iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Thanks, the Philip Ball books look amazing

Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Thanks for the encouragement and advice. I've got a ton to learn. Most of the time I'm just trying to see what's possible with the medium. It's difficult. I learned right away that it pays to get good supplies and paper.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Long time since I posted a #SundayFishSketch. All my previous art was digital. I was challenged to dabble in watercolour and here's a first attempt. Blue Tang. #SciArt

Simple watercolour of a blue Tang, mostly blue body, yellow tail and top of pectoral fins, black swirls on body.

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Reposted by Robert Wolfe, Ph.D.

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

Happy Crablentine's Day everyone. Calappa calappa x Phalaenopsis amabilis Coenobita rugosus x Macodes petola Paromola cuvieri x Paphiopedilum sanderianum Allogalathea elegans x Vanda suavis #Art #SciArt

Calappa, a dome-shaped crab in dark color, seen from the front. Behind its body and in front, hiding its claws and most of its face, are phalaenopsis, moth orchids with roughly circular shape, in lighter colors. Black and white drawing.

Coenobita, a bright-colored hermit crab barely out of a white round shell, looking adorable. Under and around it are leaves of Macodes jewel orchids, dark leaves with white streaks. Behind it are stalks of flower buds of the plant. Black and white drawing.

Paromola, a crab with long legs and spikes all over. The last pair of its legs are small and pointing up like carrying a tray. It's carrying a whole plant of Paphiopedilum slipper orchid in bloom. The four flowers have pitcher-like structures and long ribbony bits that trail very far downwards. Black and white drawing.

Four Allogalathea crabs sitting on the petals of a flower. The crabs are shaped like lobsters with folded tail and black and white stripy bodies. The Vanda orchid flower is mostly white with black spots all over. Black and white drawing.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

Single line drawing of a red swordtail for this week's #SundayFishSketch theme. #SciArt

A very rough single line sketch of a red swordtail

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

A drawing of a ruffe, species uncertain. They are invasive in the Great Lakes and outcompetes several native fish. #SundayFIshSketch. #SciArt

Drawing of a Ruffe, invasive to the Great Lakes. This fish has a large spiked dorsal fin, and is mostly beige with blue green speckles in its lower body.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

For #Invertefest An ox beetle, I think. Strategist sp. This one flies around at night as if blind, bumping into things and buzzing around wildly. Quite large, maybe an inch long.

An almost black flying beetle with sharp looking point legs.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 16/12/2024

This week's #SundayFishSketch riddle... Rainbow dace=red horse minnow=red shiner... There's probably a few more name variants. #SciArt

A face or shiner, active fish, schooling, male in breeding color is pinkish brown, with blue edged scales and reddish fins. Blue patch near and on gills.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I started a Chinook Salmon sketch for the #SundayFishSketch riddle. Couldn't decide if it was Chinook, Coho or Kokanee Salmon, or maybe another... All wrong, but I completed the sketch anyway. #SciArt

A leaping Chinook Salmon. Beige speckled back, pinkish sides, and a grey belly. A large hooked beak mouth.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

I tried to write about them but the bsky text length limit got in the way. It's really cool mimicry.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Spotted an 8 inch blue crab in a pond near Naples FL. Reminded me of one I sketched a while back. 🦀🦑 #SciArt #MarineLife

A photo of an 8 inch algae covered blue crab, spotted near Naples FL

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Eurasian Ruffe, Gymnocephalus cernua, for #SundayFishSketch theme of "blue". It's not really very blue, but has blue shades on its fins and belly. Unfortunately this is an invasive species in North America, outcompeting many native fish. I drew this as part of a study of invasive species.

Eurasian Ruffe, an invasive species in North America. It is beige with grey blue fins and belly.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 10/11/2024

A Round Goby posted for #SundayFishSketch #SciArt This is an invasive species in North America. See www.invadingspecies.com/invaders/fis...

A Round Goby, invasive to North America. Brownish to orange, with dark brown to black markings.

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Reposted by Robert Wolfe, Ph.D.

Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

Didn't have much time to draw today. A very rough sketch of a moutherbreeder Chiclid with some fry. No particular species. This is for the #SundsyFishSketch theme of "family". Mouthbreeders protect their fry in their mouth! #SciArt

A quick pencil sketch of a mouthbreeder and 4 fry near its mouth. They protect their fry in their mouth without swallowing them... Most of the time.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 21/10/2024

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 14/10/2024

Here's my take for this week's #SundayFishSketch .. my overlay on a photo of a fossil Pycnodontiformes. #SciArt

A sketch of a beige fish, Pycnodontiformes, overlaid on a photo of its fossil. The color beige is an assumption only.

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Reposted by Robert Wolfe, Ph.D.

