Terrain Training Tuesday: The Arctic Part 4

OK so you’re in the Arctic, you’ve made a base camp, eaten til you’re full and now you’re bored.  My personal preference is to jump upon my sled and ride triumphantly out of the snow blizzard amazing and baffling locals with my ultimate survival skills ('Where the hell did them dogs come from?!'). Mwahhahahaha!!!

For those who aren't me unfortunately it looks like the rescue attempt has failed (people can be SO useless!), so you have made the decision to take matters into your own capable hands and to walk your way out. Make sure you lay your plans carefully and then stick to them. What course you decide to follow should be determined largely by your location and the terrain.

In mountainous or wooded areas, your best course, unless you know exactly where you are and have some definite destination, will be to FOLLOW STREAMS AND RIVERS DOWNSTREAM. They will lead you eventually either to some godforsaken post of civilization or to the coast where your chances of finding food and a native village will be good. There is just one exception to this rule - in Siberia (of course), rivers and streams should be FOLLOWED UPSTREAM. The rivers in Siberia flow north, while civilization is to the south.

DON'T WANDER AIMLESSLY. Use your compass to maintain a general direction, but don't try to travel in a straight line. Follow the contours of the land for the easiest going in the general direction that you want to go. If you have no pocket compass, you can make one

WHEN YOU CAMP, camp on the mountains and not in the valleys. Slopes and ridges in the Arctic are always warmer than the valleys.

In thick woods, BLAZE A TRAIL on the trees as you go, just in case you have to double back on your course.

Different Blaze trail makers, yeah who's a survival expert now?!

PLENTY OF FOOD AND REST is the secret of Arctic travel, particularly in the winter. Don't rush, cook at least one hot meal a day, and be sure to get adequate sleep. You can survive many days without food if you relax and avoid exhaustion, DON'T WORRY ABOUT FREEZING TO DEATH WHILE YOU SLEEP. Unless you are exhausted you will wake up before you freeze.  

  See?! Easy!

Barnaby Ward aka Somefield

Baranby Ward is a bit elusive, he has a website but it doesn't tell us much except he lives in Barbados and seems to be really laidback.  I did manage to find this excerpt from an interview with a link that doesn't exist anymore:


With the girls and ani­mals pieces, I’m not try­ing to tell a spe­cific story so much as cre­ate a sense of empa­thy. I wanted to cre­ate an obvi­ous emo­tional con­nec­tion between the girl and the ani­mal, which I’m hop­ing shows that there’s a rela­tion­ship there, and a sense of his­tory. There’s not much more to it than that. But I think the com­bi­na­tion of these ele­ments allows the viewer to project their own ideas onto the piece. There’s enough 
sug­ges­tion that I’m hop­ing it stim­u­lates people’s imaginations.

I find his stuff interesting as well because he draws mainly straight onto his computer, apparently he finds it more stress free, completely opposite to me, yet they have a great scratchy, hand drawn feel.  He's awesome!

Terrain Training Tuesday: The Arctic Part 3

Ah, I love survival in the Arctic because the main philosophy behind survival is to eat as much fat as you can. This is because fat is a heat-producing food and very important to your health in the cold conditions.

Yep, the ultimate fat eater Jabba the Hutt.  That and I'm trying to include a Star Wars image in each Arctic entry....

FOR THE MEAT LOVERS

Now in the winter months, animals and fish will be about your only source of natural food. The caribou provides the best meat of the land animals and the seal provides the best of the sea animals.

Source

The best parts of the caribou for eating are the head, brisket, ribs, backbone, and pelvis. As for seals, there is little preference between the various parts, although most white people prefer the liver, boiled or even frozen and raw. The heart and the kidneys provide good meat for stews.

Polar bear is very likely to be tough and stringy if cooked. It is more tender if eaten raw and frozen. AVOID POLAR BEAR LIVERS, THEY ARE POISONOUS. Actually it’s probably best to avoid them all together, I suspect it will be more trouble than it is worth and you will probably be killed and eaten yourself.  This we do not want.

