Em 🦭

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

Make Shrek ugly again. (10/10)

After all, how can you say ugly people are deserving of love and joy when you won’t even show ugly people on screen?

Animation should not just be about aesthetics or pushing the boundaries of realism. Stylistic choices in animation are as important to a film as writing style is to a novel. (9/10)

But it’s a big step in that direction. He’s certainly less ugly. His face is more proportionate, his are eyebrows neater. The softer lighting gives him almost dewey skin. And don’t even get me started on the ogresses.

And I do think these changes undermine the main message of Shrek. (8/10)

And the early 2000s ugly computer animation supports this story. The direct, harsh lighting brings out flaws and makes even conventionally attractive characters jarring to look at.

I wouldn’t say that Shrek is conventionally attractive in the new animation style. (7/10)

Shrek (the movie) is about Shrek learning that he can be horrible and ugly and at the same time worthy of giving and receiving love. And Fiona’s character arc is pretty similar, it’s about choosing to stay true to herself over conventional attractiveness and her parents’ expectations. (6/10)

Side note—I’m pretty sure the reason Disney keeps making live action remakes and CGI additions to series like The Lion King even though everyone likes the 2d animation more is because they literally don’t have any 2d animators working for them anymore.

Anyway back to Shrek. (5/10)

It’s messy, colorful, and emphasizes the less flattering details in character design.

I feel like large animation studios like Dreamworks and Disney have lost a lot of intentionality in style and character design because this specific type of CGI animation has become so prevalent. (4/10)

I think people sometimes forget that aesthetic choices are an important part of storytelling. If you look at picture books or comics you’ll see a huge range of different art styles, which serve to set the tone of the story before it begins. The style of Shrek! does a great job of that, imo. (3/10)

Shrek is surrounded by reflections of himself. “Shrek was in the Hall of Mirrors! ‘They’re all me!’ he yodeled. ‘ALL ME!’ He faced himself, full of rabid self-esteem, happier than ever to be exactly what he was.”

Shrek and the ogress are married by a crocodile. “So they got hitched as soon as possible. And they lived horribly ever after, scaring the socks off all who fell afoul of them.”

For a bit of context, the movie Shrek is based on the picture book Shrek! by William Steig. It tells the story of a delightfully ugly and horrible ogre Shrek who meets an uglier and horribler ogress. They get married and continue being ugly and horrible together. Here are my favorite pages: (2/10)

Okay, here’s why we hate the new Shrek style.

I know this isn’t what I usually post, but I’ve been waiting for weeks for someone to make this point and as far as I know, no one has.

Shrek is a story about ugliness. (1/10)

a small silver fish reflects a flash of sunlight as it jumps from a calm blue sea.

detail of the fish from the previous image.

I’ve been seeing a lot of herring jumping lately. I’m never quick enough to capture photos of them in the air, but there’s something amazing to me about how much light these little fish can catch.

A male chum salmon in spawning colors: its body is light yellow-green with a white belly and it has black and red barring on its sides.

The chum salmon was my absolute favorite of this batch. Its colors were so fun! Chum are the last salmon to spawn of the year, and last November I got to watch them spawning in a creek near Seattle.

#chumsalmon #scientificillustration #salmon

El Capitan displays a massive American flag upside down—the traditional signal of distress or extreme emergency.

A male pink salmon in spawning colors. It’s back has a tall hump. It has a white belly with yellow-green streaks, olive green back and head, and a bit of pink along the lateral line. It has large, irregular spots on the back and tail fin.

Almost forgot I was uploading these. Oops.

Anyway, here’s the pink salmon, the smallest of the PNW species. Pink salmon only take two years to mature, and in Puget Sound we actually only see pink salmon runs on odd numbered years. I’m looking forward to seeing them this year!

Why do the whales only show up when I have things to do 🥲

vector art is going to kill me

We got out with J Pod for our 6th encounter of the year! We were able to confirm that J62 is female and document all 26 members! We were also able to confirm that J35 is no longer carrying the carcass of J61. Check out the encounter and more photos at the link below.

A spawning male coho salmon. It has a dark green head, olive green back, and pinkish red flanks. Small spots cover its back and the upper portion of its tail.

Coho are one of larger salmon species but can be differentiated from chinook by their spots. Coho salmon have small spots on the upper portion of their tail fins while chinook have spots on their whole tail.

omg I have a Minke too!

Glad to see J62 still seems to be going strong!

Why do 17 year cicadas look like a cartoon evil version of annual cicadas

A male sockeye salmon in spawning colors. It has cherry red flanks, an olive green head, and a white lower jaw.

Last fall, I decided to paint all five of the salmon species native to the Puget Sound in order to learn how to better ID them. The sockeye salmon is probably the most recognizable species in spawning colors. In its saltwater form it can be identified by its lack of distinct spots.

Please please please keep your cats indoors. Cats are dangerous to birds and birds are dangerous to cats.

a whole rainbow! nice!

Group of Transient orcas with a very young baby approached us at work today! No one got ID shots (we’re a tour boat not research or whale watch) so I don’t know if the calf is already known or not, but still so joyful!

I love the teeth!

Two orcas in front of the rainbow pride flag.

Orcas are one of many species that display same-sex sexual behaviors. These behaviors are often seen between adolescent males, but are definitely not exclusive to them—which is why I decided not to base this illustration on any specific individual.

#natureisqueer #queerart #orca #pride

Two versions of a great blue heron in flight: lineart above and color below.

Last year I was commissioned to illustrate a field guide for whale watches in the Bay of Fundy and an accompanying coloring book. It was an interesting challenge to create lineart and color versions of illustrations! The great blue heron was one of my favorites.

yesss I love her 💜💖🤍🧡❤️

yesss