The Dodo Blog

The Dodo Skips Through History on Woot Shirt, designed by TGentry for Derby #73: Optimism. That’s a dodo T-shirt I want for sure.

Do-Do Bird by Tattoo Andy. BTW, that’s not the first dodo tattoo I found. There are more dodo fans that we can image. Maybe I need to have my own dodo tattoo.

Handmade Dodo by SandraHealy. That great dodo was available on her Etsy.

This bird from the island of Mauritius could not defend itself against humans and their animals, and died out by 1681. This carving is 8 x 8 x 2 cm (3 x 3 x 1 inch).

I use knives and chisels, not a power carver, to finish shaping the basswood. This technique gives crisper details. It is sanded smooth, and an airbrush used to apply water-based inks, with some details being burned In. It is finished with 3 coats of water-based urethane, and signed and dated on the bottom.

She shared her process of creation on her set How I create my animals. I think I don’t need to mention I specially loved the pictures with the dodo. Here are some images from her set: Read the rest of this entry »

Detail from Big Baby Tiger and Dodo, and Mini Baby Tiger and Dodo, both by Heather, aka littlecabbage on Flickr.

While The Dodo Blog was in a very long break I created a Twitter account for it: The Dodo Blog (thedodo). I’m using @thedodo to share news and links about dodos and related to them. But I also have plans to share the new posts of this blog on that Twitter account, if nothing goes wrong. You can enjoy to check all the links previously posted on the dodo Twitter or do something even better: start following it!

In case you aren’t a Twitter user yet, and don’t want to be, there is the option of subscribe the feeds on the Twitter page, or check the updates on the main page of this blog, just under a very cute illustration of a blue bird, in case you didn’t noticed.

BTW, the cute Follow Me! Twitter image was created by Mirjami Manninen and shared on Smashing Magazine. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes.

Dodo And Boy Sculpture by Alena Wooten, via her deviantART page.

I had the pleasure of working with the incredible Vince Nguyen here at Blue Sky on this piece! This sculpture is based on his character he designed for a children’s book. (I’ll try scanning in the drawing I used to create this scupt) I must say, these talented folks I work with in the design dept. sure keep me busy with all these “SIMPLE” designs. Hard and time consuming to sculpt, but so fun nonetheless!

And from Vince Nguyen blog, Louis and The Dodo Sculpt:

So here’s a beautiful sculpt of Louis riding a dodo bird by Alena Wooten. The character was shown in a children’s book called Louis and the Dodo. It was one of my first children’s book years ago and it’s still one of my favorite books I’ve worked on. Alena is a super star sculptor at Blue Sky Studios and I jumped at the chance to get her to sculpt anything for me.

And finally the very cute illustration with the original characters from the book Louis & the Dodo by Mark Shulman, illustrated by Vincent Nguyen:

Through those years I learnt that dodos also inspired an expression for things that are going to disappear: “the way of the dodo”. The says the expression “way of the Dodo” means: Something that is pass or is no longer seen or used. Not bad for a dictionary that usually suggests the alternative meanings. According to Wikipedia:

The dodo’s significance as one of the best-known extinct animals and its singular appearance has led to its use in literature and popular culture to symbolize a concept or object that will or has become out of date, as in the expression “dead as a dodo” or “gone the way of the dodo”.

The Way of the Dodo is also a LA based rock band formed by Ben Zenk, Gerry Hirschfeld, Jake Riggle, Dylan Durboraw and Jesse Bivona. The band has a MySpace page with songs and videos, and a Facebook page (where I discovered it).

My Obamicon Dodo created via Obamicon.me site.

PS.:  I must say I truly sorry for the longest blogging break ever, but I had my issues as this blog had its. I have some plugins to install, test, learn and few changes to do in the layout, but nothing dramatic. Stay tunned for more posts and news. And thanks again for stopping by!

D is for Dodo by Derek Sullivan is part of his project Alphabet, which is also on Flickr.

The two cute little fellow above are CyberDodo and his friend Panda. The plush dodo was created based on the character of Cyberdodo. By purchasing this product, you will help support the conservation work of the WWF.

CyberDodo is about 20 cm tall. And he looks really chic in his jacket, hat, and trousers made of quality corduroy! Best of all, he’ll let you hide your most valuable treasures in his knapsack.
His friend Panda goes everywhere with him thanks to the handy Velcro fastener on his back.

One more item to my “Dodo wishlist”.

31ª Mostra Internacional de Cinema

Sorry for lack of updates due to 31ª Mostra Internacional de Cinema (São Paulo International Film Festival). The festival starts today, and the dodos were here were busy watching tons of films during two weeks. This means no updates: I’m going to have a break from here and from the other two blogs. Before the festival starts, I was already covering the previous events of it at Cinematógrafo, that’s why I didn’t have time to update here.

If you have any interest in cinema, or just want to know where I’m, check the updates of the event and some other related things at Cinematógrafo. It’s in Portuguese, but the translator (on the top of the blog) helps a little. Anyway, just wanted to say that I’m still fine. See you in November!