Numbat habitat

Description

Jun 5th 2008

Tags:: animal fasciatus landscape and scenery long myrmercobius numbat sketch tongue
Views:: 855
Comments:: 14
Score:: 34
Favorites:: 52

My final assignment for Scientific Illustration this term.
Having spent a lot of time doing very tight, controlled work it took a lot of courage to just wet the page and let the paint run where it would.
Numbats are one of only two entirely diurnal species of marsupial. Their behavior is heavily influenced by their one prey type: Termites.

Waterproof sepia ink, cerulean, paynes grey and burnt sienna watercolours and white gouache, 8.5x11.5"

EDIT: Uwah! Thankyou for the Feature! Glad it inspired such a good response!

Feature

Featured by Radical JoJo

Oct 2nd 2008

It would be hard to ask for a good blend of watercolor techniques that work together in a piece, and come up with something better than Numbat Habitat. The eye moves back and forth between tight foreground painting and a loose wet-on-wet background. Each area feels equally satisfying, and they each feel even better by their coexistence. This is especially nice work considering that only four colors were used, and that one of them was the notoriously difficult cerulean. Melanippos has managed to bring out a real vitality in the cerulean that actually manages to make the background area its own, and steps up as the painting's secondary focus, overall. The numbats, themselves, are crafted with an accuracy to make the piece worthy of any collection of scientific illustration--as "Habitat" was intended--but it's the painterly touches that really give this piece its charm, and expand its reach into a further sphere of conceptual artistry.