Golden panda


These animals are for real, they are actually called red pandas, or lesser pandas. I'vehad a soft spot in my heart for them since I was veeery little so just couldn't help myself for doing a tribute for these wonderful creatures. They are also highly endangered species these days and needs a lot of help to survive.. back in the 60-70's, people took the wild pandas as pets because of their kind and non-aggressive nature. So the result is that wild pandas are nowhere to be found.. they only mate ONCE a year in just one day. Believe that?

The two are painted in PS and smoothed up in Painter, but mostly just in PS. The backgound is combination of couple of dark photos from my backyard, it served some good textures that fit the piece nicely.

This piece is going to appear in the next Exposé 6, a book series from Ballistic Publishing.
It's also awarded with an Excellence -award in Portrait (painted) -category,

© Kirsi Salonen 2007.