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 10/10/2024

Portrait of a 'Pede Everyone's favorite giant millipede, Arthropleura, finally has a face 150+ years after its discovery. Most notably: it had crab-like eyestalks. This is my unofficial take of the situation. #Art #SciArt

light beige giant millipede against a dark background. its rearing up like a cobra to show its underside, chompy chompers, and many many legs

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

I meant Batesian mimicry rather than Bayesian.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 07/10/2024

For this week's #SundayFishSketch with a theme of mimicry. I drew a Corydoras duplicareus catfish. In the wild, these may exhibit as many as 3 types of mimicry... Crypsis, Bayesian and Mullerian. And they really are cute. #SciArt Reference cefishessentials.com/blog/corydor...

A Corydoras catfish, light cream colored, a dark back and black vertical band through its eye. It exhibits 3 types of mimicry.

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Reposted by Robert Wolfe, Ph.D.

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 16/09/2024

This is technically last week's #InsertAnInvert2024 theme, mesopelagic, representing a slipper lobster (Scyllaridae) larva riding a jellyfish (Pelagia noctiluca). They are part of the largest migration on earth every night from the deep sea. I experienced this blackwater diving earlier this year 🧪🦑

Phyllosoma larva riding a jellyfish, rendered in watercolor pencil, mostly blues purples and pinks. Accents in neon orange and pink pen

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 01/09/2024

Keeping with this week's #SundayFishSketch theme of "fangs", here is a needle fish common to tropical reefs. It has a long snout with small teeth (fangs?) to snare it's food, usually smaller fish. #SciArt

A common reef fish, a needle nose, mottled blue in color. It has a long snout with tiny teeth and snares its food.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 20/08/2024

A bit late for #SundayFishSketch... In the theme of schooling, 3 neon tetras, my favorite schooling aquarium tank fish. Or maybe I prefer other tetras, too difficult to decide. #SciArt

Three colorful neon tetras in front of a mottled green background. Neons have bright blue and red longitudinal strips. They school together with sharp rapid movement.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 30/06/2024

A goby for #SundayFishSketch. Not sure what the theme is this week, but I had this sketch hanging around. #SciArt

A goby that spends most of the time on sand at the bottom of the water column. This one is brown and orange with spiky fins.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 16/06/2024

It hid under the substrate. It was lost and we couldn't figure out where it went.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 16/06/2024

A horseface loach for this week's #SundayFishSketch theme of fish from Thailand. We had one in our aquarium... It disappeared for 2 years, then arrived as king of the tank. #SciArt

A long slender fish with a vaguely shaped horse head, ie elongated. Beige with some dark spots and many little darker species. They spend most of their time under the substrate, but do appear periodically.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 20/05/2024

Like I said, a bit of artistic licence was involved.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 19/05/2024

#SundayFishSketch #SciArt A drawing of a "crappie" (sun fish) from the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal. Perhaps a bit of artistic license involved

A sketch of a Sun Fish, mottled, with a combination of mustard brown and sky blue. A characteristic black-red spot on its hills. Fins blue and extended.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 10/05/2024

Mitten Crab for #InsertAnInvert2024 . Native to parts of South Asia, they are considered an invasive species and banned in many other parts of the world. #SciArt

A blue-green rounded shell, brown long spindly and slightly hairy legs, and fluffy covered claws... Looking like mittens

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 10/05/2024

A blue crab drawing for #insertaninvert2024, Callinectes Sapidus. Blue crabs are nasty, and being swimming crabs, can move relatively freely. #sciart

This shows a swimming blue crab. It has a mottled blue color, with small reddish claws.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 17/03/2024

A drawing of 2 green killifish for #SundayFishSketch This is a brackish water fish that I often see in temporary ponds. #SciArt

Two greenish, beige female killifish swimming beside each other. They are fairly plain looking, but common in brackish water ponds.

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 11/03/2024

For this week's Insert an Invert. Zebra mussels, a freshwater scourge. I drew these as part of a diorama of invasive species in northern fresh water systems. #InsertAnInvert2024

About a dozen zebra mussels originally drawn as part of a diorama. They show different shades of brown stripes, some reddish. In the diorama they are clinging to an old, discarded rusty pipe, but that's not in this post.

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Reposted by Robert Wolfe, Ph.D.

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · 22/01/2024

@franzanth.bsky.social refused to suggest tardigrade for #InsertAnInvert2024 but the googledoc for "around logs" mentions mosses. Which is where tardigrades are found! They are indeed all around us 🥰

Watercolor pencil drawing of a generic eutardigrade with a few moss bits around it. It's meant to look like you are seeing it through a microscope

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Robert Wolfe, Ph.D. @techie54.bsky.social · 30/12/2023

Also for #invertefest, I can't leave out the monarch caterpillar

As a kid, I used to try to keep these in a shoebox with some leaves

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