Julian Teh Illustration | Public figure
Julian Teh Illustration
Reviews
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24.01.2022 White-browed Woodswallow My favourite of the Australian woodswallow species, and arguably one of the most gorgeous birds in existence. The burnt plum and ash blue of a male is a sight to behold, and the female, with her paler, subtler plumage, is even better. Always chatting, tail-waggling and active, these are a real sign of spring and summer in the inland to me. I’ll never forget spending a morning watching a loose flock of 300 or so interacting and nest building near home,... and I’m incredibly lucky to now have plenty of access to this species for illustrative purposes. The style of this painting is roughly based on a W.T. Cooper painting of a Southern Ground Hornbill, which stares at me five days a week from across the office at work. It was a lot of fun, and I can see why he chose it! It might become a little series for me Wishing a happy and productive year to all!
24.01.2022 The last few months have been massive. From tracking down Plains-wanderers in the wild to finishing my last major project for university, handing in my last essays and celebrating at our graduation exhibition, I feel like I've crammed a year into 9 weeks. Unfortunately that means I've all but disappeared from social media. Nevertheless! I now have a moment to breathe, and I can begin to share with you some of my work from the last few months. I have a fair bit to get through... - my Plains-wanderer paintings from my year-long major project, portraits of finches from my ongoing poster project, some old bits and pieces I'd like to share, and some new work (now that I can think about new subjects!). I'm also looking forward to getting back into writing, starting with some thoughts on modern natural history illustration, the fate of my degree, and the paths forward for aspiring illustrators in Australia. And then, right at the end of the year, I'm looking forward to returning to one of my favourite places on Earth - Borneo - for some hard-eared R&R. Not that it'll be too relaxing, as I've got birds to find and paint! Keep an eye out for all of that over the coming months. I'm excited to share more through this page, both completed pieces and my works in progress. For now, I'd like to start with (probably) my favourite piece from this year, a female Plains-wanderer captured in a spotlight on the grasslands of northern Victoria. I haven't really found a title I like for it yet. Feel free to suggest one!
24.01.2022 Another Inland Dotterel, still a sketch but a little bit clearer this time. The markings on these birds are very cool, the back and mantle feathers particularly are absolutely stunning in gold-edged chocolate. I suppose I’ll have to do a colour study before my dotterel week is over! An older sketch, but also from life. These birds move very little in the daytime, which makes sketching very convenient #sketch #lifestudy #dotterel #wader #procreate #digitalsketch #birdart #naturalhistoryillustration #birdillustration #natureart #naturalhistory #scientificillustration #digitalart #digitalillustration #julianteh
21.01.2022 Eastern Grass Owl A small study that will later be developed into a more complete painting. One of the nice things about being both birder and illustrator is that you can embellish a little. Sometimes you get great weather, a beautiful location, good company... but no bird. When that happens, you can still make the most of the dip by imagining what you 'almost' saw. What the scene might have looked like if you'd been just a little luckier.... Art of Bonnie Koopmans and I went looking for Grass Owls a few nights ago, and as you might have guessed, we didn't find any. But what if we had?
