Appearance:
Quite large as far as birds are concerned, the Jawcular-Faced Fowl stands much taller than all other predatory fowl. Incapable of flight, it relies on its powerful stubbed legs for transportation. These stilt-like limbs lack stability, so its long muscular arms are used as anchors during times of conflict. The feathers are generally light blue on the belly and range from dark blue to grey on the backside and tail. A distinguishing feature of this creature is its lack of eyes, which forces it to rely on its other senses to survive.
Temperament and Social Behaviour:
The Jawcular-Faced Fowl is a solitary creature and has a reputation for being a fearsome predator and murderer . If two males find themselves in close proximity, a fierce battle will surely ensue, determining who will reign over the territory. Females are not territorial and are usually less temperamental; however, in defense of her young she will demonstrate herself to be the most fearsome of foes.
Diet:
The Jawcular-Faced Fowl is the strictest of carnivores, battling and devouring any creature that may come its way, regardless of the victim's size and temperament. A male will even devour his own children if they are found unguarded by their mothers. Generally, the Jawcular -Faced Fowl will hunt at dawn and dusk, preferring to rest its large body during the warmer hours of the day.
Mating Habits:
A male Jawcular-Faced Fowl will wait for a female to enter his territory, and then attempt to impress her through a display of incredible feats of strength. If she shows interest, the intercourse that follows can be more destructive than the battling of males, and has been known to wipe out entire hamlets. As violent and brutal as they are, these encounters rarely end in one of the partner's deaths. This period of extreme excitement is followed by a longer period of extreme calm. The partners will cradle each other for several hours, after which, the female will leave the area to build a nest, lay her eggs, and raise the young on her own.
Life Cycle:
The Jawcular-Faced Fowl hatches from a large mushroom-coloured egg that has an incubation period of 21 days. A mother lays one egg every 5 to 7 years. The youth is raised by it's mother for approximately 3 years, after which it will set off on its own. It is difficult to determine the length of the natural life of these creatures. They begin to show signs of old age after 30 years of life, but will usually be killed by younger and stronger birds at the first sign of weakness.
Political Affiliations:
A few of these creatures have been known to enlist within the ranks of the Great Flock where they usually take on the role of front line juggernauts. One legendary individual even became the star pilot ofthe Great Bear Guardian. Most, however, prefer to live solitary lives in the wilderness.
In other news, I'm still homeless but I finally got a cell phone...
I was super excited to see the Colosseum, I watched Gladiator twice in a row before we left Florence to get pumped up for it. I practiced some wrestling moves, I wanted to buy a stuffed lion and slay it to expose my supreme killer instincts to the other tourists. By the time we got there my stomach felt like hell, but I was so excited to be there that I tried my best to ignore it. Here's the face that I would give to my opponent if I were a real Gladiator:
We took an over night train to Paris, and stayed there for a week. I really don't know what to say about this stuff, we had a hotel, we took walks, we drank some alcohol... it was fun! Our pics are very much "couple photos"... just photos of us so we could have them when I went back to Canada, so I won't subject you to too many of them... This one makes it very obvious that Carolyn is way more attractive than I am...
And this is me in line to get into the Louvre.
Right across the street was the Specola, the oldest taxidermy museum in Europe, or maybe it is the largest, I can't remember. It was founded in 1785, most of the specimens are about 100 years old. Basically the place is a giant zombie-animal warehouse. The gums are rotted away and the eyelids are gross. In some cases wounds were not sewn up properly or fingers rotted away, so there are exposed bones. The place rocked my world, I got an open pass and drew in there almost everyday. Here's some photos from the museum:
And heres some scans of the sketches I made. I did lots of birds, I'm really getting into drawing them, I mightuse some of these for an upcoming Road of Knives page:
Carolyn set me up with a makeshift studio in the dining room. I played around with some acrylic and watercolour on paper and a couple of larger mylar pieces. Once I get that work scanned I'll post it on here...
Fungi-Mate Piloting Bi-Necked Amphibious Behemoth
Tuba-Nosed Toad in Full Bloom
Those photos are pretty bad, but you get the general idea. Heres a couple of shots of the booth...
Ok, so after the fair, all I really did was pack my stuff, take down my studio, and get my supplies ready for moving out of the country. What else? Doing 'fancy jumps' got me in trouble twice that month. The first time I was wrestling with my buddy Matt in the hallway of my studio, I pushed him into a wall, and made a run for it... I did a little fancy twirly jump to show off, smoked my head on a bolt sticking out of a waterpipe, and bled a lot. It hurt like hell....
The second fancy jump happened at my next door neighbour's place. In October it looked like I may have had a heart complication, I was really freaked out, after a bunch of tests it turned out that I was pretty much ok, but the doctor recommended light jogging. So I bought a track suit and running shoes, and went over to my neighbours place to show off. Excercising is really unlike me, I'm in horrible fucking shape. In the first photo you can see one of my neighbours in the background, he was obviousy jealous of my fancy jumping, so he ripped off my tear-aways mid-jump...
Man, I'm such a gremlin... I even gross myself out in this photo, look at those teeth, they look like they've been filed to a point... I started writing this entry last night, saved it, and now it is the next morning. Looking back, I have no idea why I considered "fancy jumps" noteworthy, but well, there you go...