From 2 Cats to Big Cats

I found my future dream job :) you get a pay check every month to draw animals and you can investigate your subject for... 4 months! 4 (four) entire months... 
[can you spot the differences?] :D

(my work / link)

 

Fernando Baptista works for National Geographic (video link) 

This video shows two issues about illustration:
1_how important it is to spend time researching and sketching your subject and:
2_minute detail drawing is a luxury that expresses the ability to work with love and without rush on this tick-tacking world. And the older I get the more I realize TIME is our most valued possession. 

P.S.If you like this drawing you'll probably would like to see some works from my two favorite artist on this Nature illustration subject: Dugal Stermer and Carl Brenders.Also, I have to point out that minute detail was around circa 645 BCE...on this  precious "Dying Lioness"

 

(click on image for details)

... my teacher (Mª João Lello) gave us such a lecturer on this image that I still remember the passion she put on to mimetize and describe this noble lioness pain, muscles and strength. 
By the way... men drawing lionesses and girls drawing lions... curious.
(Note to self: Search for women illustrators in this Nature/illustration genre... could all artists have been discarded to "picture book cooking"?)