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Pen Sketchbook - The End Pt. I

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2010, done when I completed my first Pen Sketchbook. This last piece was a quick little drawing of some sort of shapeshifter; he's not quite a wolf, or fox, or coyote, and not quite human, either - he's sort of mid-form, which I tried to represent sort-of-symbolically with his odd anatomy. Again, as with my other Pen Sketchbook pieces, I wasn't trying to be realistic; rather, I was just trying to capture what was in my head. His toe is funny on purpose.

Speaking of shape-shifters, yes, as you know I love all kinds! I like stories about cursed beings, or beings struggling to make a balance between their human and animal (or otherwise) sides, and "beauty and the beast" stories, and more; still, my favorite kind of all is the sort of shapeshifter for whom taking different forms is an integral part of their nature, something you might find in very old tales and folklore. I often have lucid dreams and for me, many of my dreams are like that. It's something I have tried to describe many times, and draw, but it's really hard to capture it in any sort of tangible form. And it's not even so much about animals and monsters and big fangy things as it is about freedom, and possibilities.

Some artists and writers have captured it better than I can at the (sadly, no longer updated) Journal of Mythic Arts, in one of my favorite essays: Shape-Shifters: Art Inspired by Animal-Human Transformation Myths ( [link] ). I know the art might not be as popular as the more crazy-detailed stuff out there, and there is lots of bending of anatomical rules and the like, but to me it is just... wow. So much of what I do and think of and dream about as an artist comes from the same... source? fount? collective? so to speak. I love it. I get it. I only wish there was more of it!

For more information on why the art looks the way it does, please see here: [link]
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DSS-Dogsport's avatar
Synna, you never cease to amaze, even with your "sketches". Digging his spiral in the dirt; a very nice touch.