Here is a piece for Morier, who was so helpful in getting my art to BloodhoundOmega in time for Eurofurence 2006! (Many thanks to him and Bloodi!) I tried new things with the fur, with some results I like and some I don't. Yay for horned and/or saber-fanged big cats!

Pencil, tint added in Photoshop (with a mouse, as always). 2006.

Note: I'm busy with badges and other art still from AC and some other projects; more soon! I haven't forgptten anyone, no fear. :)

For Bloodhound Omega's After Party Portfolio. My life-drawing days are far behind me, so this was good practice! I got my husband to help pose with me for reference.

11" x 14" Strathmore board, mechanical pencil, Photoshop touchup. 2005.

Rajah Red: Every year I see these cute little lively pieces in art shows, and I always think, "what fun! I should try it!" so I painted him up in gouache and watercolor on parchmenty-cardstock, and added some Micron and gold pen. I know it's not high art, but art should be fun SOMEtimes, right?

Gouache, watercolor, Micron pen on cardstock. 2006.

Here's my piece for the Wish You Were Here Calendar Project (http://coyote-tangent.com/wywh/index.htm ). I drew the Rhodesian Ridgeback, a large dog well-known for the distinct ridge of hair that grows in the opposite direction of the rest of the fur on the back. They were often called "African Lion Hounds" as well - thus the lion with him.

It's supposed to be glossy and like a vacation postcard, so of course the dog is dressed in his Zulu-inspired finest, and the lion is a bit "fluffy"; obviously, in real life, things are a lot less pretty. There will be something in the upper right and a line of text along the bottom; I left the areas less-detailed there for that reason. It was a lot of fun to research and draw this!

Pencil, Photoshop CS. 2006.

For Obsydian. I usually work from my head when doing art, but as I'm bad at drawing birds, I wanted to practice and learn, so I used a photoreference when drawing this one (yes! I did!). However, I have a hard time following reference (even if it's good for me), and of course when I went to paint it I got bored and put the reference away... which is both good (I would be more creative that way) and bad (I know I got some things wrong).

I learned a lot about feathers doing this; next time I know to paint feathers more like the ones on the wing, and NOT like the ones on the neck!

Mechanical pencil, watercolor, gouache, and a bit of colored pencil on watercolor paper. The knotwork was drawn in Illustrator and added in Photoshop. 2004.

Just a little fennec with gold earrings. It's "fantasy" because I didn't follow references, or go crazy with fur-detailing or anything; it's not supposed to be photorealistic.... it was just me having fun. (Many thanks to BloodhoundOmega and Oliver Fox).

Pencil, watercolor, gold paint on Strathmore Watercolor paper. Teeny-tiny at 6-1/2" high.

Sevian Rei has an interesting creature he calls "Irago", and I thought he would be fun to try for a combination thank-you/practice pic, though I strayed from his drawings and thus this is really more of an "Irago-dragoncat-inspired" thing than Irago himself. I started out scribbling freehand in RSVP pen on watercolor paper, then taped it down and started painting. I had planned to do most of the detail in colored pencil, but I ended up doing the majority of it in paint, saving the colored pencil mostly for fur and little details.

RSVP pen, watercolor, gouache, Prismacolor and Design colored pencils on watercolor paper. 2004.

This is for Mottenfest (who is so kind and generous!), of the character Rensis Schmitt. All details per Mottenfest's descriptions, except the bandaged tail (which was supposed to have a syringe through it instead).

RSVP pen on 11" x 14" watercolor paper, with watercolor and gouache added. I wanted a sketchy, stylized look for Rensis, which I though suited the character better than my usual fussy pencil drawings would. 2006.

Just an adaptation, for fun, of my Music Folio piece - I "synn-ified" the colors and used it for a logo. I used a version of this as stickers on red plastic bags I bought for customers to have at AC 2006.

Adobe Illustrator 10 & CS. 2006.

For Tyreenya's Symphonies in Fur Minor portfolio, I chose "My Lover's Box" by Garbage. I was going to pick a dark and angry piece, but for a change, I decided to go for something very different - not only in song, but in style and technique as well.

