Yes, yes, I normally do art and stuff but an iguanadon with hedgehog spikes and tail plates? Too cool not to share.

If you're in Cardiff this month, maybe head over to Tiny Rebel brewery in town. Not only are their own very decent beers on tap, but there is some stonking art on the walls. Some of mine is hiding amongst it, wondering how it got into such good company & gleefully lowering the tone. #art

I wrote 3 pieces & sent them out to beta readers with the words "it's ok, tell me what you think. I can take it. " For one of them they absolutely did, so I'll be rewriting it. But the other two they loved! If you look out the window & see a small shape swooping through the clouds today, that's me.

Calling all science teachers in Wales! Sign up today to take part in the Life Science Challenge/Her Gwyddorau Bywyd 2026 quiz and challenge your year 10 pupils to show off their skills. Guaranteed to be a challenging and fun experience for all involved. Contact [email protected]

GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references. Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.

What I have learned from YouTube: apparently when other people stretch large pieces of watercolour paper, it's accompanied by soothing classical music & not by the sounds of "Where did that air bubble come from?" "Nooo" as the tape flips into the water, " Arsebiscuits!" & "NO CAT NO". #arr

So I wanted Copper drawing ink for a project & into the internet I go. Oo look! Ah yes, says the internet, but you can also use gouache. Yay, I already have gouache, but I don't want to waste it, I wish I still had 1.5ml spin tubes... Long story short I now own a centrifuge.

Apparently Bluesky is seeing an influx of new users. Welcome! If you're interested in science, journalism, and/or science writing, here are a bunch of folks worth following. go.bsky.app/7Z8u31b

Zombies, they're making themselves zombies

#Inktober day 3. Crown.

#Inktober day 2. Weave.

Looking forward to #inktober this year and have already completed #1, "Moustache". It will not be shared because your eyes are (to my knowledge) blameless and so do not deserve to be tortured with it, but I am going to think of it as a baseline from which to launch. Tomorrow's prompt is Weave.

Jim Henson would've been 89 years old today. Commemorate his life and legacy by celebrating creativity, diversity, imagination, peace, and just plain silliness. Walk with me a bit while I talk about Jim and his work--and leave your comments about what he means to you. Right this way. /1

Yes, my elderly drawing inks curdled and I was sad. But on the other hand my fountain pen inks were crying out for something to decant them into for travel and with a bit of cleaning I now have beautiful little jewel-like glass bottles to indulge them with.

Went to a work meeting. Saw that someone at the end of the table had pulled out a Lamy Safari to take notes on ivory paper. He looked at my Kaweco Sport. We locked eyes and gave almost imperceptible nods of approval. Secret membership of the Fountain Pen club achieved and acknowledged.

Dave the cat has died of old age & there's been an outpouring of grief from the whole community. He greeted kids on their way to primary school. He chilled at the shops. He brought little pops of joy to people's lives just by being friendly & happy. We need more Daves in this world. RIP buddy.

Inkpot vs human. Inkpot wins with a spectacular splashdown.

My current painting is entitled " It was better before the cat walked on the wet ink". It's an abstract piece. Now it is, anyway.

Look, I generally try to keep politics out of my feed. But... Trump and the Republicans' version of government doesn't have money for healthcare or science or accountability. But does have £200 million for a golden ballroom. Wtf. I originally thought this was an Onion story.

A summer's morning at the park. Best models ever. #dogs #sciart

I saw an infographic a couple years ago about how to remove source identifiers from links and why it's important, but I can't find it again and too many people I know are sending me links with them so here's an infographic straight from the oven

Update thread #2. Hemlock One thing we worked on is a different tool to complement Nightshade. We discovered a new attack on diffusion models that is more generalizable than Nightshade. It targets an entirely different part of AI training pipeline, basically making AI models poison themselves.

Just nature quietly asserting its presence on a wall next to an urban path

Another side quest? Oh no I couldn't possibly fit another one in, thank you. ... Well, maybe just one more.

We have officially moved in. Our Pop-Up Science Shop will be open to the public from 7th July until 3rd August 3025. Find us in the St David's shopping centre in Cardiff near John Lewis, Zara and Apple. Learn about the microbial world in, on and around us. Including the black death.

There is a certain fitting-ness to using frogspawn as the model for a sketch of a human blastocyst. #sketchingthoughts

Painting science pix in the sun on a lazy Saturday is the best kind of painting. #sciart

Justice Jackson has a unique ability to capture an argument in one sentence. She did it today and has done it before.

Sunshiney card for a friend for her Spring birthday.

Trying to not get over-excited at my new shipment of Diamine fountain pen 🖋️ inks and failing completely. Look at that Inkvent bottle! 😍

"This consultation seeks views on the approaches government should consider around reform of the #health and #disability benefits system and employment support." Respond by 30th June - online form here forms.office.com/pages/respon.... www.gov.uk/government/c... #Disability #DisabilitySky #NEISVoid

If I could name one consistent feature of people who end up having miserly, paranoid, counterproductive politics, it would be this—the attitude that care should flow TOWARD you but not FROM you.

Science teachers! If you want to prebook a place for your class to visit our upcoming large-scale pop-up shop event in the St David's Centre in Cardiff in July 2025 please get in touch! The microbial world in, on and around us - Information, demonstrations, live stage, art, games, fun. 🤒🦠🧫🔬🥼🧪👨🏻‍🏫📖🛍️

Agreed

Why is it the heap of stuff to do in front of you is always massive. You slog your way through then straighten up, look behind for your moment of triumph & see a tiny pile of stuff that doesn't look like anything. You turn back to look at the things to do in front AND THE HEAP IS EVEN BIGGER. How?

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1937

Just reading a paper and realising that the public understanding of "being trumped" is likely to be radically different in a year's time from what it has been for the last century.

This week I am drawing an adenovirus, which is basically just a knobbly icosohedron. The creation of an artwork is a meditative, some would say near spiritual, experience, and for those that want to fully understand the magic of the artistic process, it goes something like this: 1/2

Stick with this thread, it's worth reading. So much cool information!

We can't save the world with games, but we can be part of why it is worth saving. We can't save the world with art, but we can brighten it. We can't save the world with play, but we can be a reminder of our humanity. We can't save the world with joy, but we can be a reprieve before the fight.

I forgot the golden rule. Never say you'll draw a present for someone. The weight of expectation flattens the picture. Aka this was such a bad idea. I have no idea how people have the confidence to draw actual commissions.

Wow, when they said Noodler Ahab fountain pens stink, they weren't joking. The outside was ok, but when I opened it up to fill it with inks you could almost see the waft of vomit smell rise into the air. Trying a bicarb bath to see if I can cure it.

Goddammit ADHD, why are the only two options 4h work in 40h or 40h work in 4h?! What is wrong with the middle ground, just for once?

Word of the Day is ‘ingordigiousness’ (18th century): extreme greed at the expense of principles.

Please sign this open letter if you're a UK resident. 🙏 Objection to the Government's Proposed Copyright Exemption for Generative AI Training docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

What the hell @/print/cool ?? I do not have an official T-shirt selling page. I and many artists never allowed you to take our art delete our signatures and sale our designs in your platform. Please report their socials in Facebook Instagram and its home page. Lame ass thieves.

Sitting drawing at a cafe and a young couple near me have just found out the Scottish national flower is the thistle. I have no idea how they didn't know this, given they are clearly British and it is on all sorts of Scottish things, but their absolute delight at discovering this fact is infectious.