day two-hundred-and-sixty-one - amur leopard

david attenborough once told me (via a tv show not in real life unfortunately) that there were only 35 amur leopards left in the wild. THIRTY-FIVE!

and that was at least five years ago, so hopefully this species is not extinct. i'm glad the one i drew looks quite sad because it's more evocative that way.

© jem barratt

also his body is vanishing which is just so deep.

i got accepted into a science degree today, so hopefully i can eventually help save some species. the amur leopard will no doubt be extinct by then (aside: can you believe black rhinos are actually extinct in the wild!? humans are the worst), but maybe we'll discover some new species that i can then proceed to save

either that or i'll do absolutely nothing with it just like my other two degrees...

xj

day two-hundred-and-fifty-seven - puma

baby puma that is

© jem barratt

run like the wind puma

xj

day two-hundred-and-thirty-three - xmas panther

on the FIFTH day before xmas, jemma realised she uses caps too much (and also she drew a panther card):

© jem barratt

i particularly like this guy because he's so cool about having his tail wrapped in fairy lights... 'what of it?'

what of it indeed mr xmas panther. or should i say mr black leopard?

no. that sounds stupid. and i don't care if panthers are just reverse-albinos, they're still cool enough for me to treat them as their own animal. also i haven't drawn a normal leopard yet so it doesn't matter.

xj

p.s. how cool would it be if there were 'panthers' in other species, like kiwis and snakes. then we could pit good (albinos) against evil (panthers) in a huge animal fight... if that were acceptable and ethical of course

p.p.s. it's not

p.p.p.s. also didn't that da vinci movie teach us that albinos are maybe the evil ones

p.p.p.p.s. maybe i should have read about melanistic animals before i wrote this...

day two-hundred-and-two - clouded leopard

clouded (nebulosus) leopard (neofelis [or more accurately 'new cat']). ol' cloudy new-cat here is an excellent climber, but rather vulnerable to extinction. some good and bad news there.

however, the markings on their back APPARENTLY resemble clouds - which i am abivalent about, given the actual real-life resemblance...

© jem barratt

not that i drew its body of course. that's way too much effort for lazy ol' me. hey at least i drew a whole head. it's a start.

apologies (i just typed that as spologies, which frankly sounds 17 times better) for using the preface 'ol'' twice. and also for quoting 'ol'' because it looks super weird.

xj

day one-hundred-and-seventeen - "the leaptitude of a bobcat"

you may think "huh?" but it speaks for itself really...

© jem barratt

if you still don't understand maybe this will help.

although i suspect it's more about the climbatude of the bobcat than the leaptitude.

xj

day ninety-nine - sand kitten

for me, an outspoken cat-despiser, to choose to draw a cat, it has to have amazing skillz:

© jem barratt

or just be really cute. and i mean REALLY CUTE. i hope you clicked those links because i did not do justice to its cuteness.

i don't care to learn more about sand cats, i just want to steal their young and revel in their adorability.

some may say this post was too harsh. i agree.

xj

day eighty-seven - sumatran tiger

admittedly i have been very adelaide-zoo-centric lately. not only because i so badly wish to work there, and not even because it's the only zoo in my city. no, no, no. but for the much lazier reason of me drawing in my lunch break and just happening to have the zoo times in my bag.

and thus, tiger:

© jem barratt

someone remind me to learn how to screenprint - i think a bunch of my drawings would make good t-shirts. like the caracal. yep, linking to my own stuff...

xj (love from increasingly-arrogant-jem)

day fifty-nine - caracal

as a non-lover of cats i do not care for such 'faux' wild cats as caracals and servals. to me, a caracal is merely a domestic cat with hairy ears, and a serval a tiny stretched leopard. actually, that sounds pretty good.

HOWEVER...

© jem barratt

they both have cute babies, and that's how they roped me in (the caracal that is, i still am on the fence with servals [not literally, that would be dangerous]), despite my depiction looking like a dweeb and its dad looking extremely depressed.

not to mention they PLUCK BIRDS FROM MID-AIR. they are so cool i can ignore their cattiness. plus, how can you not love an animal whose repetitive scientific name makes them sound uber mysterious.

you're the best caracal (caracal caracal).
xj

day twenty-five - meh

© jem barratt

sorry. this is all you get because today: my dog ran away, my wallet was stolen, i lost my job, i had to wash my hair, i was in a car crash, i had a funeral to attend and i had to go to hospital. (two of those are true... well three, but i didn't NEED to wash my hair)

© jem barratt

i only drew the right page in the first picture today. the others are lunch-time doodles of the week.

i'll cover my penchant for animals riding other animals at a more opportune time. g'night.
xj