I've been all over the internet in my free time lately and I've come across some amazing things. My recent dive into everything that is wild and wonderful in the animal kingdom started with the Thylacine stamps I posted a little while back. DevART was lacking in stamps honoring this fascinating creature so I learned how to make stamps and remedied this problem.



Since I made those, I aspired to do one for the Quagga, another species that has since gone under the radar thanks to mankind's foolishness. A few nights ago, I completed my stamp for the beautiful Quagga.



That night I went on a Quagga obsessed rampage. I searched Google images at length before coming back to DevART to subject their search bar to my Quagga frenzy as well. During this adventure, I stumbled across a deviation which in turn led to my discovery of the book The Katurran Odyssey. What does this have to do with my reason for posting this journal? A lot actually.

I mainly draw wolves and the other commonly known members of the canid family. That's what I started out drawing when art became more serious for me several years back, canines are what helped my art become as well known as it is today, and it's these same canines that people commission me for over and over and over. Please don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining in any way and I stand by the fact that the wolf still is my very favorite animal. But stumbling across the Katurran book the other night has really driven home the fact in my head that there are soooo many other incredible, wonderful, breathtaking animals out there that deserve to be admired, studied, and praised through art too.

There are already several extremely talented artists who do feature the rare, little known, and unique animals in their art on a regular basis, yet sadly, because the majority of people are only interested in the wolf and canine art, these artists and their fabulous representations of the other creatures gets overlooked. I want to take this opportunity to share a few of my favorites with you, in no particular order.

Great equines as well as a host of other critters, I've been following her work almost since back when I first started out on DevART and her grasp on anatomy and use of color still captivates me.

A recent find. Her knowledge of mustelid anatomy is combined with her style of bringing expression to the faces, an excellent combination.

Her brand new account. She had an entire array of wonderful art featuring various types of Hyenas and Civets on her previous account and I'm eagerly waiting for her new gallery to start filling.

And the amazing Kyoht. The first animal I think of when I hear her name is coyotes of course though she's proven her skill time and again when it comes to drawing primates, hoofed critters, and even dinosaurs.

It's art like theirs that challenges and inspires me to try my hand at something like a jaguarundi, an okapi, or the wild khur (don't know what these are? look them up on Google! ). There's a whole planet of animals out there that few people know about, yet can still be just as "cool" or "awesome" as wolves, foxes, or tigers. I need to broaden my horizons and experiment with other critters now and again. I think it would be good for me.

Oh, and here's the link to the awesome book: [link] The artist is Terryl Whitlatch who also did the creature designs for the first three Star Wars Episodes that came out recently and her knowledge of animal anatomy is phenomenal. The book came out in 2004 and has since gone out of print but you can still find it on places like eBay and such. I nabbed a copy for myself off eBay just last night and I cannot wait for it to arrive.

So, that basically sums up what's been on my mind artistically lately. I encourage you to try drawing something that you wouldn't otherwise do. I know I'm going to.

--WildSpirit











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