The feline is based on Lorelei, an old (back from the early 80's) character of mine, whose colors I played with to suit the image. It's done completely in Adobe Illustrator 10; it was a lot of fun to try something different. Once again, you cartoonists and designers get a LOT of credit for doing so much with so few, well-placed lines!.

More info here: http://community.livejournal.com/musicportfolio/

This folio is CD-only, hence the large watermark. Adobe Illustrator 10 & CS. 2006.

Here's my Samoyed guy. I love the "Sammy Smile", and I tried very hard to capture it. You can find him as part of The Kennel Club Card Set here at: http://kennelclub.coyote-tangent.com/

Pencil, Photoshop. 2006.

Another artist I admire greatly was apparently going to do this, then (I guess?) had other obligations; when I was asked to take this up, I didn't want them to think I was copying, so I made mine as different from theirs as I could: Mine is American vs. British foxhound; is sitting and is more canine than anthro; has different props; and so on. I had never drawn a Foxhound of ANY kind, so this was a fun leaarning experience! You can find him as part of The Kennel Club Card Set here at: http://kennelclub.coyote-tangent.com/ --- he's unedited there, though the prints I sell of him are of this, edited version.

Pencil, Photoshop. 2006.

Boxers are beautiful! Please note, I prefer unclipped ears and undocked tails myself, but for a "boxing" boxer it made sense; and I figure, as a sentient being, he can do whatever he wants with his body anyway! You can find him as part of The Kennel Club Card Set here at: http://kennelclub.coyote-tangent.com/ --- the unedited version without a background, though the prints I sell of him are of this, edited version.

Pencil and Photoshop. 2006.

The wonderful and talented Sara Palmer (Caribou) suggested I try a smilodon in my "hyenabones" style, so here it is. Again, a very enjoyable (and equally anatomically impossible) experiment. I am a huge fan of prehistoric mammals, especially feline ones (surprise surprise)!

RSVP pen, gouache, watercolor on Strathmore watercolor paper. 2005.

Originally this was a pen scribble. It was meant to be an underpainting, but ended up being a finished piece. This was a fun experiment, and another good example of the odd things I draw for myself. Obviously this hyena thing couldn't really exist, what without a face and all - I just love skulls.

RSVP pen, watercolor, gouache on bristol. 2004.

For the wonderful Bagheera, this is a good example of my "somewhat-realistic-yet-styized-iconic" imagery. I wasn't trying to be photorealistic here, or I would have used a photo reference. Obviously, real leopards don't have exactly that facial structure! Still, when I use photos it's not fun for me, so I like to play around a lot (please note I do love both realistic AND stylized art! ART IS GOOD!)

Pencil, Strathmore Bristol board, Photoshop CS. 2005.

Yes, another ancient Mesoamerican Jaguar piece! I've always been fascinated by those cultures, like the Aztecs, Mayans, and especially the Olmecs. This is a combination of bits and pieces of various artworks and stories; here, the jaguar-man is a sort of trickster, stealing a symbolic "sun" from Huehueteotl's fire brazier. Is he Tezcatlipoca in his guise as Tepeyollotl? Or a jaguar shapeshifter? Or...? I'll leave that up to you!

Micron pens, watercolor, gouache on Strathmore watercolor paper. Photoshop touchups. 2004.

The Bribe: An African Climbing Mouse offers an earring to the Serval who's caught him; he's hoping she'll let him go (I'm a softie so I think she will - what do YOU think will happen?). She's a collector of jewelry, which here is a combination of many different African art and ornamentation styles. The neckpiece was the most fun to draw. Micron pen, colored pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes paper. Some Photoshop to fix the crappy scan. This version has even MORE touching-up than versions I've posted elsewhere.

Here's the very cool, very generous and all-around-unique Thaily Brimstone in a quadrupedal, non-anthro form. She's a mix of fox and lion (I think she calls herself a "lox"). I based the proportions of fox-to-lion on her own wonderful drawings. This is a quick "thank-you" pic for her; I'll do a more detailed one someday. Mechanical pencil on parchment paper.

Dante: A character belonging to the incredibly talented DemonDreamer here at the VCL. He's sort of a bison/buffalo-dragon mix, with what seemed to be a bit of hyena thrown in. I exaggerated the wide-set, bison like eyes on purpose. Pencil on cardstock, Photoshop tones added.

