Thursday, February 11, 2010

"Rabbits"



ink, then digital.

Work from a large illustration/character design project I was hired to do. 40 pictures in 30 days(!) I'll be uploading them here, along with the working descriptions.


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The cliche "to stub the rabbit's toe" refers not only to their large feet, but from the stereotype that all rabbits are related either by blood or by marriage, and that they are intensely loyal to family like a gang. To offend one of them is to offend all of them, at all levels of society; from nobles to ruffians, wet nurses to whalers.

Almost everyone has an anecdote about this: The stingy merchant short-changes a bunny bootblack on the way home. He arrives at his house within the hour to find it foreclosed upon by the rabbit bank manager. Or that travelling circus weasel who broke a local rabbit doe's heart and then later, several towns away, after eating a salad at a lapine establishment known for its fine produce, he is stricken by a case of food poisoning so severe that he looses all his teeth.

In truth, the degrees of separation between any two rabbits is not typically less than for any other species, but their renowned fecundity means that there are simply more of them, which leads to these kinds of coincidences.

To be safe, always tip your bunny.