A digital illustration of a blue octopus floating in space. The mantle of the octopus is shaped like a globe
Happy Earth Day! 🐙🦀🐡🦑🐋🌎
We share the planet with so many incredible forms of life, all exploring the different ways of being. As humans, we are unique in our perspective and ability to appreciate the beauty of the whole dance. Let’s share what we have with those we share it with.
Thank you!
Yes!!! The forces have to be in balance! This is super minor but I lashed the tuna's inner fins to their sides, so that the wouldn't be able to interfere with each other's movement
That's a nice way of looking at it! Honestly felt like my chariot was stuck in a rut for a while there!
It's been two months since the last one! Life gets so busy!
THIS is my legacy?!
The Empress of Octopolis
The Emperor of Octopolis
The Alchemist of Octopolis
The Oracle of Octopolis
This brings my total tarot cards illustrated to 8. Only... 70 to go! I better pick up the pace if I want to finish this in the next year. This card took me longer than any of the previous cards, both because I struggled with layout and put a lot of manual detail into the subject and background.
Detail of the starry night octopus in the Chariot of Octopolis. She wears a chiton skirt and a crab helm. She holds a yellow sponge.
The Chariot tarot card of the Smith Waite deck.
The Chariot tarot card of the Thoth deck.
The octopus is a starry night octopus, a reference to the starry canopy of the chariot in the Smith-Waite edition. The crab helm is a reference to the Thoth deck, which associates the card with Cancer.
Detail from the Chariot of Octopolis showing the Tuna.
Early sketch of the Chariot of Octopolis. Pen and marker. The octopus holds a bottle, the chariot is an abalone, and the animals pulling the chariot are dolphins.
Draft sketch of the Chariot of Octopolis. The animals pulling the chariot are sea turtles.
Two tuna pulling the chariot forward. I debated what animals to use here. Tuna are some of the most voracious animals in the ocean. To maintain their massive metabolism they require never ending supply of food, and are constantly swimming through the ocean searching for prey.
Detail from the Chariot of Octopolis. A sponge in the hands of a starry night octopus.
Detail from the Chariot of Octopolis. Towers of coral and rock, some spewing bubbles of gas.
The sponge held by the central figure represents Life and its drive to persist in its simplest, most fundamental form. The towers of Polyps in the background also represent progress-- the progress of technological development and economy. Industrialization is an aspect of the Chariot.
The Chariot of Octopolis. A starry night octopus sits within the shape of a giant 'paper nautilus', an egg casing of an argonaut octopus. She holds a golden sponge, wears a skirt of chiton armor and a crab helm. An iridescent banner streams behind the chariot. In the background rise archways and towers of a coral city.
There is also a feminine aspect to the Chariot. The card contains symbols of female reproduction: the cab is the egg casing of an argonaut octopus, and the streamers flying off the back imitate the blanket octopus. Both species' females carry their eggs in 'chariots' through the pelagic.
The Chariot of Octopolis as a card. A starry night octopus sits within the shape of a giant 'paper nautilus', an egg casing of an argonaut octopus. She holds a golden sponge, wears a skirt of chiton armor and a crab helm. The nautilus chariot is pulled forward by two yellowfin tuna lashed to a yoke. An iridescent banner streams behind the chariot. In the background rise archways and towers of a coral city.
It's been a while since my last tarot card, but work's been progressing. That's appropriate because The Chariot represents progress, steady forward movement, tenacity, and discipline.
The Chariot of Octopolis. A starry night octopus sits within the shape of a giant 'paper nautilus', an egg casing of an argonaut octopus. She holds a golden sponge, wears a skirt of chiton armor and a crab helm. The nautilus chariot is pulled forward by two yellowfin tuna lashed to a yoke. An iridescent banner streams behind the chariot. In the background rise archways and towers of a coral city.
