Elephants, What Elephants?
Well, it’s the 22nd, and the proboscideans post I promised isn’t ready. Unfortunately, one does have to eat and in my case right now, pay vet bills. About a month ago my old dog Tito (he’s 16) started having what can only be described as night terrors. Something was going on (or perhaps off is a better word) in his head, and he would pace all night long. I haven’t slept a full night, or even a couple hours straight, since it started. Each time I’d think he was finally settling down and I would get comfortable back in bed, I’d hear him up again, panting, his tags jingling softly.
Some pretty good human brains from Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Schools have been working on the problem however, and things are getting better (Tito is actually sleeping peacefully as I write this – probably not for long), but I’m still behind in my work. Lack of sleep isn’t one of the better stimuli for creativity.
Another thing is my own perfectionism. Whenever I draw extinct creatures I want the viewer to feel the life that once animated them as forcefully as I do. All my life there’s been this constant battle between what I can see with my mind’s eye and what my hands can accomplish. In the next day or two, while I still won’t have the whole piece ready, I plan to post the entire process of creating one of the proboscidean drawings from scratch showing all the steps along the way.
In the meantime I’ll post this little scenic.
For over twenty years I’ve done three little images each issue for In Brief, the quarterly review journal of Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund. The cover story this issue was about the hard lessons learned from the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina. Whenever I’m given flat land to portray the sky becomes an integral and equally important part of the painting. Using the shafts of light through the layered clouds I was trying to bring both the reality of a clearing storm and the metaphorical promise of renewal into the image. After dealing with the details of anatomy, cloudscapes like this are just relaxing fun.
December 22nd, 2005 at 8:20 pm
I have the same problem with the hands/minds eye thing. However, mine is much worse as I can even begin to make anything as stunning as the picture. Darn my hands!
December 22nd, 2005 at 10:47 pm
Mammoths,Stegodonts and Rhynchotheres Oh My!
I know three elephant species are currently recognized,(Loxodonta africanus,Loxodonta cyclotis and Elephas maximus.The Bornean Elephas subspecies may be lifted to full species status, according to recent DNA studies.Two Cryptid elephants in Africa may exist.The pygmy elephant, and the swamp elephant.
I can’t wait to see your proboscidean post.A question, did Deinotherium exist as late as 50,000 years ago?I know that an African Megafaunal extinction event occured around that time period.
Your Hyainailouros pics are hilarious and beautiful.I’ve always had a special fondness for
the Big Four One-Tonners,Andrewsarchus, Hyainailouros(Megistotherium),Deinodon,and of course, Arctodus.
Land Mammal Predators may not have yet gotten to T.rex and Carcharadontosaur sizes, but they still are creatures of nobility and great power.
Keep up the excellant work! Hope Tito receives the best of medical care.
December 22nd, 2005 at 11:41 pm
Arctodus: First of all…my favorite Pleistocene animal…Arctodus simus…I’ve drawn or painted them numerous times. I have one I’ll put up in the next few days.
I’m much better informed on North American genera, but I know Deinotherium bozasi lasted well into the Pleistocene. The 50,000 BP date I can’t verify, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
And Tito did well last night…comparatively. The mile long walk at 1 AM in 12 degree cold helped me sleep later also.
DouglasG: Don’t give up on your hands. I’m 59 years old…I better be good at something by now or it just ain’t gonna happen.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:06 am
You know, I usually fancy myself to be pretty good with birds but for the life of me I can’t figure out what there are. The wings look too big for game birds, much too high an aspect ratio for anseriformes. Surely those are not falcons (which they rather look like with the wings pulled back), for falcons are not social.
Argghhh… they must be some sort of shorebird or other incredibly common migratory species that I never bothered to learn ’cause it wasn’t flashy enough for my tastes!
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:04 am
neutrino: Argghhh is correct! Actually, I was thinking dowitchers, but for once I wasn’t concerned with anatomy, and the long beaks were lost as an artifact of reduction. The piece was reproduced about the size you see it here. I should have “cheated” and digitally put the beaks back in…sorry about that.
December 23rd, 2005 at 2:11 am
Dowitchers! Good to know. I was stumped myself, and I’m warming up for the annual Cape Charles BirdCount in Virginia, so the “in-flight” cues had better start coming back to me. Actually, I think the bodies are painted accurately, but without the beaks, it is difficult to identify.
I’m sorry to read about Tito. Best of luck with his recovery.
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:52 pm
OGeorge,
I was right, it is growing into a book.
Where the avians in the picture are concerned, I just figured they were generic large birds.
December 24th, 2005 at 12:49 am
Alan K: I sometimes make dumb mistakes, but when an animal is involved, no matter how small in the image, you can bet I was thinking of something in particular when I drew it. The fact that sometimes the beaks disappear with distance or reduction, or the ear turns out to be too large, or I put that 6th toe on a human foot (which I HAVE done) only means I made that aforementioned dumb mistake. ;-)>
January 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I’m researching for a book set in the mid to late African Pliocene. It’s coming along well, but some animals and plants I’m having trouble finding data for. Can I ask you some questions? You seem like you might know, based on your blog.
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