reason to be emotionally invested in it as the Patriots are involved. Eh. Let's all watch this collection of remarkably ill-conceived halftime shows instead. So many weird Disney cross-promotions...

* More importantly, the Annie Awards are tomorrow night, and Cartoon Brew will be streaming them at 10:00 PM EST!

Happy Towel Day!

As you're reading this, I am having an excellent excuse to carry my towel around, which I will explain later. It's also why there won't be any other updates this week.

In the meantime, enjoy this fun essay about Tex Avery. And for those wondering what the true meaning of Towel Day is: Ye Olde Wikipedia.