20.01.2022 Western Bowerbird Finished this one off last night, and it feels nice to have it done! Happy to make a return to actually finishing drawings, rather than just leaving them in a sketch-state. I’m not sure how regular an occurrence this will turn out to be, as I’m predicting 2020 will end as tumultuously as it has progressed thus far - but I’ll do my best. Meantime, keep an eye out... I may have something special to announce tomorrow evening
19.01.2022 It seems as though life has really gone full throttle lately. Between work, teaching, a volunteer fellowship and all the general chores, renovation projects and bits and pieces that life throws up, it feels like I barely get a chance to think about all the illustration projects I promised myself I’d start as soon as I left uni. It’s a delicate balance to strike between paid employment, building career skills (both illustrative and otherwise) and life maintenance, and I’m stil...l trying to find a happy medium. For now, I’m getting stuck into the paid work and skill-building, and really enjoying those parts - but the illustration has fallen behind, and I’d like it to find its way to prominence again. While I work it out, I’ve been trying to keep myself doing at least a little most days. Here’s a page of recent quick sketches - some quicker than others! Australian Logrunners are my flavour of the month, an old favourite species of mine that inhabits the forest floors of East-coast rainforests. Utterly charming in their demeanour and behaviour, they’re a species I really would like to paint in full, although their expressive characteristic movements and love of leaf-littery environments will make it a challenge. Just gotta pin down that ever-elusive drawing time! The coronavirus has also set my plans back a little bit. I had planned to release a new pin design early this month, but production has been delayed. I’ve heard from my manufacturing contact that they’re up and running again, though, so you can expect it to come soon! No firm release date yet, but I’m hoping within the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out! On the subject of social media, I always seem to promise that I’ll post more regularly. Often it’ll get to late in the evening, when I finally start to wind down, and I tell myself it’s not optimal posting time and that it’d be better to do it tomorrow. Or, I’ll make it as far as writing a post, and then decide that the image just isn’t of good enough quality to share, and shelve it for another day. They’re bad habits I’m trying to work through, and I’ve decided to approach them by stuffing the algorithm and posting whenever I find the time, and posting more unfinished work, like this. Hopefully you enjoy a peek behind the scenes!
16.01.2022 Plains Wanderers As I’ve mentioned, this final year of my degree is dedicated to Plains Wanderers, and I’m so excited to share the first finished illustration from my major project! This was kind of the ‘warm-up’ to the whole body of work, and it was my first go at fully rendering Plains Wanderers. A steep learning curve for sure! There’s plenty to be improved on for my next pieces, but I’m really happy with how these two came together. They’ll feature in the ‘infographic’ p...art of my project, which looks at creating signage for a Plains Wanderer zoo exhibit - something we’ll hopefully be seeing more of, as the captive breeding programmes being undertaken by a handful of Australian zoos begin to flourish. Not only is it wise to have a backup population of such an endangered species, but it also encourages people to learn more about them, which is something I hope my work can assist with. There’s no timelapse to accompany this post as it took me 42.5 hours to complete, and the timelapse lasts an hour! Does anyone want to have a guess at how many brushstrokes went into this piece?
16.01.2022 A lovely early Christmas present has arrived in the last week, with the online publication of two papers to which I contributed illustrations. Happily both seem to have been well-received by the ornithological community! I’ve had to keep my work for these under wraps for some time, but I’m delighted to now be able to share some of my work. The first paper, How far east can a Western Whistler go? Genomic data reveal large eastward range extension, taxonomic and nomenclatural ...change, and reassessment of conservation needs (Joseph et al. 2020), addresses the geographic and taxonomic redistribution of the Western Whistler (Pachycephala occidentalis), in relation to the Golden Whistler (P. pectoralis). Specifically, it excises the westernmost subspecies fuliginosa from Golden Whistler, and places it under Western Whistler. This equates to an eastward range extension for Western Whistler of ~1500km, something sure to be of interest to South Australian birders! The second paper, Genomic data show little geographical structure across the naturally fragmented range of the purple-gaped honeyeater (Joseph et al. 2020), published in the Australian Journal of Zoology, is a short communication investigating genetic differentiation amongst populations of the Purple-gaped Honeyeater. From an illustrator’s perspective, these figures presented some interesting challenges in data visualisation and the balance between accuracy, efficiency and budget. I opted to work digitally and took a fairly heavily stylised approach to illustrating the birds, as the drawings did not need to be scientifically diagnostic to a fine scale; rather they served to visually summate the differences between Whistler subspecies and aid the reader in linking the content of the text to their field experiences. Very enjoyable work, and I’m looking forward to collaborating on other papers in the future! There is a third paper I’ve worked on currently in review, and I’ll talk about that when it reaches publication. For anyone interested in reading these papers in more detail, but who doesn’t have institutional access, let me know
15.01.2022 Plains-wanderer wing study A Plains-wanderer's wings are not often seen. Just about the only glimpse you'd get is if you happened to flush one, which is very rare in itself - birders searching for them tend to look after dark using spotlights, when the birds are far more likely to hunker down and hide than flush. Thankfully the good folks at the CSIRO were in possession of a study skin's extended wing, and allowed me to use it as reference for this large and detailed plate. ...There's a lot more to it than shown here! This particular style of render is the same as I used for my Abantiades moth drawing last year, and at the time I swore I'd never do it for a uni assessment again (it takes forever). Yet here I am, working the same way on a much larger and more complex piece! Just a sucker for punishment I suppose This part of the plate is just about wrapped up, and with Threatened Species Day happening tomorrow, I might post the full thing. Keep an eye out!