Now because of the importance of fats, under no conditions limit yourself to a meat diet of rabbit just because they happen to be plentiful. Rabbits are generally so lean that in order to get enough energy out of them you have to eat a little too much for comfort. Try to supplement your diet with other things.

Some Arctic birds are well supplied with fat - notably ducks, geese and swans. These water birds all go through a two or three week flightless period while they are moulting in midsummer. The best known winter birds are the ptarmigan, or snow partridge, which is rarely fat; the white owl, which usually is fat and tasty; and the raven, which is tough, as it should be. Make a point of finding all the gull and tern colonies you can. Here you will be able to get a good supply of eggs and birds, usually on cliffs and edge areas.

Source

On the average, all fish have enough fat to make them good Arctic food. The liver of the cod, for example, is an extremely good form of fat and can be eaten boiled.  Mmmmm...boiled cod liver......you know you want it.

Although complete protection from scurvy can be had from a prolonged meat-and-fat diet, the roughage value of greens is important. In an emergency, almost any local green, pleasant to the taste and succulent enough to be swallowed, can be eaten.  Hmm, me thinks we should have included salt and pepper to our survival kit....

FOR THE VEGETARIANS

Lucky for us, there are no poisonous flowering plants or grasses in the Arctic. The only poisonous Arctic fungus is easily recognized by its yellowish red cap. All other Arctic fungi found above the northern timberline are edible. Hurrah! Note: Despite this good news I have no idea how you are going to get the fat you need to survive, all I can say is good luck....

WATER

If you are stranded at sea, ice that is a year or more old can be used for drinking or cooking water. Old ice can be distinguished from the current year's ice by its rounded corners and by its bluish colour in contrast to the milkish grayishness of salt ice. Ice a year old rarely has only noticeable saltiness, while ice two or three years old is generally fresher than spring water. In the summer, fresh water can be found in the hollows in old ice. Water fresh enough for drinking can be found even in the hollows on new ice, which itself is salty in midsummer.

On land, drinking and cooking water offers no great problem. In the winter it is perfectly safe to eat snow or cracked ice in small quantities during the day when you are travelling and don't want to take the time necessary to melt it down. Eaten in large quantities, however, it chills the stomach and reduces your body temperature.

When melting down snow or ice, don't fill the pot at once. If you do, the snow on top will soak up the first water like a blotter and leave a cavity directly over the heated bottom of the pot and the pot may burn through. This is particularly so when, as the case probably will be, you are using tin cans for cooking containers. When possible, always melt ice for water, it requires less heat and takes less time.

Fear Da Robots

A great bit of graffiti spotted near Vic Markets in Melbourne.  Look at all them robots!  Though there is a distinct leaning to Doctor Who...

Terrain Training Tuesday: The Arctic Part 2

As previously mentioned, tents are a colder option to snow shelters, but if this is your choice try to do your cooking outside the tent flap as fires and tents do not mix.


Snow shelters come in all shapes and sizes. Whichever one you build will depend upon your time and how much effort you want to put into it, an important consideration if you are solo. The type and depth of snow will also put limitations upon your shelter.

Planet Hoth, the perfect place to set up your snow base and make friends with the local inhabitants...

The Snow Trench

This is an emergency measure, as it is basically a hole in the snow. This could be improved by a roof either of snow (if the snow is hard enough) or of branches or sheeting if it is not.

The Snow Cave

For this one you’re going to need at least 2 metres of snow depth. You may also need some tools to dig through the snow and sometimes the snow will be too hard. However the most important thing to remember when digging a snow cave is to always make sure that the roof is domed, otherwise you will wake up with it on your head in the morning and no one wants that.

The Snow Igloo

Now making a snow igloo takes time and effort to construct, as well as a bit of skill in the placement of the blocks but they are also super cool. You will need cold, compacted snow and tools, such as an axe, a knife and a saw or a spade. Cut out the blocks and build it from the base up, in a spiral that is angled inwards. Awesome!

If this is too much work, there is an easier (and faster) way. Firstly, stamp down an area of snow, then build up a mound of hard, packed snow. When you get it to the required size simply dig a tunnel into it. Alternatively, arrange some branches or sticks into a frame and pack snow on top of it. Whala! Snow igloo! Note: take care to make your entrance hole on the less windy size. The cold wind will still come in but it will stay at the base of the igloo, so make sure your bed is raised, just like in the Jungle.

