Formation of reptilian head scales

Designers of dragons and other mythological creatures might wonder how to draw the scale patterns on the head and body. How would the scales form on such an animal?

Above: Briton Riviere (1840-1920), "Saint George and the Dragon."

Dr. Michel Milinkovitch from the University of Geneva studied Nile crocodiles to understand the origin of their head scales. His study was published this year in Science magazine.

It turns out that reptilian scale patterns form in two different ways: genetic patterning and stress fractures. In the first system, the scales are developmental units that begin to form in embryonic stages and are usually symmetrical from one side of the head to another. 

This is typical of snakes. The symmetrical pattern can be seen by overlaying the pattern from the right and left sides (the yellow and red line patterns at lower right).

By contrast, crocodile head scales form by randomized stress fracturing, like cracks in auto safety glass. The scales are non-overlapping polygonal shapes that are smaller in areas where there is more flexing. There's no symmetrical alignment from one side to another of a single individual, nor is there a consistent pattern from one individual to another. 

Scales on the rest of the body of the croc, unlike the head scales, follow the snake-like genetic patterning model. 

Science Magazine Crocodile Head Scales Are Not Developmental Units But Emerge from Physical Cracking

Previously: Briton Riviere's Studio

Anecdotal Portrait

Many of Anders Zorn's early portraits are painted in watercolor. He was just 25 years old when he painted this one of Clarence Barker in 1885.

In a letter, Zorn explains the idea behind the portrait: Barker "reclines comfortably on the soft divan, having just spent time gazing at his sweetheart's portrait, and now he casts a tender glance at his dog who stands over him and looks him wonderingly in the eye. The painting could be called Rivals. I like to turn my portraits into paintings."

Zorn later abandoned the anecdotal angle in his portraits.
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Book: Anders Zorn: A European Artist Seduces America
A large Zorn exhibition will come to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco in November, followed by the National Academy in New York.
Anders Zorn complete works online
Anders Zorn (1860-1920) on Wikipedia

Samuel Gurney Cresswell

Samuel Gurney Cresswell (1827-1867) was the official ship's artist and Second Lieutenant aboard the HMS Investigator, during an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. 

The Investigator was on a mission to find two other lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror from the ill-fated 1845-48 British Arctic Expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin. 

In 1853, the Investigator also became locked in ice. The sixty-nine man crew had no choice but to abandon ship. Samuel Gurney Creswell documented the expedition in watercolor, showing life on deck, the ship trapped in ice, and the eventual rescue.

 His watercolors from the Investigator expedition were interpreted in a lithographic portfolio called "A Series of Eight Sketches in Colour," published in London in 1854.

The HMS Investigator has recently been discovered in the shallows of Mercy Bay by underwater archaeologists.

Samuel Gurney Creswell's story, including his encounter with pirates while serving in the seas off China, is told in the book: War, Ice and Piracy: The Remarkable Career of a Victorian Sailor

Samuel Gurney Cresswell on Wikipedia

Slideshow in Archaeology magazine online

The full story of the rescue of the crew of the Investigator
Thanks, David Gauldin

Fialetti's figure drawing books

For many centuries young artists have trained by drawing together from sculptures and diagrams. This etching by Odoardo Fialetti (1573-1638) shows apprentices copying casts in a painter's workshop.

In 1608 Fialetti produced a very early figure drawing manual called Tutte le parti del corpo hvmano diuiso in piu pezzi. (All parts of the human body divided into several pieces)

One diagram shows how to place the features on a foreshortened head.

 He also includes diagrams of difficult-to-draw details such as feet, ears, and hands.

According to Alexandra Greist, who wrote her dissertation on the topic, these instructional manuals are known as "libri da disegnare." "Libri da disegnare are groups of printed images that instruct in drawing the human body through a progression, whether by means of line-by-line instructions, following steps from outline to shaded, or building up the body from its individual features. Intended for both professional and amateur audiences, these printed sources were soon copied throughout Europe where they influenced drawing education for the next 400 years."

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Download the whole book for free at Archive.org

Book: Learning to Draw: Studies in the Cultural History of a Polite and Useful Art

"Marvellous hairy about the face"

This time of year the donkeys want to get rid of their winter coats, so they like a lot of scratching, especially Jezebel, the oldest donkey.

It's hard to concentrate when she leans her head on my shoulder. "I must to the barber's, monsieur; for methinks I am marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if my hair do but tickle me, I must scratch."

--Act IV, Scene 1 A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

Stone Age Cinema

Observers have noticed before that paleolithic cave paintings often show animals in multiple poses, superimposed to suggest movement.

(Video link) Marc Azéma from the University of Toulouse Le Mirail in France has made animations by isolating and alternating the poses.
Thanks, Rob