Creature Feature #58: Black Lemur

This “true lemur” species shows rather dramatic sexual dimorphism: only the male is actually black, whereas the female is a rich chesnut red. She is found in north-west Madagascar and, like all lemurs, leads an arboreal existence. The majority of her diet is fruit, although she will sample invertebrates and enjoys nectar. She has been observed capturing millipedes, biting them into an agitated state, in which the millipede begins releasing its toxin. She then rubs it across her fur. These toxins are not fatal to lemurs, and it is thought that it is used to repel insects, but the lemur also clearly enters a blissful state, more or less getting itself “high” on this narcotic substance.
Watch it here in this over-dramatised video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LwQ0ZiTYkQ

Creature Feature #37: Babakoto

From one lemur to another - this one is the Babakoto, more commonly named “Indri”. It is the largest of the lemur species, the size of a small child, and belongs to the Sifaka family. With its long legs and lanky appearance, the Babakoto cannot walk on all fours but must instead make squatting hops on the rare occasion that it pursues a terrestrial lifestyle. For the most part, it lives high in the trees, where its long legs allow it to make impressive leaps from tree to tree as it forages for its diest of leaves. Like most of its Family, babakoto have a highly specialised diet that cannot be replicated in captivity, therefore the only hope for their future is in the wilds of Madagascar - which are still disappearing.

Once protected and revered, by a fady, taboo, surrounding it, the babakoto is now being poached by for the pot. There are various myths surrounding the creation of the babakoto which also explain its Malagasy name which literally translates as “father of the boy”.

Its call is among the most haunting sounds I have ever heard, akin to whalesong and heavy with melancholy and longing. It is the sound of a dying wilderness and a species approaching the brink of extinction..

Creature Feature #36: Aye-Aye

This rather creepy looking mammal is characterised by his wide, pale  and ghostly eyes; the great ears of a bat; the blunt front incisors of a rat; the plume of a fox; the fur of a microwaved cat (as described by John Cleese) and amazingly dextrous fingers - sort of a biological Swiss Army knife. Together, these give a fearful appearance and It is no wonder that the natives find him somewhat frightening and consider him an omen of death.

When he was first discovered, the naturalists did not know what to make of this weird chimerical beastie. Was it a rodent? A bat? A nightmare come to life? Now, with increased taxonomy knowledge, we know that what he is, in fact, is a nocturnal lemur. A sort of mammalian woodpecker - his main diet is insects, particularly grubs, and fruit. To find the grubs buried in bark, he taps the tree with his knuckles, listening for movement, when he finds it, he uses his blunt teeth to gnaw at the wood, peeling back the bark and then probs within the cavity, using his specialised middle digit which is thinner than its fellows. In this manner, he can also crack through the hard skin of a coconut.

He has a pretty rough life - not only does he have a face only a mother or a biased zoological geek like myself could love but his reputation for bringing death does not make him any friends amongst the Malagasy people. Indeed, when an aye-aye is sighted, it is frequently killed on sight, the corpse then moved from one family’s yard to another, like a macabre pass the parcel.

Creature Feature #30: Avahi

To mark the first full month of an animal-a-day (but still, not yet, the end of the As), here is the first lemur.

The Avahi, or Woolly Lemur, is the smallest member of the Sifaka family. She is also the nocturnal sifaka species. There are a number of species (9) known, but probably the most amusing is the Bemeraha Woolly Lemur, who bears the scientific name of Avahi Cleesi and is named after John Cleese. This is not that avahi (it has more white on its face), but of the Eastern clan.

Avahi live in small family groups - couples with kids, basically. Youngsters are weaned after six months and independent at a year of age, but tend to stay near their family after that. Like all sifaka, they are vegetarian and eat mainly leaves, with the occasional flower or bud for added flavour. They are found in rainforests, often sharing their home with other, diurnal, lemur species and spend their days sitting high in the trees, dozing in the sun and digesting their foliage diet. At night they venture out to forage.

Like all lemur species, they are threatened by deforestation and poaching.