In tree country, wood for heating and cooking fires is no problem. Various types of fires and fireplaces can be used as seen below. Shield your fire from the wind and don't build it directly on the ice or snow. The melting snow will wet the wood and reduce the heat of your fire. Build it on a crib of wood or metal.

And if all else fails just place a candle in the centre of the shelter to drastically increase the warmth of the shelter without all the meltiness (is that a word?!).

Next week we finally get to eat!

Yoshitomo Nara Sake

I saw these on the Hello Sandwich blog and felt the need to share them with you. Yoshitomo Nara sake!  How cool is that?! And then when you are finished they can be used as drinking glasses!  I love sake, when I was in Japan I bought some which had a print on the reverse labels saying 'cup of happiness'... mmmm...definately....

Terrain Training Tuesday: Ice Ice baby Part 1

Survival Kit top up: anything that promotes warmth and shelter (though tents are colder that snow shelters so plan to make an igloo or snow cave if you’re going to have the time), some tools such as an axe, knife and spade, and if there is room extra fishing stuff. Oh and goggles if you can...and did I mention warm stuff?


As with all extreme conditions you have to be aware of the weather and treat it with respect, regardless of how good your equipment is. In the Arctic, even when it is sunny, temperatures can fall to as little as -40 degrees Celsius. Human skin starts to freeze at -37 so first thing is to take care that exposed areas, such as your poor nose and ears are not freezing. Wind chill is another thing to be aware of as this increases your chance of getting frostbite.

Your clothes should be loose enough to allow a free circulation of air so that your perspiration can evaporate. If it doesn't, it will form frost inside your clothes and you will be well on your way to freezing and frostbite, and keep your clothes and your socks dry. Now survival is tough work but try to avoid becoming overheated as excess of perspiration will mean wet clothing and drying them in sub-zero weather is difficult. If you get wet, change to dry clothing as soon as possible. Frost can be removed by turning the garment inside out and beating it with a stick. If you are caught in the unfortunate situation of no clothes try to dry your clothes a few pieces at a time with the heat from a fire build a rack to hold them.

The Arctic produces severe conditions such as ‘white-outs’ which means, like the Jungle at night, no one moves. To avoid snow blindness you can make yourself a pair of cool goggles out of wood, don’t make them out of metal as it will freeze to your face. Just cut the wood out (use bark if necessary) and cut slits for your eyes to see out of (yeah, total survival coolness, look at us now, rockin' the Tron look).

Yeah, look at us go, we're either in the Arctic or an extra from the filmclip to 'Video Killed the Radio Star'

As an additional precaution against snow blindness, blacken your cheeks and the bridge of your nose with soot, charcoal, or dirty engine oil. The blackening will help cut down reflection.

REMEMBER: SNOWBLINDNESS CAN OCCUR DURING A BRIGHT OVERCAST AS QUICKLY AS DURING SUNNY WEATHER, so make sure you pack some cool goggles otherwise you run the risk of being rescued in the DIY goggles, not a good look despite the Eighties Revolution currently happening.

Tomer Hanuka

Tomer Hanuka is an illustrator and a cartoonist based in New York City. He’s lucky enough to work on a range of projects for magazines, book publishers, ad agencies and film studios including The New Yorker, D.C comics, Nike and Microsoft. He has won multiple gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and the Society of Publication designers.  For readers of Juxtapoz magazine you will already be familiar with his work.

In 2008 a book cover he created won the British Design Museum award as part of the Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary for which Tomer contributed art along with his brother, was nominated for an Oscar in 2009, and won the Golden Globe that same year.

I like it.

April Sketchbook

I've been playing around with my pencils this month.  While I love the clean linework of  HiiRagi, I've been itching to do some messier pencil drawings that may be used on some cards and paper products I have planned.  I've also had plenty of inspiration for the military books I've been finding around the place, especially the transport vehicles.

