Murray Darling Carpet Python (Morelia Spilota Metcafei)
This painting is part of a set of herpetological illustrations focused on endangered Australian reptiles. This is the second piece in the ongoing collection, of the Murray Darling Carpet Python who is endangered in the wild due to habitat loss, predation by introduced foxes, and being killed by humans. The flowers in this piece are the Yellow-Tongue daisy, which is native to the Murray Mallee and is also listed as Vulnerable.
Final Illustration.
Watercolour with tea stained background on Hot Pressed Illustration Board
Preliminary drawing in photoshop placing the snake's scales in accurately, focusing especially on the accuracy of the head scales, which is important for species identification. I then transferred it to the illustration board.
Early stages, i took the thumbnail from the concept development stage into photoshop to further refine the snake's pose and the plants to their accurate size scale.