Animals with Instruments

I made a rather last minute decision to join this swap, hosted by the lovely Noodlerabbit, with the theme "Animal Orchestra". Now, when the idea to draw lemurs playing traditional Malagasy instruments, it came as a small surprise to me that all the best reference images I found were of bamboo lemurs. As one of the rules was "all animals must be different" I decided to make them three different species, and therefore had to colour them distinctively as well.

So, here's my Bamboo trio:

 On the left we have Babata, a Greater Bamboo Lemur playing for us his kabosy.
In the center Rabezoza, a Lac Aloatra Bamboo Lemur blows on his sodina flute.
And on the right Raza, a Western Bamboo Lemur prepares to begin plucking on his valiha.

For more on Malagasy instruments, and how to play them, visit wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Madagascar

 And finally, as a bonus hostess gift, I would like to introduce you to Fluffy Cottontail. Known as "Flail" to his friends, Fluffy dreams of becoming a famous rock star, perhaps even joining one of his favourite bands (bonus points to anyone who can name them) or playing support for them at a big gig. For now, however, Fluffy must practise in his bed-burrow and hope that his neighbours, the Fuzztail squirrel family, do not complain too loudly about the noise. Here he practises the chords to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit". (Of course, he prefers the Nevermore version).  Being young and naive, he actually believes the song is about rabbits. Another favourite track of his is Heavy Metal Hamsters by Helloween.

Lemurs: A Tail of Two Scions

The completed front cover for volume two of the Lemurs Saga - A Tail of Two Scions. It features Rakoto and Aurelia. Rakoto is a colour mutation of diademed sifaka and Aurelia is a silky sifaka/diademed hybrid, which is why she has golden arms.

In volume two - which is yet to be finished (and volume one has not been published yet either, still editing it) - the story begins with Rakoto, the six month old son of the Usurper Queen. He barely knows his mother - having been raised by a foster mother and his aye-aye tutor. However, things are not looking good in the capital city, Narivo, and discontent and war are settling over the land of Madigaska. Off to the west, in the sanctuary of the Stone Forest, Aurelia is undertaking her training as one of the Karazana, the sisters. But her peaceful existence is about to be shattered in a nightmare of violence, blood and loss. This is the first trilogy I have ever set out to write, and I am finding book two to be a bit of a struggle - it's got to be a good solid story on its own, whilst also providing a "bridge" between "Fellowship of the Ringtails" and the third volume, which I don't have a name for yet. Suggestions welcome. I like puns, and as you can, see, Lord of the Rings references. It could be "Return of the Queen", but that's a bit crap. And, to keep the trend, it should *probably* contain the world "Tail". But I'd rather have the world "tail" in the middle since the other first time it was at the end, the second in the beginning. Hrm... ponders. Currently considering "The Silky Queen", "The Rise of the Silky".

In volume three, Aurelia will likely be journeying to Narivo, and maybe into the saphira mines of Ilakaka, to rescue her kidnapped friends. There will also be an uprising in Narivo, led by Misokoso, the one-eyed crowned lemur. I haven't devised the plot too fully yet.

A Silky family

Finally, an image I CAN put in my gallery! This is my silky sifaka family. Well, part of it, anyway (it's missing Mother Aurelia). The lemurs featured here are Ophelia (the adult female), Pierre (her infant son) and Aurelia, her blue-eyed niece whom I should hope most of you would already be familiar with. Also featured are a sunbird, a chameleon and a moon moth.

I made this image to serve two purposes - one of which was for this site: Cycling for sifakas. This fellow, Ivan, is intending to cycle about the South Island of New Zealand, dressed as a silky sifaka, in order to raise money and species awareness. What can I say? If anyone wants to dress up in a white pelt and go biking in the summer, well, I fully endorse that. Anyhow, he asked me if he could use Aurelia's image, and I gave him permission, but was somewhat ashamed at the quality of the scan. I think this one will be much better. Of course, he's not going to have the full body of the lemurs - just the heads and top halves.

