Bluecanvas.com is an international, multi-genre, online community of artists and art lovers. Bluecanvas magazine is a quarterly publication that features artists from its online community. We hope everyone will be able to find inspiration that reaches across genres, and hope that Bluecanvas can provide the right tools for our users to inspire everyone, artists and non-artists alike.

– Bluecanvas Staff

There are a lot of magazines and online communities that we come across at Simian Ink, but there are only a few on our subscription list. Bluecanvas is one of them. The Bluecanvas community is a really a wonderful place to get inspired and don’t worry, there are a lot of artists to familiarize yourself with.

Sometimes when we need to be inspired or motivated, all we have to do is visit the Bluecanvas website or pickup the Bluecanvas magazine. Problem solved!

Many thanks to the Bluecanvas staff for putting together such a wonderful magazine.

All images and artwork © Simian Ink 2012

Texture: Dirt Ground
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Last year, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles opened it’s new 14,000 square foot Dinosaur Hall. It’s a must see for any fan of dinosaurs and natural history. Our monkeys are so in love with the new Dino Hall that they’ve taken permanent stay at the museum. Be on the lookout, they’ll steal your food.

Description from Natural History Museum website:

The all-new, 14,000-square-foot Dinosaur Hall is twice the size of the Museum’s old dinosaur galleries. It will rival the world’s leading dinosaur halls for the number of individual fossils displayed, the size and spectacular character of the major mounts, including the world’s only Tyrannosaurus rex growth series, and the way that paleontology comes alive! In these spacious, light-filled galleries, visitors will encounter science not as static information but as a vibrant, ongoing investigation into mysteries — some resolved and some still being explored.

What: Dino Hall
Where: Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, CA
When: 2011 – Indefinitely
Link: www.nhm.org

Arty is on a little break from writing, so I’ll be writing on his behalf. Before I begin to tell you about Arty and his dinosaurs I feel an introduction is in order. I’m Arthurs father. I’m sure he has mentioned me before since we always have wonderful adventures together.

The story I’d like to tell you today is about Arty and his new friends. A few months ago while trying to find something new to watch on Netflix, Arty pointed at an image of dinosaurs on the screen and told me in his own crazy way to play it. So I clicked the play button and we started to watch a very interesting program on dinosaurs. I didn’t think too much of it at first but everyday from that day on Arthur only wanted to watch that specific program. He soon learned the names of some of the dinosaurs but pronounced them in his own awesome way.

Just in case you’re wondering:

Triceratops is pronounced “Twapitwap”
T-Rex is pronounced “T-Gres”
Ankylosaurus is pronounced “Ankokowus”
Brachiosaurus is pronounced “Bwonkikowus”

My favorite is his pronunciation of Pentaceratops, also known as “Pentatwap.”

At this point Arthurs fascination with dinosaurs has grown. He started collecting little dinosaur toys, reading dinosaur books, and wearing dinosaur clothes. Along with Arthur, we’ve also become honorary professors of paleontology.

There have been many mornings when my wife and I woke up with some sort of dinosaur poking at us, but seeing the excitement on Arty’s face make the injuries worthwhile. His curiosity inspires our curiosity and through him we get to be children again.

After a few pages of sketches our monkeys started to randomly doodle. Hidden in the midst of all these random doodles was a roughly sketched head of a robot. This little robot doodle was the foundation of our wonderful friend AJ. Throughout the creative process AJ changed many forms, but never lost his charm and character.

An android once said that “All big things have small beginnings,” and we were very fortunate to be a part of AJ’s small beginnings.

AJ the Robot, Accidental Information title and slogan © 2012 Accidental Information

I know it’s been a while seen I last wrote but I was a little busy fighting cannibal sock monsters in wonderland (long story).

But now I’m back and I have a very cool story to tell you. I got to go to the zoo. It was AMAZING, and the best part was that I went with my favorite person in the whole wide world – my beautiful mom (you too dad but this isn’t about you, get over it).

We had an awesome day together. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffes and a whole bunch of different animals. We even got to see chimpanzees, our fellow bretheren, but they were a little cranky. Hopefully next time we can catch them when they’re in a better mood.

Mom says that my dad used to be a chimpanzee, USED TO BE? – what does that even mean? That would explain so much though. That would also mean that I’m also a ch-ch-ch-CHIMPANZEE… AWESOME.

Anyways, thanks for the fun trip to the zoo mom, hopefully we can go again soon – Love you.

Monkey Anthem

What: Lessons of the Cherry Blossom: Japanese Woodblock Prints
Where: Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA
When: April 20, 2012 – September 03, 2012
Link: www.nortonsimon.org

Utagawa Hiroshige (Japanese, 1797–1858)
Noto Province, Waterfall Bay, from the Famous Views of the (Sixty-odd) Provinces series, 1856

Rocky is one of our favorite characters so we thought we’d make a cool texture dedicated to him.

A potato sack.

Now you might ask: Why a potato sack?

Well, it’s quite simple. A lot of boxers who couldn’t afford to go to the gym or buy a punching bag would fill a potato sack with rocks or sand in order to train. It’s a reflection of the struggles that Rocky had to go through in order to achieve his goals, something most of us can relate to.

Enjoy the texture.

Valentine – Take you back

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