Alex Barley
Scientist by day, artist by night.
Disorientation
Illustrations for a 2017 Earth Archives article on deimatic or startle displays "Shock and Awe: the animal kingdom's stunning displays." The article featured three species with eye-catching displays. The humpback whale was originally included to discuss non-visual methods of disorientation like ocean noise pollution impacting cetacean migration patterns, but that part didn't make the final article.
A female mountain katydid shows off her shocking surprise colours.
Blue ringed octopus flashing the namesake display.
Sun bittern in a defensive posture displaying eyespots on wings.
Mother and calf humpback whale, not in final article.
All the pieces without the distracting (no pun intended) backgrounds.