Tiger God III: A further exploration of an older "Tiger God" idea I'd done years back - I was inspired by Tibetan and Indonesian art. Micron pen, Prismacolor & Design pencils, colorless blender, on parchment paper, with some touch-ups in Photoshop 7 to fix the bad scan.

Bloodhound Omega Version I: 2003, the first of four pics I did for his creator. At first I thought Bloodhound Omega was more wolf-like, and since I have a hard time drawing wolves, I tried to make him quite wolf-like and realistic. I looked at other wolf-art I'd done, and since this was a practice piece I tried to fit Bloodi's features onto this more wolflike face.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way I'd expected, so on to Version II... Pencil on cardstock.

Bloodhound Omega Version II: the second of four pics I did for his creator. I was unhappy with the first version I'd done of Bloodi, so I tried a full-body-shot next. I once again went with an overall wolflike appearance, but gave him a shorter back, fuller neck-ruff, small beard, and other assorted markings specific to the character. Again I wasn't happy with it, so on to Version III... Pencil on cardstock.

Bloodhound Omega Version III: the third of four pics I did for his creator. I STILL wasn't happy with the previous pics, so this time I pushed things even more (fluffier tail, bigger claws, fuller face, elbow-tufts, etc).

Still, I felt that in trying so hard to make the anatomy look realistic (epsecially hard for me as I have difficulty drawing canine-type-creatures), I'd not quite captured the unique, very cool look Bloodhound Omega has. So, onto the fourth and final version.... Pencil on cardstock.

Bloodhound Omega Version IV: the fourth of four pics I did for his creator. Finally I gave up and just went for it - I drew what I saw in my mind's eye when I envisioned the character, and didn't worry about trying so hard to be realistic. Here Bloodi has his three-fingers-and-a-thumb front paws, huge claws, fluffy tail, elbow-tufts, etc. The one thing I left out was the top spike of his collar; it kept looking more like a weird horn than a collar-spike.

Overall I tried to make it look sort of like a "sketch come to life", and left some of the sketchiness in on purpose. Pencil, colored pencil on black Canson paper, some Photohop 7 retouching and shading.

Sunlight: 2003, based on an older drawing I'd done; I wanted to see how this female feline would look with tawny coloring. Micron pen, colored pencils on parchment paper. Scanned at home on my crappy scanner, unfortunately.

Silvermane/Maverick: an anthro white lion (done for his birthday present). He's stylized to be a bit iconic, like a lion statue or doorknocker (obviously not a "real" lion), with a mix of human and leonine features. The two scars on his muzzle symbolize some things he's been through recently. I purposely tried to work a lot of color in there; the only "true" black is in the pupils - the rest are mixes of colors. Mechanical pencil, Prismacolor and Design colored pencils, some use of a colorless blender, on toned cardstock.

Fox Magic II: From 2003, the last of the three Asian-Inspired pieces I did for Starfallz. I used the other half of toned cardstock that I'd used for "SpiritFeatherPony". The original is much smoother-looking. The floating ball is something I've drawn for years (see syn-vision.jpg), and here it symbolizes that the creature is magical, more spirit than animal. I also purposely did NOT make it look like a realistic, 100% anatomically true-to-life fox, to reinforce the idea that the creature is more than it appears. Colored pencils, Photoshop7 touch-up.

SpiritFeatherPony! A quick headshot for the Beatlegryphie, from 2003. I hadn't used my colored pencils in a long time (this was done BEFORE Silvermane and Fox Magic II) and it was good practice. If I'd had more time I would have gone back and deepened some shadows. Note that it's my own style of gryph - it's not supposed to be photorealistic. Lemme tell ya, white pencil and orange paper are hard to scan well, and in lightening up the scan to show detail the orange turned bit peachy. Prismacolor and Design colored pencils, toned cardstock.

Still on a Japanese-influence kick after drawing the Bobtail for Starfallz, I tried my hand at one of my favorite creatures from Asian mythology. It's my own version; note I wasn't going for a strict interpretation. I used to draw in this stylized, heavy-line and thick-color manner a lot in the 80's. Prismas and Design colored pencils on Canson Paper (hence the texture, which pleases me).