The second purpose - other than the reason to draw more lemurs, and possibly to use in my novel, is also to submit it to the Illustrated ATCs calendar.

Kowaro, the Canterbury Mudfish

The Kowaro is a freshwater fish of New Zealand that is now limited to only 80 different habitats. It prefers slow moving or stagnant water. Once this may have been swamps and pools within boggy kahikatea forests, but now their habitats are widely fragmented and predation by eels and other fish makes some of their potential habitats unihabitable.

Alledgely they are brown in colour, but my reference looked more grey. I may have to add some more brown to this image. They also have less rays on their pelvic fins than I have drawn here. Don't you love it when you find out you've interpreted the image wrong?

Here's my first Art Doll. This was great fun to make and I think I might have to make more - she has ten parts to her, and can wriggle her ears!

More Madigaska art

Today was quite a busy day for me. I had to go to the Doctor and the Dentist and I also made lots of art. Oooh, and baked biscotti and made dinner.

Then went to see the Avengers. Which was a pretty awesome movie!

Anyhow, here's the art, they are all drawn for my book "Fellowship of the Ringtails" and are ATCs, and thus available to trade.

This here is a Pied Crow.

Chike, the Vervet Monkey

Kaikitra the Fossa

And this one I made yesterday - or maybe the day before -

It's Mena, the poorly drawn Mongoose lemur...

A Lemur a day for the month of May

Wouldn't that be nice? A new lemur ATC every day of the month.
Well, I can't promise a lemur a day, but I can promise a lemur today.

This is Blanche:

 

Blanche is the daughter of a Counsellor and lives in the charming tree-city of Belo-Sur-Tsiribhana. She is a species of lemur that is commonly referred to as a Decken's Sifaka but in my novel she's called a tsibahaka - that's the Malagasy name. It's also the Malagasy name for her closely related species - the crowned sifaka. Not to be confused with the crowned lemur to which it is not at all related. Blanche befriends Aurelia on her journey and masquerades as her sister. The two species are not related - Aurelia is a silky simpona, more closely related to the diademned and Milne-Edwards species.  It's kind of odd because the two species fit the same description, but when you see them side by side, you can't mistake one for the other. I think Silkys have broader heads and their faces are more a greyish-pink (they turn pink as they age) whereas Deckens are pure black. Deckens are less endangered too, and more widespread. Whilst Blanche is pure white, Deckens can be splotched with colour. Of course, if you've noticed in the latest pictures of Aurelia she now has pale golden fur on her arms and legs. This is because her father is actually a diademed sifaka. And "Aurelia" means golden, too.
 
But enough about Aurelia, let's talk some more about Blanche. Blanche is a higher class of lemur than Aurelia is used to. She is sophisticated and likes to keep her fur clean. That does not mean she can not be persuaded into the occasional adventure! Her favourite hobbies are sunbathing, grooming and gossiping.

Blanche will be available for trade.

Trade with Waughtercolors

These three cards are for my latest - and possibly last (at least for a while) - trade. After this, I will work a little while more on my tarot deck and then throw myself instead into my own personal projects - such as preparing my entries for the Gavin Bishop award (due November 30th, but I'll have to get it done by the 31st October, so it doesn't interfere with Nano) and writing a picturebook for the Joy Cowley award. Due to the nature of both awards, this blog may become a little quiet for a time - the entries are confidential.

The images below are:
- Fork Marked Dwarf Lemur
- Welcome Swallow (I wanted to draw a bird in portrait)
- Koala Cuddles.

They are for Waughtercolors - an extremely talented lass who initiated the trade. Her art is beautiful, and I feel honoured that she wanted to trade with me.

Other projects I will be working on this year are:
~ completing "Lemurs: A Saga"
~ Writing "Tiriki's Great Escape" (my planned NaNo Novel).

