Anthrology (doncha just love what we do to the language?) is an upcoming hardcover collection of more than 150 full-color non-adult illustrations from 40 artists. Well, it may be coming up — if they reach their goal. Currently there’s an Indiegogo campaign to finance not only printing the books, but paying each of the artists involved a fair share for their work. The Indiegogo sight has loads of links to loads of artwork by the various artists. After the campaign is complete, this collection will not be sold again, according to the editors.
Furry Art
The Creator of Samurai Cat — RIP
Word came out recently that one of the originals of Furry Fandom, Mark E. Rogers, passed away this past weekend while out hiking with his family. Some might even call him a patron spirit of anthropomorphics. In 1984 (back when a certain group of Ninja Turtles were making their very first appearance) mark published his first book chronicling the adventures of Miaowara Tomokato, the Samurai Cat. Almost every other page of Rogers’ Samurai Cat books featured a black and white or full-color illustration by the author, connected with the action on the previous page. Through a series of five such books of historical satire, Mark was one of the first to take anthropomorphics away from “funny animal” silliness and into something completely new, in a big way. Ron Miller has a detailed obituary of Rogers which he posted up on I09. Sayonara, Mark-san.
Putting the ART in Furry Art
Lisa Hanawalt is a New York-based artist whose illustrations feature humans and anthropomorphic animals in a variety of artistic styles, all in the service of the creator’s wry observations of pop culture and human foibles. Her works have been seen in a variety of publications and on a variety of web sites, as you can see if you visit her home page or her shop on Tumblr. Well now, her works have been gathered together on dead trees in a new hardcover collection, My Dirty Dumb Eyes from Drawn & Quarterly. Check it out at Amazon. It’s also available as a trade paperback.
A Dragon for Your Sign
Sixth Leaf Clover (also known as the artist Christina Yen) has made quite a name for herself with her paintings of fantastically-colored dragons. She’s even written a book about her coloring techniques. Her latest project is a calendar for 2014 — full color of course, featuring a new and different dragon design for each sign of the Western Zodiac. She’s taking pre-orders (and showing samples) at her web site right now.
A Beastly Tarot Deck
Victoria Gannon is a self-taught artist who creates works under the name of Leptailurus. For a long time she has toyed with the idea of creating her very own Tarot deck, and now she has begun work on that very project. Savage Divination is its name, and it’s “a full 78-card tarot deck inspired by myth, lore, and legend focusing on the profound spiritual connection between man and beast”. For a little more than one week from now, Leptailurus is running a Kickstarter campaign to finance the creation of the final product, including the rendering of the art and the printing of the cards — with lots of perks for contributors, including original sketches and prints of the various cards themselves. There’s a video at the Kickstarter page explaining it all, and showing many more examples in completed and work-in-progress form.
Calendars for 2014
Two popular and well-known anthropomorphic art calendars are completed again, and taking orders for 2014. The Rare Calendar is dedicated to anthropomorphic species that are less usually drawn. This year, the theme is “festivities”, which each of 13 artists drawing anthro characters celebrating various holidays from around the globe. Artists like: Ashalind, Bloodhound Omega, Heather Bruton, Centradragon, Alector Fencer, Firefeathers, Golden Druid, Katmomma, Nimrais, Donna Quinn, Rhyu, ShinigamiGirl, and Windfalcon. The Rare Calendar web site has more details and order information. Meanwhile the Werewolf Calendar (which speaks for itself!) includes lycanthropic art from the likes of Maria Anisimova, Balaa, Blotch, Dark Natasha, Sarah Finnigan, Goldenwolf, Katie Hofgard, Kyndir, Nambroth, Nimrais, Synnabar, Tachit, and Vantid. Check out their web site to order a copy, or to order last year’s calendar if you missed it.
The Flim Flam Man
Bill Robinson is an animator and illustrator living in the Bay Area in California. He’s currently a lead artist at Kabam, where he helps to create social massively multi-player online games like Dragons of Atlantis. At his personal web site. FlimFlammery.com, you’ll find other examples of Mr. Robinson’s illustration projects, including several children’s books and fantasy works. Turns out he even illustrated a tie-in book for the animated film HOP.
Ponies of Evil!
After working for years in the gaming industry (as an illustrator on such games as Legend of the Five Rings and World of Darkness), the artist Heather V. Kreiter has created her own line of rather scary-looking pony-themed merchandise under the moniker of My Little Demon. Featuring ponies with such names as Satana, Wretched Rainbow, and Velvet Decay, these mouse pads, blankets, aprons, and other products will keep you up at night with a weird combination of cuteness and chills. Check out her sales page at Cafe press to find out just how many products in how many designs she offers!
Paint Your Face, I’m Sure!
Debi Winger is another artist and illustrator who was showing her works at San Diego Comic Con this year. She specializes in funny animal art and Latin American-style illustrations, which she has available on a series of prints from various media. Interestingly, she also travels to various events employing her talents as a face-painter. Check out her Facebook page, Debi’s Doodles, to see some of her latest works — on paper and on people!