The Chariot💙💙💙🐙
#octopolis #tarot
🐡🦑🐋
Promotional poster for How to Draw an Octopus at the SSF Libraries
Tomorrow I’ll be drawing octopuses at the South San Francisco Library with my friends @dannastaaf.bsky.social and @xjosuecruz.bsky.social ! Come join us at this free and fun event for all ages!
russell crowe and pedro pascal had a child?!
two characters standing on a bridge in front of a huge wall of glass. there's water behind it, and a giant jellyfish carrying a fetus inside it
incubation
A flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis sp.) sitting on the seabed. It is adorable, small and squishy, like a mango ice cream scoop with itty bitty "ears" which are its fins. Its fins are tucked in and its arms are going in each direction but have their tips tuck away, so they just look like nubs.
A Opisthoteuthis agassizii, a flapjack octopus species, swimming at a depth of 700 m. It looks like a cute blob, sort of like a scoop of ice cream. It is grey with a slight orange tinge. It has roundish, smallish fins that look like ears. Its arms are sticking extended, but they are pointing in different directions. It has black, round eyes. You can see the ground below it, which is white and on a slope.
A flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis sp.) sitting on the seabed. It is adorable, small and squish octopus with small fins that look like tiny ears. It is a dark orange colour and it has a a few lines of lavender coloured dots that are on head. It is a sort of squished posture, and it sort of looks like it is closing its eyes and taking a nap. Its right ear is rucked down and its arms are tucked in so its hard to make out its limbs except two arms in front.
A flapjack octopus (Opisthoteuthis sp.) floating at Axial Seamount at a depth of 1745 m. You can see the rocky ground below, along with a cable. The octopus is a squish orange blob, with small fins that look like tiny ears. The head and mantle are a rough dome shape. It has its arms extending out with their tips curled in, and the webbing between the arms is all stretched out.
Flapjack octopuses (genus Opisthoteuthis) are an adorable genus of deep sea octopuses. They have gelatinous bodies that can make them look like a pancake when they sit on the sea floor
Their fins are smaller than those of other cirrate octopuses, but it does mean they look like they have tiny ears
Promotional still from the animated adaptation of Nimona by ND Stevenson depicting nimona and ballister surrounded by swords
Screenshot from the animated adaptation of Nimona by ND Stevenson depicting a pink whale in a ballroom
Screenshot from the animated adaptation of Nimona by ND Stevenson depicting a scifi medieval city
I know I'm late to the party on this one but the animated adaptation of Nimona really knocked it out of the park. Everyone involved in the production should be proud of the work they put into making a film that celebrates and builds on its source material. Absolute blast.
Part 1 if you need to catch up
youtu.be/Ib_iFX2X0Ss?...
Part 2 of @krimeguys.bsky.social in Philly is out! Vince has been putting his body and soul into these videos. They say he never sleeps, he's traded years of life to the gods of graff to bring this to the world
feels like everyone's chasing headlines
Nautilii are OG
I avoided the strange hovering light
Yo wtf this sucks!!! Glad to have found your alt account at least
Wow just seeing this now and I’m afraid to go to sleep
UCSF and UNESCO are partnering through a program co-led by my friend, Dr. Matthew Gribble! They’re tasked with public education of the links between ocean and public health. They’re fundraising, so please consider lending your support: givingtogether.ucsf.edu/fundraiser/7...
Bubbles is like a celebrity among the dive volunteers
A photo of SS Julian on a Surface Supply dive at the Cal Academy of Sciences Philippines Coral Reef with a bignose unicorn fish by his head
A photo of SS Julian on a Surface Supply dive at the Cal Academy of Sciences Philippines Coral Reef with a bignose unicorn fish by his head
Also, I finally got to hang out with Bubbles the bignose unicorn fish who spends every dive surfing on the exhalations of the surface supply diver!
A photo of SS Julian on a Surface Supply dive at the Cal Academy of Sciences Philippines Coral Reef
A photo of SS Julian on a Surface Supply dive at the Cal Academy of Sciences Philippines Coral Reef giving a high five to a child through the glass
I did my first official surface-supply divie at the @calacademy.bsky.social yesterday! As the surface supply diver in the Philippines Coral Reef, I get the opportunity to interact with the public, and I've never got so many high fives!
