Sketchbook Saturday: Raccoons

Raccoon sketchbook page
Raccoon sketches
Raccoon sketches

Raccoon (only one page, I got caught up in the anatomy and ended up spending hours learning about raccoon collarbone attachments. I posted on an exotic pet site asking about their ability to move their fore arms and wound up being connected to an expert who sent me this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5289265/

Somewhere out there is a biology professor who is extremely excited that they have a reader that wasn’t forced XD put your needs out their and the universe provides…or something. But really, it’s fascinating because raccoons are one of the only carnivora species that can pronate/supinate their hands to that degree. Important if you are interested in posing their hands IMO.

You would think they would appear more human-like from myth but their proportions are so strange and their movements so animal that there are many more animals that make better anthro material imho.  I also found that my assumed knowledge of a raccoon did not match up with reality!  The patterning can really throw one off the anatomy.  Looking at the skull can help a little with that, as did looking at taxidermy models.  Raccoons can hold 30% of their body fat stores in the tail alone, and their silhouette changes dramatically based on seasons.

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