14.01.2022 Enjoying a self-isolated evening laying down the sketch for a new graphite piece
14.01.2022 Earlier this year two of my pieces made it into the GNSI annual member's exhibit! The exhibit was displayed for a week or so at the Queensland Museum in conjunction with the GNSI annual conference, but for those who weren't lucky enough to see it in person, the gallery is now available online! The quality of works in the exhibit is INSANE and it was a very humbling experience to see my drawings among them. Take some time to browse the gallery and examine the details of each piece - they're all amazing. https://www.gnsi.org/image-gallery-2019-member-exhibit2
13.01.2022 Surprise! They're back! The next lot of Plains-wanderer pins is here and ready to go! They're up on my website now (www.julianteh.com.au), so if you missed out last time, now's your chance! This project has been so much fun, and I'm super chuffed about how well they've been received. I haven't counted up the total yet, but we've raised a lot of money for Dan's Plains-wanderer research! I'm looking forward to meeting up with him hopefully next weekend, so I'll make another pos...t talking about that in more detail then. I've received a lot of cool suggestions on directions to take the project in the future. I've decided to pursue an endangered species collection for a start, keeping with the idea of contributing money to conservation research, and I even have the next few species planned out, ready to be created in the new year. Keep an eye out for those in January! In the meantime, see if you can guess what's up next!
12.01.2022 I may not be doing inktober or sciartober, but I am still trying to get a quick drawing in when I can. Nothing too fancy, just trying not to get (too) rusty before I have time to work on some proper rendered pieces again! I had half an hour spare this afternoon and thought gee, I haven’t drawn a Plains-wanderer in like a year... so here’s one! Still trying to find time to do some Inland Dotterels (my other favourite wader) in colour. Hopefully soon!
11.01.2022 NEW ENAMEL PINS! The family grows! After a long wait, today I’m welcoming BLACK-THROATED FINCH and SOUTHERN CORROBOREE FROG to the shop. I’m really pleased with how these two designs turned out, and I’m excited to be diversifying into non-avian fauna for the first time! I’ve also finally managed to restock my A-grade Plains-wanderers. These two species, like the three previous designs, are in a lot of trouble. As before, a percentage of the money made from selling these pins ...will go to conservation efforts and researchers working on each species. The Black-throated Finches will be supporting the Australian Conservation Foundation @ausconservation. I’m still on the hunt for the best recipient for the Corroborees, but I’ll update when I’ve made a choice :) All five designs are available now through my website, www.julianteh.com.au (or follow the link in my bio). #pin #enamelpin #birdpin #australianbirds #birdlifeaustralia #criticallyendangered #endangered #plainswanderer #fortyspottedpardalote #chestnutbreastedwhiteface #corroboreefrog #blackthroatedfinch #stopadani #threatenedspecies #artforconservation #naturalhistoryillustration #scientificillustration #birdart #sciart #frogart #illustration #julianteh
11.01.2022 'Native and Wild' is an exhibition of works by a brilliantly talented group of students, staff and alumni from UON's natural history illustration program. Somehow I managed to sneak one of my paintings in there, of a Chestnut-breasted Mannikin! You can almost make it out on the right hand side of this photo (thanks Louise!), but you'd see it much more clearly if you went to visit the show! The exhibition is open now, and will be up until December 22nd; open every day from 9am-4pm.
