Critically Endangered
These are the most endangered marsupial in the world. To me they look a bit like pointy nosed teeny tiny fluffy kangaroos. They mostly eat truffles, or at least fungus that is like truffles. It is thought to make up almost 90% of their diet. They were thought extinct for a long time, but then were rediscovered again, I do love when animals manage to fool people and haven't gone extinct. I wish more were able to do that. There are 2 devastating diseases that are thought to be a factor in causing their population decline. Dying from those, along with feral cats and introduced foxes are keeping their population numbers much too low.
This is one I would have preferred to paint in acrylic, oil, or digital. The fur is a mix of lights and darks all over, and a brownish grey, their underside is a light grey or cream. Some things are really much easier to paint when you can add highlights rather than having to leave them. In spite of having done 205 of these paintings, I'm still much more comfortable with pretty much every art medium than I am with watercolour. Until this project, I could probably count the number of watercolours I've done, other than the little ones you do in elementary school, on one hand. I've done this whole project for many reasons. As a way to keep my sanity during Covid chaos and things. I'm a people person, so it is really hard on me to not be able to give strangers hugs if they need them, that sort of thing. I wanted to share with people all the animals we have lost or who we are at great risk of losing. I also wanted to get better with watercolours. Ok, I'm sort of cheating on that since I'm using the watercolour (and ink) pencils. I want to keep continuity with the project, so I am not going to switch to regular watercolours suddenly, I really do enjoy these pencils.