Extinct
This wasn't planned, but yet another species that has been re-classified. Until 2019 it was thought that there was only one kind of pig-footed bandicoot. Now they have determined there are 2 distinct species, the northern and the southern. The northern one has longer hind feet and a longer tail, plus some other differences not seen in the painting. Pig-footed bandicoots had, as their name would imply, cloven hoof type feet, though only in the front. In the back they had one toe they really used, the rest fused. They were a small marsupial, generally less than 10 inches long, including their tail. They weighed barely more than a pound. Not much is known about them. The last one was officially seen in 1901, but there were reports from Aborigines about them up into the 1950's. They are considered one of the smallest grazing animals ever, though they were omnivores, also eating ants and termites, etc. They went extinct because of habitat loss to livestock, but even more devastating were feral foxes and feral cats.
It has been a while since I showed a before painting. This is just one layer of colour before adding water. The second picture is the painting done, with all the tools (minus the tub of water and a rag) and all the colours I used to make the painting.
Since I had no photographs of live animals to work from, just sad looking taxidermy specimens. I always feel like it is more important to paint them looking vibrant and alive when there are no pictures of the animal when it was alive. I would kind of love to make a cartoon version of these, and maybe even make a little series with them. If I had more time, I probably would do that. Actually there have been several animals I would love to draw in a less realistic style. I have so many ideas but not near enough time to do them all. One big project at a time is probably a better idea for me. Maybe when I've done a year I will continue to do one new animal a week, and work on other things the rest of the week. I don't know. I'm getting close to halfway through the project so I should probably start thinking about what happens after the project. With how things are I'm not even sure when a show will be possible, but I hope to do several eventually.
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