Tuesday 5 January 2010

Preview



Here is a sample page from my current project. A nice variety of colourful and not-so-colourful mammals, birds and reptiles. What do they have in common? Well, they are all unique to, or almost so, a single island or archipelago.



The seven animals at the top of the page are known from particular islands, the clue for many is in their name, i.e. the giant rat called the Panay cloudrunner is endemic to the Philippine island of Panay (top centre on the island montage above, photos from Google Earth), while the snake-eyed skink, being found on many Pacific Ocean islands, represents the island of Rapa Nui, more commonly known as Easter Island (there are very few animals still living on this island, I will tell more of the story when I come to the island in more detail).

I've drawn about 100 of the animals for this project, and there are many more yet to do, but it's a fun project to do and I'm enjoying it immensely. Some species I have been dreading, as I don't think I'll do them enough justice, but I haven't been that unhappy with any of them yet. I don't know if I'll wait for the series to be complete before I post any more... but in case I do take over a month, I'll keep you entertained with photos from my portfolio.

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