Snow leopard

Why is it that the most beautiful things on this planet are always the most endangered? I guess people just like to kill pretty things... Human nature... go figure.

Anyway with tha depressing note out of the way! This pic was a fantastic challange to make, and I am quite satisfied with the outcome. Of course this picture like all my other realism art is inspired by the totally groov-tastic Balaa and her amazing pictures. The reference material used for this was from this website --> http://www.thebigcats.com/snowleo/snowleo.htm
which is a wonderful source for anyone looking for cats/cat poses to draw if that's your thing.

Also, this picture is part of a small package of sketches and drawings that I'm planning on sending to Big Cat Rescue here in good ol' Tampa Florida (BigCatRescue.org)! Go to there website! Or better yet, go there in person! I don't care if you live on the other side of the planet, the trip is definitely worth it Back to the point... This April is when I turn 18 and then I'll be able to volunteer there, so in the meantime I'm going to try and see if I can offer any of my talents as an artist, for anything that they may need. I also will probably enter this (along with other pictures) into a scholarship that requires some talent in the arts. If I win I could get up to 10,000 dolars! So that would be pretty cool.

Okay thats about it... So here's all the "statistics"

Time: about 20 hours (I had to start from scratch after "finishing" twice ... )

Tools: entirely done in photoshop 7 and my groov-tacular Wacom Intuous 2 12x12 Tablet.

References: again --> http://www.thebigcats.com/snowleo/snowleo.htm (great site for cats and stuff)

So, enjoy the picture, and any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Hmmm, and that's all I have to say about that...