It’s no secret that I enjoy drawing anthropomorphic characters… human-like folks based on animals. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve always been someone who’s fascinated by the animal kingdom and loves all creatures great and small — or if it’s because I’m a Disney and animation fan. Anthro characters are a staple of Disney animation… and one of my favorite recent Disney films is TREASURE PLANET, which features character designs based on various animals. Whichever the case… I was inspired to draw a ‘beast-man’ today after spending the weekend on and off looking at the blog of Federico Bertolucci.

I can’t remember where I first saw Bertolucci’s work…. but I remember copying a lot of his illustrations and comic work to my computer desktop and creating a folder for it in my hard drive. I was instantly in love with his drawings and color work. I don’t read Italian… but from the images, he seems to be working on some sort of Arthurian medieval comic that’s populated by anthropomorphic characters… and the main character is based on Richard the Lionhearted …. who’s– no coincidence– a lion. Check out his blog link in the paragraph above… there’s so much amazing work there. Bertolucci doesn’t just draw animals and anthro characters well… he does EVERYTHING. He’s got an amazing grasp of color– and there’s work there that features ‘regular’ humans as well. The man’s imagination is prodigious… and I’m thrilled to have found his stuff.

OK… gotta get back to work.

This is Entry 353.

Mike