Art Card Backing 2012

I have started designing a new Art Card backing for every year. Last year, Aroha took the centre stage, chasing a butterfly across the card. The year before, it was LemurKat. This year I wanted to do something different. After much pondering, I decided that since it was the Year of the Dragon, that Fortune should have the honours:

Fortune has never been a major character of mine - he was created for a Dragon eXchange as a kirin/eastern dragon hybrid. I believe that because of his mixed parenting, he was accepted into neither society and considered something of an outcast. This lead him to randomly wander the world, seeking friendship and comradeship. However, if I recall correctly, he was also supposed to bring luck to those who saw him.

Anyhow, I might design a landscape orientated card yet featuring my other dragon - Rhapsody Kelpdancer.

Here are some of my previous trading card backs:

2011 Aroha/My Little Pony/Pokemon

2011 - landscape, rarely used (layout wasn't good for writing in)

2010/2009

Oddly enough, I often get it asked in swap threads "who did this card?" despite the fact that nearly all of these clearly say "LemurKat" on there somewhere!

So, how many have you got?

Lemurs in Red

Red Ruffed Lemur and Coquerel Sifaka for my mother's 6x6 journal and her Christmas present.

My Muse - the story behind "LemurKat"

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was not LemurKat. My online moniker was "Raynflower", named after a character I had played in a long-running role-playing game. She was a dark faerie, and she was pretty nifty. But... let's not get into her.

I first created Kataryna Lemusu when I fell into the Furry fandom circles. I needed a fursona - so what better than to use a ringtailed lemur? An animal that I enjoyed watching at the local zoo, where I did weekly volunteer work. Her name - Kataryna - was derived from the ringtailed lemur's latin name - Lemur catta which I eventually blurred into one word, to become "LemurKat". I have now held the moniker for around 10 years, and when you search it on google, what you will find is mostly me (except any really embarrassing stuff - obviously that's someone else).

At some point, Kataryna committed suicide. I was going through a down period in my life - don't ask me what it was - I can't remember, and I drew a particularly savage picture of her with slashed wrists.

But, thanks to Anubis, guardian of the Afterlife, Kataryna rose again, as an angel. Her fur turned silver and she sprouted wings. But with her new form, came a great responsibility - she had to save the world.

So began the Furritasia Chronicles. And never finished...

After I grew out of the Furry-biz, I still clung to Kataryna. She lost her humanistic characteristics, and took up a role instead as my muse. She has starred frequently in my art - with wings, without wings, sometimes with golden eyes, sometimes with blue. Sometimes dressed in costumes from various times and cultures. Masquerading as Frida or the Mona Lisa, or transformed into a My Little Pony. She graces the backs of many of my trading cards.

And she also had a starring role in "Lemurs: A Saga", without her wings, playing the part of Fiantrana, Aurelia's foster mother.

This is my latest rendition of her - designed to become a t-shirt print. Featuring a Malagasy Sunset Moth and Vanilla Orchids - look for her at AFA 2012 in Portland.

Here is a collage of Katarynas, in a multitude of incarnations:

Drawfest Day

Today we had a DrawFest meet up in the public library. I felt a little awkward as I walked up to the table of artsy types - as they were predominently teenagers, and all drawing manga-style art. Now, as you know, I can't draw Manga too well. Luckily I knew one of them from a previous engagement (Armagadden) and she made me feel welcome. Anyhow, I had come with a list of things I could draw, which proved to be useful cos in the library there are references aplenty for the taking!

The first piece was requested by the lass that had organised it, and is my character and alter-ego:

Then I drew a Meerkat, using a greeting card I'd purchased for a reference and colouring without inking.

Then two-hours had passed and I was hungry so I went home to have lunch and draw some more picture of animals with their lunch.

A polar bear for Norabear

A shortnosed fruitbat for Jo-on-the-go.

I am actually amazed at how quickly I can rustle up a full colour Art Card. The uninked pieces take between 30-60 minutes.

Btw, I have created another blog for my inwards mail and official postcards, originally it was a Postcrossing blog, but I've decided to share some of my awesome mail too. It's here: http://lemurkatpc.blogspot.com

Sneak Peek at my Current Project

It's a gift so I don't want to show the whole thing here yet.

