Okay, so it's not exactly pets... but it's animals!
This was painted for a very dear friend, Kim, who sent me a TON of fleece and fur scraps for dog tugs. Not only that, but I've known her for years and she has always been the one to try and give me that push out of my comfort zone, to explore new art territory and see what happens. I made her a HUGE piece. Half barter for the tug supplies, bigger half because she's been so awesome to me all these years.
When I asked her about what art she wanted for the barter, she gave me open ended topics about stuff she likes. Two of those things were "sea creatures" and "prehistoric stuff".
Since I'm a bit of a paleontology buff in my spare time, I went with combining those topics. Out of that, came this!
It's a big painting of a bunch of seabeasts from the Devonian period (the period best known as when fish evolved legs and came onto land).
Details:
The big guy in the front is Dunkleosteus, biggest armored fish ever to live, its teeth were just big shards of bone and it was pretty much the terror of the sea. Big guy in the back is Titanichthys, a whale-like placoderm. The small sharks are Ctenacanthus, some of the earliest sharks (Kim's favorite animal). The weird little armored fish near the top are Bothriolepis. The tiny dudes about to be nommed by Mr. Dunky are Coccosteus, which are oddly enough related to Titanichthys.
The blue fish in the centre, Coelacanth, are a bit of a cheat because scientists THINK they lived since the Devonian age, but they may have appeared later than that instead. I added them anyway because a) they look cool and b) they're STILL SURIVING TODAY despite long thought to be extinct since the Cretaceous period. You can't deny that's pretty badass.
Anyways, I wanted to share because this has been weeks of work in the making and is one of the more complex pieces I've ever done. I had a blast exploring the painting style... I might try some pet portraits in that style and see how they fare.
This was painted for a very dear friend, Kim, who sent me a TON of fleece and fur scraps for dog tugs. Not only that, but I've known her for years and she has always been the one to try and give me that push out of my comfort zone, to explore new art territory and see what happens. I made her a HUGE piece. Half barter for the tug supplies, bigger half because she's been so awesome to me all these years.
When I asked her about what art she wanted for the barter, she gave me open ended topics about stuff she likes. Two of those things were "sea creatures" and "prehistoric stuff".
Since I'm a bit of a paleontology buff in my spare time, I went with combining those topics. Out of that, came this!
It's a big painting of a bunch of seabeasts from the Devonian period (the period best known as when fish evolved legs and came onto land).
Details:
The big guy in the front is Dunkleosteus, biggest armored fish ever to live, its teeth were just big shards of bone and it was pretty much the terror of the sea. Big guy in the back is Titanichthys, a whale-like placoderm. The small sharks are Ctenacanthus, some of the earliest sharks (Kim's favorite animal). The weird little armored fish near the top are Bothriolepis. The tiny dudes about to be nommed by Mr. Dunky are Coccosteus, which are oddly enough related to Titanichthys.
The blue fish in the centre, Coelacanth, are a bit of a cheat because scientists THINK they lived since the Devonian age, but they may have appeared later than that instead. I added them anyway because a) they look cool and b) they're STILL SURIVING TODAY despite long thought to be extinct since the Cretaceous period. You can't deny that's pretty badass.
Anyways, I wanted to share because this has been weeks of work in the making and is one of the more complex pieces I've ever done. I had a blast exploring the painting style... I might try some pet portraits in that style and see how they fare.