10.01.2022 Continuing with some of my works from the last couple of months, here's another piece from my Plains-wanderer project. This piece was heavily inspired by Tunicliffe and Cooper, who managed to bring dead birds to life with their carefully measured drawings. While perhaps not as exciting as painting live birds in-habitat, it offers an excellent chance to focus on fine details of plumage and structure, as well as visualising angles often unseen. All of this contributes to understanding how the bird is put together, which in turn informs other artworks of the same species. I'm very grateful to the Australian National Wildlife Collection for allowing me to access their Plains-wanderer specimens, without which creating this would have been far more difficult.
10.01.2022 Update! Thank you to those who have made the second run of my Plains-wanderer pin an outstanding success! I was able to meet up with Daniel Nugent over the weekend, the PhD researcher working on Plains-wanderers. We have now raised over $150 (and rapidly heading towards $200!) for his research project - a fantastic effort, and money which will be put to good use. He is hoping to acquire more tracking equipment in 2020, a goal to which this money will contribute.... It is very heartening to see that art can be used to actively support threatened species research in this way, and that when the opportunity arises, people are there to support the cause. To everyone who has bought pins, thank you so much! I will be doing much more pin work in the new year, continuing with Plains-wanderers and producing some new designs. I'm very excited to share that work with you, but if I'm being honest, that excitement is currently overshadowed by my excitement for a bit of a getaway. My wonderful partner Bonnie (Art of Bonnie Koopmans) and I have had a long year, and as celebration of being awarded our bachelor's degrees in natural history illustration, will be taking a well-earned nature break. **What this means is that my website store will be inactive from December 21st (this Saturday) to January 25th, as I will not be around to process orders** In the meantime, we hope to spend our time doing lots of field illustrations, and I will be doing some writing for my website blog. Keep an eye out! Thanks to everyone who has followed and supported my work this year. Have a wonderful Christmas if that's what you celebrate, and a happy new year!
10.01.2022 Wow!!! I'm blown away. I only have one Plains-wanderer pin left on the website. Thanks so, so much to everyone who bought them! You're amazing and thank you so much for supporting both my little endeavour and Plains-wanderer research. Please check your emails - your pins will be with you soon! I have to say, designing and making these pins is a bit addictive, and I feel like there's plenty more to be done - If I love designing pins, people like them, and the birds are benefit...ing from it... why not keep going? What I have in mind is a series of enamel pins covering a selection of Australia's endangered and critically endangered birds, with the same system of research donations in place for each species. I'd have to make them one species at a time, sales from each funding creation of the next, but if people like them as much as the Plains-wanderers it might not take long! What do you reckon? Should I do some more birds?
10.01.2022 PLAINS-WANDERER ENAMEL PINS!! *available very soon!* I've been keeping these quiet for a little while as they aren't quite ready to sell yet, but I'm too excited to sit on it any longer! ... Why pins? Because they're cool! And because I like taking my favourite birds around with me wherever I go. These came about as part of a uni project, and were a great opportunity to have a first go at pin-making, which I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Bird pins are conversation starters, and birds like Plains-wanderers (which are small, cryptic and critically endangered) need all the conversation they can get. Which is also why 10% of profits from selling them will go directly to supporting a Plains-wanderer research project (more details to come). In the long run I'd love to create a collection of pins showing threatened Australian birds. Unfortunately they aren't cheap to manufacture, so to make more designs I need to sell these ones! They should be ready to go in a couple of days - I have a new website in the works that will include an online shop, and they'll be available through that. Keep an eye out for a post this weekend! At the moment the Plains-wanderers are a 'limited edition' of under a hundred, but if enough people are interested I'll be making more #pin #enamelpin #birdpins #australianbirds #birdlifeaustralia #criticallyendangered #plainswanderer #threatenedspecies #artforconservation #naturalhistoryillustration #scientificillustration #birdart #sciart #art #illustration #julianteh
09.01.2022 A table full of orders ready to go! Thank you so much to everyone who has placed an order, I’m looking forward to getting your pins out to you as soon as possible! There are still plenty of Forty-spotted Pardalotes and Chestnut-breasted Whitefaces available in my shop, if you haven’t grabbed yours yet. Plains-wanderers are quickly running out though, so get in quick if you haven’t got one yet! They will be restocked, but given difficulties in manufacture and international pos...t, I can’t promise exactly when. For anyone overseas interested in pins, unfortunately I’m not currently sending orders outside Australia due to the long delays for letters and temporary closure of international parcel post. I’m keeping a close eye on it though, and as soon as I am once again able to send internationally with any level of reliability, I’ll be sure to post an update here .
