Sunday, 26 July 2009

Hyena...red in tooth & claw



The latest animal that Phil, Kev and I are to present in our 'mangled menagerie' is the hyena. There are surprising physical similarities in my treatment of the previous wonky donkey (see below) and this blooded beast but in personality, what a contrast! Whereas the old donkey finds life a trial Mr. cheesy grin is a creature that is happy in his work :) I don't think you can go wrong with caricaturing the 'happy' hyena.... might get tricky if you have to illustrate a manic depressive one I dare say... but a hunched set of hairy shoulders, spots and a smile does the trick I think. And I had as much fun drawing this as the hyena is having, although I did get red ink on my keyboard. Messy business illustration.

Nearly forgot chaps... the next animal will be... the camel (hope you don't get the hump over my choice ..tee hee:)

16 comments:

ArtSparker said...

It's the lean that is similar - one is from knackeredness, and the other from avidity. Ralph steadman would be proud. Did I ask you about familiarity with the Bad Child's Book of Beasts? Please forgive my encroaching senility if so.

Kev Levell said...

Ah, now that's fantastic. Jealous of that one. Well done, really well done.

There's a lovely loose feel to the inks and the watercolour - it's such a wonderfully expressive piece.

Owl Eng said...

cool painting! love the mood evoked by the colours and the characters

MuchoS MonoS! said...

Simply awesome!!!!

krisztina maros said...

so strong piece! i'm still loving your watercolor works - as well!

Eric Barclay said...

Really like the looseness of both this piece and the donkey. Great characters and textures.

damon said...

wow i like that one alot

Carmen Saldaña said...

WOW, I think he want to eat me for dinner. The hyena is amazing, and I can´t to stop staring the red stain....It´s really creepy!
I will be waiting for the camel :-)

Thanks for your comment in my blog, you´re so kind... I don´t know the book you mentioned, and I have searched it in the net, but I think it is not published in Spain (damn!). It looks interesting, maybe I could buy it in english..

About the "El tigre y el zorro" book,
unfortunately only is avalaible in my mind :-(. I am not lucky with the publishing houses in Spain

Bye :-)!!

michael robertson said...

wow matt, this is insanely wonderful! I love the looseness,the scratchy lines,and that blotch of red-it says carcass without being so graphic...everything about it is just fantastic. your work blows me away.

Phil Toodle said...

Another fine piece Matt, you're really good at watercolours.

victoriaying said...

Really fantastic and cool shapes!

Jason Curtis said...

Holy crap cakes, this is amazing Matt! Your style is kick-ass. I love the quality of your lines, there is a roughness to them which appeals to me very much. There is so much life to this piece because it's not overly refined.

The painting is stunning. The colour palette is lovely.

I bow to you.

krisztina maros said...

i had to look at this one again :) hope you enjoyed the process!

Unknown said...

Beautiful wicked style!

Tomás Serrano said...

I like this wild drawing! Excellent.

Rico said...

This is great!! -- especially the execution with the watercolours and the loose drawing. That splash of red is very effective.