Illustration Friday- E is for.....

E is for lots of things.
I thought about eagles, specifically the type of eagles recently announced in the news as having eaten a very ancient hominid child, Taung child an Australopithecus africanus.

It used to be thought that the child was killed by a sabre tooth but it seems that scars on the bones show that an African crowned eagle was responsible.

I seemed to remember i'd taken some referenece photos of a crowned eagle at a Bird of Prey centre but i was mistaken so i gave up on that idea.

I also thought about echidnas, since i have a soft spot for monotremes [mammals that lay eggs].
A few kinds of echidnas and of course the duck billed platypus are the only monotremes on earth.

They are found mainly in Australia, though there is fossil evidence from other parts of the world.

Short beaked echidnas are spiny and will curl up into a ball as a defensive measure, somewhat reminscent of a hedgehog. It has a long sticky tongue that it uses to catch ants but has no real teeth.

I gave up on the echidna idea -though i have put it on the back burner for later.

After that i remembered that i had been working on an elephant a while back but had given up on it as it just wasn't coming together.

I'd been sitting in my kid's orthodontist waiting room and pondering over the padded fabric walls[ the fabric was covered in ornately decorated elephants with Maharajahs and Indian Princesses riding on their backs. It always seemed an odd choice of decor for a waiting room but maybe the padded walls helped soundproof the place.

Anyway, I started thinking about decorated elephants and that lead to elephants wearing clothes. And then there was only a small jump to the idea of an elephant taking part in a talent contest dressed like a cross between Elvis and the lead singer from the rock group, the Darkness.

As i was painting today, my mental soundtrack varied between 'Return to Sender' , 'Come on Baby Light my Fire' and 'This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us" -all sung in what i think was elephant falsetto, which was pretty bizarre.

Anyway here is my E for possibly for future embarassment.



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