"Obsidian Snow" by Anastasia Korochansckaja

Introducing Zhed, a black snow leopard. His name roughly translates to 'fear' in tibetan and the reason behind the name is simple: 'That which is rare or misunderstood is often feared'. The reason I chose to go with a black snow leopard is because I figured, even in the wild genetic melatonin flaws occur, producing animals with pelt colors uncharacteristic of their species. Well I've read a little about tigers born with reversed stripes, and obviously there are leopards born with 'black' pelt..so it wouldn't be so far fetched to see a black snow leopard. I will leave the interpretation of the title and his name to each person who chooses to view this picture.

The painting actually took me quite a while to finally call finished and I struggled a bit with the background and the figure himself. All in all I feel proud of this piece and happy with how he turned out and I hope you folks enjoy it as well. I will check 'mature' content only to be safe but I do not at all consider this work mature or adult content. Nudity is beautiful and natural in the human form and if an anthro snowy ever existed, I somehow doubt he would find use for a loin cloth what with all the fur he would have to keep him warm.

Now for those that 'hate'/'dislike'/'insert synonym here' anthro work, I believe anthromorphic art can be beautiful. To me an anthromorphized animal represents a closer link of humanity to the natural world, it is our inner wish to be primal and wild and live within the natural world instead of outside of it. With my anthros I strive to make them look natural, a part of and not apart from their world. It is fantasy art just as are dragons and elves and anything else. I have seen a lot of anthro art flamed in various communities so I feel it necessary to stick a disclaimer here. You don't have to like it, I'm not asking anyone too..I am merely sharing my vision with the world.

Now that I have yammered with excessive verbage, time for the technical specs of this piece.

Size: 38 x24 inches at 250 dpi. The psd ended up being well over 500mb in size.
Time taken: ehm I really havent a clue, in excess of 30 hours..at the very least.
Watermark: sorry folks, I really don't want someone making money off my time and effort...though I hate watermarking my work.
Tools: original sketch pencil

**Please respect the work and time put into the work and full view**