Meet Dippy! A giant with a heart of gold, life is never boring when this big guy is around. Nothing is out of reach! He’ll stick his nose into everything until every mystery is solved.
Looks like he’s found a very, very big ball to play with. That ball is pretty much indestructible, and something that comes in handy when you have curious giants like Dippy around. He loves food just as much as your average sauropod, but Dippy is…how shall I say? Easily distracted. 😛
Click on the picture below to find out what happens to that ball. 😉
Making progress…
Something a bit different this month, because things have been…interesting. 😀
First I was like “I’m feeling great! Baby’s sleeping, we’re getting into a groove, I am on fire!” I had all sorts of plans to update Dippy’s picture, get another short story done, and get the ammonite pattern finished because it “just needs a little color” right?
You’d think I’d learned my lesson about getting all excited and making a bunch of plans by now. 😛
Let’s just say Babysaurus had some plans of her own. 😀 In many ways things are easier and more predictable…Baby girl can play on the floor and roll over, she’s discovered the joy of toys, and watching me do housework is great entertainment (so I’m getting all caught up there 🙂 ). But she is awake over my one window for artistic stuff, so I’ve been doing some creative juggling to make sure at least some progress is made.
Progress like a ninja tortoise is still progress 😀
I hope I don’t sound like I’m complaining, since I truly am loving this stage of my life at the moment, and I’m truly blessed to have all these little ones to nurture. I just wish I had more to share with you.
So without further ado, here’s what’s in the works! 🙂
I started out this month working on my ammonite pattern for Redbubble. Some of the ammonite shells remind me of various foods, so that inspired me to do a bit of a collection of food-inspired yummonites. 🙂 I have some of them colored already, but now I just need to figure out how to design it in a way I’d like to wear it on a t-shirt. 😀 I’ll be taking a look at Redbubble for inspiration on some designs that work, and go from there. 🙂
Do you prefer the black lines, like the cinnamon roll above? Or the colored lines like the ice cream swirls? And speaking of ice cream swirls, do you prefer chocolate or vanilla, or should I include both? 🙂
There’s one more food-based snail-squid, a really unusual one with a triangular coil, but I can’t find the species name, so that one will have to wait a bit. 😀 I know it’s a real thing, because I found the original photo from a museum website, and cross reference confirms that the critter actually had a triangle-shaped coil…weird huh?
These food inspired critters will be featured alone on their t-shirts. The pattern itself will have more natural colors, inspired by a few modern squid.
Because ammonites are basically squids with shells. 🙂 Their closest living relative is the nautilus, and they thrived for millions of years. They were so numerous and varied, that paleontologists can actually use them to help estimate the age of a layer of rock. Which really helps if you want to find certain fossils from a particular layer of rock. 😀
Thank you so much for joining me here today, I truly appreciate you, and I hope to have more to share with you soon. 🙂
Coming July 1st…
Why, oh why must everyone call her ugly? I really don’t know. She may not be winning any beauty contests, but she’s a real sweet heart with anyone she meets. 🙂
Share your guess in the comments! She’ll be one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂
Pete's Paleo Petshop 
It was nice to read Dippy vs. Ball again! Good inspiration for my own little comic. 😀 I like how easy it is to “read” his thought process without the use of narration or dialogue. It seems a lot like what a real dinosaur would do, even though the comic itself is cartoony. :3 The plant chart and the map included in the eBook have also been a big help for a certain dinosaur-related art project I’m doing!
I like how you have the ammonites as stand-alones now, with the real species names directly below them and the nicknames underneath–it’s a fun mix between realistic and playful. 😀 I think it would be nice if you added a very simple background such as dinner plates, or even just a splash of color. I wonder how it would look if you added a cartoony version of the real food next to the ammonite?
I do prefer the lighter lines, but they’re a bit hard to see. It’s also a little hard (with the exception of the croissant squid) to distinguish the squiddy part from the shell. It might help if you made the lines a little darker, and maybe you could even experiment by making the line that distinguishes the shell from the rest of the body just a tiny bit darker than the other lines. 🙂
I think it looks fine with both vanilla and chocolate, but if you think it would be simpler just to have one flavor, I vote for chocolate. 🙂 It’s more recognizable as an ice cream flavor, but at the same time I do like how vanilla adds a bit of color variety since all of the other foods are brown. This idea might be too far-fetched, but doesn’t the very top “swirl” look a little like a cherry with a stem? What if you made the ammonite look like a sundae? 😛
I hope you don’t mind my rambling! I’m just throwing some ideas out there–I hope you find them helpful in some way. 🙂
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Hi Brownie, I’m blown away by the awesome tidbits! Thank you! You have some great ideas here, and I’ll have to experiment a bit more with the ammonites before calling them finished.
I’m glad you liked Dippy’s little story. I enjoyed rereading it also, and I hope to add more to it soon and publishing a more complete collection of Dippy’s silly adventures with his ball, or similar shenanigans. 😀
Thank you again for your rambly comment, I love long chit chats! 😀
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Ooooh! Since when was the last time i was this early! Did Dippy…. already won against the ball? Or not? XD I cant imagine what its like to take care of a child while trying to make sure progress is made on your project! Also,lovin the ammonites so far! Pretzel Squid is best Squid! Im also writing a dinosaur related story,any tips on that? I have no idea on COTM…. is it Bella? 🙂
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Wow, you’re fast! 😀 It’s good to see you here Kaprosaurus! 😀
You’re right on the nose with Bella, she’s up next. 🙂
I’m glad you like the ammonites. They really should get some more love, especially since there are so many really cool ones! I’ve been reading a little on their shells and possible swimming abilities (can I say rabbit hole?) and they’re so interesting…It’s pretty tough to confirm of course, but I’ve read a few possibilities of being able to shift the air in the chambers of their shells so that they can change direction quickly. Not as cumbersome as they might appear to be. 🙂
For a dinosaur related story, what are you aiming for? Something from the dinosaur’s perspective, or a different character? I’d be happy to help you any way I can. 🙂
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Its in the perspective of multiple dinosaurs,more like,”third person view” if that’s right. My story is about a post apocalyptic world where dinosaurs ruled the earth……for a second time XD Weird,right? Also,do you mind spreading the word of Pete’s Petshop on Amino? Its a little app where you can join different communities,i joined a dinosaur lover community,im pretty sure they will appreciate your art,thats also the same place im posting the story on
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That sounds cool 🙂 You can have a lot of fun with speculation with a story like that. What are the dinosaurs like? 🙂
And of course you can help spread the word! I would love that, thank you 🙂 Anyway to help others interested in dinosaurs find me would be awesome 😀
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