The Magical Guide to Firelflies- Abi Mcneall

The Illustrated Menagerie's old Posterous site

As the Illustrated Menagerie blog moves from its old home on Posterous to these new premises, (Posterous closing in a few weeks) we are tidying up some broken links and reorganising some of the content.

Now you can view content by animal family (Mammal, Bird, Fish, Reptile, Invertebrate), the media used to illustrate the animal, or by the workshop the images were produced in. See the 'links' list to the right.

The Dragonfly

The theme that I have researched and illustrated was that of the dragonfly. It is such a complicated thing it amazes me on how it works. I have made many drawings to show the many different things that make up the creature and have found some things I did not even know about its habits and anatomy.

Short animation - ants

Whiteboard and marker animation by Dale Sylvester, commenting on the social interaction of ants and the importance of pheromones.

The Asian Elephant

I chose to illustrate the Asian Elephant because it is an animal I found particularly interesting. I think the way they are worshipped and treasured by the Asian community is really fascinating and the elephant is seen as a good luck symbol in many cultures.

The area I focused on is the habitat loss of the Asian elephant leading to the animal becoming critically endangered. Therefore my lino prints show the Asian elephant fading and the landscape changing.

Kate Cronin

Cat

Experimental animation by Holly Stanton

Duck

The Blue Duck, the one that features on the reverse side of a New Zealand's $10 note.
This species is an resident breeder in New Zealand, nesting in hollow logs, small caves and other sheltered spots. It is a rare duck, looking after their territories consistently on fast flowing mountain rivers.
The Blue Duck is a very limited species now threatened by being hunted by mammals especially stoats, competition for its food with trouts, and human activity causing the ceased mountain rivers flow for building work.

In 2011 the New Zealand Department of Conservation and Genesis Power started the Whio Forever Project, a five-year management programme for Whio (New Zealand locals, Maori, call the Blue Duck 'Whio'). It will enable the start of a national recovery plan that will double the number of fully operational secure Blue Duck breeding sites throughout New Zealand.

They are amazing animals and key factors that influenced my visual developments are: they all inhabit New Zealand rivers, they occur nowhere else is in the world, Blue Ducks have unique features such as streamlined head and large webbed feet to enable them to feed in fast moving water, and they are in danger of extinction due to human activity. I have made many drawings, some 3D objects and animated my animal to expose some of its habitual behaviours and routines.