h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For those who don't know the story: over three weeks ago my old monitor broke. A couple of days ago I got a whole new computer. The big problem was that without a good monitor I can't scan in and edit my pictures without a high quality monitor. The new computer does have a great monitor, but I don't have the software on it that I had on the old one. Well yesterday I tried installing my scanner software without success. I tried again today, using an old disc I managed to dig out. It worked! Even though my computer insists that there are compatability problems with the old program and this version of Windows, I still got the program to run. This is a scanning and basic photo editing program called PhotoStudio. And here is the result: finally again I managed to scan in a sketch!

http://i360.photobucket.com/albums/oo45/WillemvdMerwe/Illustrations%20General/Drill1b.jpg

As you can conclude I also managed to return to my old Photobucket site on which I uploaded that picture.

Anybody know just what that is? Monkey, yes, but what kind?

So: a modest victory, still not completely out of the woods. That was just a small sketch that I can scan in in a single 'take'. Many of my paintings are too big and have to be scanned in piece by piece, and then I have to put all the pieces together without the 'stitches' showing. I don't know if PhotoStudio can do that. But I've bought a Photoshop program as well... I will try and install it tomorrow. I am quite afraid of that, because I fear it might be very different from the old Photoshop program I used, and will have to learn a bunch of new stuff. But at least I can use Photostudio for the basic stuff. And maybe the new program will give me new and useful tools. I'll tackle that tomorrow and tell you how it went.

That was fast work - and great.

I think that's a babboon? (Or a monkey dressed as Dracula for Halloween...)

You have my admiration for being able to use all that fancy Photoshop stuff.

Gosh,I'm not up on my primates. Is that a drill Willem?

Does this help?
http://free-extras.com/images/angry_baboon-385.htm

there are different types of Baboons but color makes a big difference...

I don't know what sort of monkey it is. A gibbon? Whatever, he is a bit fierce with those teeth.

Fantastic sketch Willem, and I am relieved to hear that you're successfully overcoming the problems of new computer and software. This is always stressful for me too.

Hi everyone! That is indeed a kind of baboon, specifically a Drill. AE Hill's link shows a Mandrill, which is its closest relative. Mandrills are frequently seen in zoos, but drills hardly ever. It is one species for which one needs to know the scientific name, Mandrillus leucophaeus, if one is to find pictures of it online. Otherwise one will only find images of tools.

Here is a colour picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drill_male.png

Whew ... I managed to do that as well! The new browser is different so copying and pasting links is also different.

Today I'll try installing my new Photoshop program and see what I can do with that.

A next challenge: taking a picture that needs two separate scans, and then joining the two pieces together seamlessly.

Websailor

Willem, evidently Cape Town has been invaded with some sort of baboons. Since you got a spiffy new computer, here is the video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19954424


Not sure what you can do to train the tourists not to feed them though. You really don't want to get them too used to humans with canines like that.

Hi Everyone! Today I installed my Photoshop program and used it to do a bit of editing on another scanned-in painting. I won't link the painting here because I'm sending it in for Colours of Wildlife tomorrow! That went fairly well although I had some hair-raising experiences installing the program and getting it to work. But I hope I'll learn it. I haven't yet tried pasting together the two halves of a big painting ... maybe tomorrow, after I've done my writing and sketching/painting.

Hi Elektra! Those are Chacma baboons of course of which I had written here:

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/A87766564

I mention the Drill there right at the end as well. I really want to write about this very rare forest baboon. I'll have to do a full-colour painting of my own, and perhaps another sketch or two. Then something about Mandrills as well ... I would never sketch them in black-and-white though ... they are perhaps the most colourful of all monkeys - indeed, possibly the most colourful of all mammals! Whereas the Drill has a more monochrome colour scheme apart from its red lip and brightly coloured buttocks.

Man, I have to cover many more African monkeys. These little things are so pretty, and *so* poorly known! Did you guys know that almost *every damn time* a monkey (as in the small long-tailed kind, rather than an ape such as a chimp) appears in a movie, it is a Capuchin Monkey from South America? Whether the movie is supposed to be in Africa or anywhere else. Meantime we have something like thirty different wonderful monkey species here, many of them colourful, some quite spectacular.

I used to work with a lady who grew up in Madagascar. She spoke French and German, and I always got stories from her when I needed to borrow her Afrikans dictionary.

She had wonderful tales about growing up with monkeys everywhere.

I agree that it's annoying in the films. I always think, 'No! Show us a Kaiser Wilhelm monkey!' I love lemurs.