 Helicopter action

 Recon Unit in the Snow Mobile

The infinately useful amphibious vehicle

I'm finding it hard to pick just one, which one is your favourite?

Terrain Training Tuesday: The Jungle Part 5

Oh yeah, time to pull out the machete!!!

It is nearly impossible to travel through the jungle in a straight line. You will have to make your way through streams and rivers, game trails, dry watercourses and ridges. Cutting through thick foliage is both time consuming and tiring, so make use of native trails when you find them and save the machete for when other peple can see you at your survival best. However if you do this ensure that you are fully alert as potential enemies may also be using them (the trails that is, not a machete). Another point to make is that dangerous jungle animals, like the ones below, will also use them at night so best to stick to day time hours unless you want a rumble on your hands when you will be least prepared...

Don't be fooled by the innocent stares, these animals are trained killers....

Movement in jungles can be very tiring, dense undergrowth can make it nearly impossible to cut a path through and is generally very exhausting. Many sharp leaved plants can cut clothing or unprotected hands and the slightest cut can quickly become hideously infected in such humid conditions. Navigation is particularly difficult as a clear view of your surrounding is often impossible, so normal techniques of compass navigation such as taking bearings off terrain features are useless as the dense undergrowth prevents line of sight. Modern technology can help with the use of a GPS, bear in mind these are for the weak who deserve to be ridiculed for their lack of survival skills. Although such systems can help provide accurate navigation in a jungle environment they are not with some major drawbacks. Firstly deep jungle valleys and dense canopy can actually block the system from getting a signal from enough satellites to pin point your position, and secondly most systems rely on batteries, which have a limited life span, which is further reduced in the hot, humid conditions. However trying to obtain the correct batteries from a jungle village would most likely provide the locals with a source of amusement and hopefully a meal of protein rich insects and maybe a way out of the Jungle, so it may be worth it.


Now as I have mentioned a million times before, the Jungle is very wet with many rivers which can be fast flowing and contain harmful parasites or dangerous crocodiles, snakes and poisonous fish (but as we know all HiiRagi minions will laugh in the face of danger!). Bridges are rare and prone to being washed away in flash floods. Heavy rain can produce rapid bank erosion and white water rapids or heavy vegetation can block and slow rivers producing swamps. Most native peoples make use of shallow canoes and use the rivers as the natural highways. When in search of rescue or aid remaining close to a clearly navigable river can be a wise course of action, especially as most settlements will be near such waterways.

Psychologically the jungles constant wall of green and low light levels beneath the canopy can seriously affect motivation and the sounds of the nocturnal animals can also be disturbing for those not used to them. All this said many native peoples around the world have learned to adapt and even thrive in such conditions; the jungle is neutral as the title of one famous book states, meaning that it is not your enemy unless you make it so by battling against it.

So remember don’t fight the Jungle, go with it.

Bento Box Egg Moulds for Breakfast

It's no secret I love Japanese stuff, particualy food.  Lately it has been Bento Boxes, the totally cute lunch boxes with a million gimmicks and yes, as such I have bought quite a few but more on that later.  To the matter at hand, I was at a loss to decide what I wanted for breakfast yesterday when my Agent sidekick suggested putting my fabulous, yet unused, bento box goodies to use.  Oh yeah!  So out came my brand spanking new egg moulds:

Yep, that's right egg moulds in the shape of a bunny and a bear...only in Asia....Anyway, I boiled my two eggs (the sidekick had declared they weren't hungry), one for each  mould.  Things were getting VERY exciting.  Once boiled you crack them open and force...sorry... place the egg into the mould and then pop it into cold water for about 10 minutes and VOILA! Egg mould!  I have to say it was pretty easy except when my egg didn't want to go ito the shape of a bunny and had to be... shall we say... persuaded into the process.  This resulted in a bit of an explosion out the sides of the mould and a foot stamp.  Sidekick decided to be hungry at this stage and took over the bear which just happened to fit perfectly (dammit!) and looked smug.  You know when you could just hit someone....

Anyhow, 10 minutes later when all seemed to be working against me, the bunny and bear emerged beautiful!

The bears!

The bunnies!

 The only problem was I had to share....