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Falcolf — Stars and Stripes Longhorn

Published: 2014-07-05 06:18:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 1357; Favourites: 39; Downloads: 3
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Description A special gift for all my wonderful friends who are south of the Canadian border - Happy July 4th guys! (And er, kind of northwestish if you live in Alaska haha.)

Thanks are due to my mom, who helped immensely by critiquing my bovine anatomy - cows are so weird! I'm used to drawing animals whose ears are positioned on the tops of their heads so it was a bit of a trick to position this moo's ears right, even while using a reference. I didn't give this guy (a steer, by the way) an enormous rack because this was intimidating enough! I hardly ever draw (real) animals with horns, so yeah... this guy was a fun challenge.  

Also thanks are in order to who helped me figure out what on Earth I should draw for this because I had no idea. Our discussion also led to the creation of this piece's companion piece, True Patriot Love, my Canada Day (July 1st) illustration which I completed earlier in the week back on Tuesday. 

True Patriot Love


It was really nice doing something that was not cliche for these national holidays, though my original idea was to do something goofy. I think these ideas were much better and much more tasteful; if I could, I'd do more national flag patterned animals for holidays, but I really don't know of any besides these two. Next year I might do something involving characters from my series sort of breaking the 4th wall in a funny way... or maybe a thing showing ancestral nationalities of some of the Rimer characters...

Fun fact about longhorns: they're one of the most ancient breeds in the world! As a result, they're also super healthy and hardy, more so than your average modern cow. (That is, their personal breed health is awesome. Yeah.) They're also pretty good natured despite the gnarly looking horns and they come in a miriad of colours.

I hope you guys like it! If you like this, please also check out True Patriot Love and leave a comment.

This is also today's (July 4th 2014) Sketch of the Day.


(c)Rosanna P. Brost. All Rights Reserved.
Please do not copy, print without permission or share without due credit.
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Comments: 15

WolfSong-of-Dragon [2014-08-07 18:09:42 +0000 UTC]

As a Texan, I 100% think this piece is the bomb X3 Great job!

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Falcolf In reply to WolfSong-of-Dragon [2014-08-08 04:07:33 +0000 UTC]

Thank you haha

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Wrennars [2014-07-19 08:25:50 +0000 UTC]

This is awesome! For not drawing cows too often I think you did a great job making it have more bovine, less equine anatomy. Its big doe-like eyes are lovely!

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Falcolf In reply to Wrennars [2014-07-21 18:19:50 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!  

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AlfaFilly [2014-07-08 22:49:37 +0000 UTC]

Ahh, he's so cuuuute <3 This is a FABULOUS idea for the 4th! I thought you were going to do another horse but this idea is much more brilliant! I love the "stars and stripes" being referenced in his markings. The "stars" in the white markings and the "stripes" being the brindle markings. So ingenious~

Awesome job <3

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Falcolf In reply to AlfaFilly [2014-07-21 18:21:26 +0000 UTC]

Thank you!!! I actually came up with the idea for this one before the horse, and I couldn't think of a cow to match it. Plus I don't think Canada is very well known for its cows, though we've had a lot of ranching too. I definitely thought that this was more creative than all the other ideas that I had had!

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FlareAndIcicle [2014-07-05 22:22:39 +0000 UTC]

Nice bull

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Falcolf In reply to FlareAndIcicle [2014-07-07 17:25:58 +0000 UTC]

Thanks!

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ItsProbablyMars [2014-07-05 18:20:19 +0000 UTC]

Great! I love the face, thats really spot on there. Although i would say that his hind legs are a little skinny, and really horse-like. and overall he might be a tad too leggy, cows have shorter thick legs. they dont move much LMAO!  theyre prettymuch very angular animals, the main body is just a square, really! Note her hind legs. www.bretonwestherefords.com/im… and for the breed you drew: www.rockingolonghorns.com/Dixi… Cows are thick and heavy, and depending on the breed, really strange. At the top they can be so bony, but then down to their stomach theyre so fat LOL Cows are really hard to get used to. I work around them often and i still honestly cant believe some of the things about their anatomy.

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Falcolf In reply to ItsProbablyMars [2014-07-07 17:46:29 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! Those look like more mature animals than what I drew however. Younger animals are going to be less thickly proportioned than adults though I do agree the haunches are a bit scrawny. I was working off of longhorn references only and I drew the leg length to proportion to the photos that I used. (I didn't think it was wise to reference other breeds because longhorns are quite unique looking as cows go. Herefords are too heavily bodied to be used as references for longhorns I believe.) I've actually seen jerseys galloping around a pasture, so I think cows can be pretty active sometimes when they have space to run around and whatnot.

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ItsProbablyMars In reply to Falcolf [2014-07-07 18:31:23 +0000 UTC]

the younger cows still have the same bone structure though, and still look very much like their adult counterparts lol!! im not saying cows dont move around, they just arent AS active as other farm animals. they dont have to be the ones we have run into the barn. even here, on theye young ones, you can see the back leg structure 

1.bp.blogspot.com/-voHP3bu6QcQ…

comps.canstockphoto.com/can-st…

www.dickinsonlonghorn.net/phot…

hey, just trying to help!

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Falcolf In reply to ItsProbablyMars [2014-07-07 21:41:24 +0000 UTC]

No worries thank you

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medievallass [2014-07-05 07:48:25 +0000 UTC]

D'aww he's really cute I like cattle. . His anatomy looks good to me.

Hayley

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Falcolf In reply to medievallass [2014-07-05 15:30:34 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I really appreciate hearing that! My favourite breeds of cow are jerseys and belted galloways (they're so adorable!) but they aren't particularly American so I went with the Texas Longhorn which I figure seems pretty iconic.

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medievallass In reply to Falcolf [2014-07-05 22:06:32 +0000 UTC]

Jersey's are really pretty rather graceful really. I didn't know the name of belted Galloway's, but I've seen them, their markings are really distinctive. The long horn was a great choice for a July 4th pic.

Hayley

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