Bound for Latvia and Serbia

It was quite serendipitous how I met Nauris , a lovely fellow who is going to help me get my art into Latvia. You see, normally he sells his art, and thus he was sending messages out to some folks in the Ebay Group of ACEO Enthusiasts, and somehow he discovered my Facebook. I AM a member of ACEO Enthusiasts, as it turns out, although I haven't posted there since before my trip to Madagascar in 2007. Anyhow, he graciously agreed to do a trade with me, even though he usually sells, not collects.

So first up, here is a New Zealand themed card:

If your Totem is the Puriri Moth...
You are somewhat shy and keep rather to yourself. However, you believe in living life to the full, as tomorrow it may end, and will never turn down an opportunity when it comes your way.

(There's not really much to say about the Puriri Moth - it only lives for about a day once in moth form, as it has no feeding appendage. It is also the largest moth in New Zealand, found only in the North Island - which lead to much excitement the first time I saw one).

And the second card was inspired by his fantastic character "Mr Cat". Mr Cat gets up to all sorts of activities and seems to have a lot of fun, so it made me think - maybe I should draw my Miss Katta. So I rustled up a new Katta the Artist:


And to add more to my conquering of the Eastern Europe countries, I have also tracked down a lass in Serbia. the Owl Totem shown previous is destined for her doorstep, along with this pretty Poison Dart Treefrog I rustled up a couple of days ago:


And last but not least, although he's only travelling as far as Australia, is this delightfully colourful Himalayan Monal. I've been meaning to draw one for a while. Finally, I've gotten onto it!


And so concludes another Artful day!

Spiced up!

A bright little Vermilion Flycatcher. These wee songbirds are native to the southern States and Central and South America. The male is the colourful one. He's for Athalour in South Africa.


Last night we dined at a very yummy Indian restaurant called "Corianders". This is the herb itself. The entire plant is edible, with the leaves tasting rather different from the seeds (the flowers are not so commonly used). The leaves are supposed to aid the kidneys, I believe it was. They taste good with chicken and other spices. We had some growing in our little portable herb garden but when we went away the landlady chopped it right down to the stumps. I hope it sprouts again as it was going pretty wild! If not, I shall have to plant another one in the pot. It has a slight citrus tang.

The plant parts are actually 3d - this was supposed to be a "Botanical drawing".




And this little Loris is putting on a show just for you! By the light of the moon he's a singing, dancing star! And very, very cute. Don't you just want to gobble him up? (With coriander, of course).

Art this week

I've not been updating as much as I should which is probably a relief to some of you. Anyhow, here's a bit of an art-dump from the last week or so:

More 13 min (or so) birds. These were done some time ago - I even had to get the book out of the library again because I couldn't recall the second species. But that's all good cos now I have it for another 3 weeks or so:

Roadrunner, Great Argus Pheasant and Maleo.

And as many of you know, I have been using my mother (and father's) address to collect most of my mail for the last year or so. She is always delighted at the exciting stamps and exotic places I receive packages from, but always a little disappointed that they're not for her. So I thought I would try and enlist the help of my artist friends. I had an overwelming response, with (so far) 12 people offering to make cards or other gifts for my mum. Since I am intending to repay each and every one of them (an experience that will be somewhat expensive in the postage lines, but well worth it), I have designed a "thank you" atc to make prints of:


A RAK for someone I have never traded with nor, I believe, actually spoken to. So I imagine this would be something of a surprise! She collects dinner bells and needs a bit of cheering up.


And lastly, two for the Summer PAT:

A Muppet - my interpretation - of Rowlf. And my take on Icekat, a sexy anthro kitty.

Rainforest and lemurs

First and foremost - here's the completed Amazon piece:


And now... because two of my ATC friends have had a rough time of late, I've decided that nothing makes a day brighter than a cute lemur:

The first is in the style of Original Youth (and will be posted to her tomorrow) and the second is a sorta Looney Tunes style. For Tweety who has just been in hospital.


And last but not least, the bookmark for my Reading Group participants.

The tail is designed to hook over the spine of the book.