Bright-eyed Crabs on Christmas Island
Chiromantes garfunkel - tiny, purple, bright yellow eyes and endemic to Christmas Island
The crabs on Christmas island were really fabulous - there are just so many of them, and so many interesting different kinds of crabs.
A question I'd been asking myself lately though is whether I'd only really noticed them there because they are such a feature of the island, and you really can't go a day without seeing a crab. You also can't go a day without seeing a sea bird but that's for another time. This post is really about painting these crabs on little mini canvasses.
These bright-eyed crabs are tiny! Tiny tiny! They're only 1.5 - 2.5 cm wide, and they are so easy to miss. Scott first noticed them near Ethel beach, in and amongst the little karst rocks behind the beach, and once I saw one, suddenly a whole world opened up and I saw them everywhere! This is a feeling I'd grown accustomed to on Christmas Island.
Photo by:
Photo by:
Crab poking out from tiny hole in the rocks
There were numerous occasions when we'd been somewhere - a beach, the blowholes, the dales, and when we'd stopped to look or listen, the sheer amount of life was staggering. From seeing tens of crabs crawling in a place you just walked past without noticing them at all, to hearing the sounds of so many different birds and insects in a minute, the feeling of being surprised by how little I'd noticed even when I had been actively looking often hit me in the face and made me stop in my tracks. These crabs were one of those moments.
And, a few weeks later, I experienced the exact same feeling, with the same species but this time at the Dales, where there were so many of them, and it felt like they had even brighter eyes than the ones at Ethel.
Their colouring is mainly a beautiful dark indigo-purpley colour, with their claws usually a much lighter grey-purple. Their eyes are of course a bright yellow, true to their name. They're named Chiromantes garfunkel after the song Art Garfunkel sung 'Bright eyes'. This site (and the fabulous book) by Max Orchard provides a bit more information on these gorgeous crabs.
Quick Sketches in Watercolour Pencil to Understand Shape
We didn't quite have the time for on-location sketches, but just to get the shape of them down, I had to do some quick watercolour pencil sketches (which I've loved the watercolour pencils for). Here are some of these very rough sketches.
Daniel Smith Watercolour Ground on Mini-Canvasses
When someone on the island was getting rid of these mini canvasses they hadn't used, I thought I could probably do something with them. I'd ordered some watercolour ground and thought it'd be a great way to use it - on these mini canvasses, with mini crabs on them.
3 coats of watercolour ground later, the canvasses were ready, and I had a ton of fun painting these for a few days. I'll do a longer post about the watercolour ground another time, but a quick takeaway was that the ground absorbed a lot more paint than paper, so a few extra layers were needed to build up colour.
EcoCrab Industries on Christmas Island
They were sold, with half of purchase price going to Christmas Island's awesome social enterprise Eco Crab Industries which is the only recycling centre on the island. Do check them out - they're doing an amazing job, and we spent quite a lot of our time on the island volunteering with them. Ocean plastic is a real problem on some of Christmas Island's beaches (gorgeous though they are), and Eco Crab does regular beach cleanups, cleans and recycles the plastics so they can be given a new life and not end up in the oceans or landfill again. You can also purchase some awesome recycled plastic goods (coasters, bowls, pots) as well as some of my art from them.
Disclosure Note: I am not paid or sponsored by them for this. I do have paintings at Eco Crab to sell. I have previously volunteered for Eco Crab Industries and think it is an excellent organisation doing wonderful, important work for the Christmas Island environment.
Anna Mason Rosemary and Co Brushes
Another new to me supply at the time that came in really handy were these tiny Anna Mason Rosemary and Co brushes. I was able to get a lot more detail on this really small canvasses with these brushes. Below is a quick image of some of the strokes these brushes produce. I may do a longer article on this set another time, but for now, I like them, and reach for them when I want to do some detailed work. That said, because they're not travel brushes, I find I don't reach for them as much as I would if I painted in a studio where I could always have them out and to hand.