09.01.2022 Prints and stickers for sale! I have a small number of Barn Owl and Sooty Owl prints left over from the UON twilight markets last week! They're A5 size and printed on a heavy Hahnemüule paper. I also have sets of four kingfisher stickers, featuring Common, Sacred, Forest and Rufous-backed! The stickers are round, each approx. 4cm across. ... The A5 prints are $10 each and the stickers are $4/pack (+postage). Send me a message if you’re interested!
08.01.2022 NEW ENAMEL PINS! At long last, the next two enamel pin designs are ready to be unveiled. Here they are! I’m delighted to announce that FORTY-SPOTTED PARDALOTE and CHESTNUT-BREASTED WHITEFACE are joining Plains-wanderer in the collection! I’m super excited about both of these designs, and I think they turned out great - it’s always a bit nerve-wracking waiting to see how your idea will look in the real world! I’m also very relieved to finally have them in my hands. The Forty-s...pot has been in the works since December! Just like the Plains-wanderer, a dollar from each pin sold will be donated to conservation research. For the Forty-spotted Pardalote funds will be sent to the Difficult Bird Research Group (https://www.difficultbirds.com) and for the Chestnut-breasted Whiteface, to Arid Recovery. They are available to purchase now through my website shop (www.julianteh.com.au/shop) at $10 each plus postage. Unfortunately given the current situation, I can only post within Australia with any degree of certainty, so international orders can’t be accepted at this stage. All three of my pin designs are open editions, meaning that I’ll produce as many of them as people are willing to buy. However, given all the delays experienced preparing these two designs, it could be some time before I’m able to restock. If you want a pin, get in quick!
08.01.2022 A very quick sketch of one of my favourite Australian birds, and one for which I am fortunate enough to have a relatively endless supply of reference material! Inland Dotterels are absolutely stunning desert waders that inhabit the barren, windswept grasslands, gibber plains and dustbowls of inland Australia. I first saw them in 2015 while hunting for Plains-wanderers in NSW, and since then have had something of an obsession with them. This little sketch was done from life th...e other day, and is the first of several dotterels I will be posting over the coming week. On another note, as I have somewhat fallen out of the drawing habit these last months, I treated myself to an early Christmas present the other day and bought myself a copy of the Laws Guide to Drawing Birds. What a fantastic book! Really got the inspiration going, and I highly recommend that anyone who likes drawing birds, whatever your level of experience, go check it out!
07.01.2022 Apologies for the lack of content! The things I'm working on are progressing pretty slowly, so hopefully some work-in-progress posts will satisfy in the meantime :) Here's a small concept sketch of a Diamond Firetail, the base on which a painting shall soon be built. It's one of a number of finches I'll be working on - I've been looking forward to this project for a while! I'll try to keep the updates regular Diamonds are among my favourite finch species. I've been lucky to see them a couple of times in the wild, and even banded some a few years ago. They were also lovely, placid birds in captivity, though sadly I didn't have them for long enough to convince them to breed.
07.01.2022 An update on the Corroboree Frog pins! I’ve been chatting to some amphibian allies, trying to decide on the best place to receive the conservation donations from my corroboree pins. I was pointed towards Amphibian Ark, a global organisation working towards the conservation of the worlds most threatened amphibians, including the Southern Corroboree, through captive breeding programs. Southern Corroborees are held in captivity at a handful of institutions including Taronga Zoo ...Sydney and Zoos Victoria, where these animals provide an essential backup population and a source for reintroduction efforts and research. If you’re interested in doing some further reading, check out the Amphibian Ark website or Facebook page (www.amphibianark.org), and the Corroboree Frog Research Program’s website (www.corroboreefrog.org.au) I have plenty of corroboree pins in stock, so head over to my website (www.julianteh.com.au - link in bio) and grab yours today to support frog conservation - and small-business artists!
