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#21 Thylacine

Extinct

These are also knows as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf. The last one, named Benjamin died on September 7th, 1936 because of being left outside in cold weather. Scientists are doubtful, but some people have claimed they've seen them in the wild still. Their skulls look almost identical to dogs, but they could open their mouths 80+ degrees! Seriously, look at images or video of them yawning, it is amazing. They were marsupials, with a pouch that opened toward the back, not like a kangaroo pouch.


Thylacine were blamed for being sheep killers and farmers had a bounty on them, but their jaws were actually weak, too weak to be able to kill a sheep. Even one picture of one carrying a chicken off was found to be staged as sort of anti-Thylacine propaganda. It is likely that they couldn't take down prey much larger than around 11 pounds. Because of their stiff gait, they were unlikely fast and probably more ambush rather than pursuit predators (unlike actual wolves).


This painting is one of those I wish I could redo. I am fine with the body, but oh how I hate the face. Unbeknownst to me, when I bought a few more colours of pencils from the art store, one of the blacks I bought was actually an ink pencil rather than watercolour. The ink pencils work the same as the watercolour pencils, but the colour is much more intense, and a bit more opaque. When drawing with it, they look the same. I can use the black watercolour to darken colours or add shadow, not so with the ink. So, the face looks almost cartoonish and tacked on to the body. I share the good, the bad, and the ugly though. Now that I know how it works and know that I have them, I love the ink pencils, especially for when I want true black.

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