04.01.2022 Break’s over! 2020 has begun! I’m now back from a month spent exploring the beautiful rainforests of Borneo, and it’s time to get back into the rhythm of drawing on a regular basis (and the much sadder rhythm of not eating Malaysian cooking on a regular basis). This was my second trip to Sabah, the Malaysian, northernmost state of Borneo. We also tacked on a few days in Peninsular Malaysian too, my first visit to the area. It’s a stunningly beautiful place, bursting with life... all begging to be drawn! Once I sort myself out, I’ll be sharing photos, drawings and snippets from the trip. Now that I’m home, it’s time to start thinking about the year ahead, and what I hope to accomplish from an illustration perspective. Already it’s shaping up to be an exciting year! To start off with, the 6-week course in Procreate that I’m tutoring alongside Art of Bonnie Koopmans (as part of NatureArt Lab - Art Classes in Canberra’s exceptional lineup of courses this term) will be starting on Wednesday here in Canberra. There are still a couple of spaces left in the class, so if you’re interested in joining us, get in quick! It’s going to be a fun dive into digital practice for natural history artists, from the very first steps in opening a Procreate file to finishing your own rendered piece. I can’t wait! Further details can be found on the NatureArt Lab website (https://natureartlab.com.au/collections/courses) As I mentioned, Borneo will likely feature in a lot of my work this year. I spent some time doing sketches and fieldwork over there, but found myself all too often wrapped up in the experiences of searching out birds, or simply enjoying the nature. I’ll be sketching for a while yet! This evening I’m planning to start work on my first full painting of the year, which will feature an iconic (though unusual) Bornean bird species. With the success of the Plains-wanderer pins last year, of course there will be more pins coming in 2020! I’ve set myself the challenge of completing 12 new designs over the course of the year, if I can afford to do so - which means I’d better get cracking! The first design is one I’ve had sitting in my pocket for a few months now, and I’m really excited to be sending it off to the manufacturers this week. You can see the silhouette below - what do you reckon it might be? Of course the Plains-wanderers are here to stay, and my shop has now reopened after my hiatus. Funds from the sale of those pins (as will be the case with the other designs I hope to make this year) are still going towards Dan Nugent’s Plains-wandering PhD. I’m really looking forward to taking my illustration skills up a notch in 2020, and can’t wait to share it all with you!
03.01.2022 They're here! It's time! Plains-wanderer enamel pins are now available in my brand-new online store at www.julianteh.com.au/shop. Cost is $10ea plus a few dollars postage within Australia. International orders are not currently supported through the website but can be arranged on request - just send me a message via the contact form. As I mentioned in my post earlier this week, purchasing a pin will directly contribute to conservation research. I'm very pleased to share that ...10% of profits from the purchase of each pin will go directly to PhD Candidate Daniel Nugent of La Trobe University (VIC). Dan is currently studying the movements, foraging behaviour, and habitat use of the Plains-wanderer, with the aim of improving our understanding of this cryptic and critically endangered species. Funds will go towards supporting this important research. For anyone interested in more specific details of the research or how the donation will be used, Dan is happy to have a chat - shoot me a message and I'll put you in touch. This is the first run of the pin, so stock is very limited. There seems to be plenty of interest so get in quickly! Don't worry though, if they sell out there will be a second run! My website is now on a new platform and contains new content, so take it for a spin while you're there and tell me what you think! If you find any errors, anomalies or gremlins please let me know and I'll get straight onto it. #pin #enamelpin #birdpins #australianbirds #birdlifeaustralia #criticallyendangered #plainswanderer #threatenedspecies #artforconservation #naturalhistoryillustration #scientificillustration #birdart #sciart #art #illustration #julianteh
02.01.2022 Owl prints! Just collected, cut and packaged some A5 prints of Greater Sooty and Eastern Barn Owls. These ones will be for sale at the University of Newcastle Twilight Markets on May 22nd, but I’m working on having prints of these (and others) available through Facebook and Instagram soon!
