Malaysia

Contest entry for 's contest, round 2. Our topic was a country, where we'd be picking a specific animal either native or important to that place, and I got Malaysia. Well, I couldn't just draw one animal, so I made a nice little scene for all the animals to play in the tropical forest~

Let's see, we have ...
Two tigers
A tapir
A clouded leopard
A sun bear
A Malaysian pit viper
And a gibbon swinging off in the distance
AND A RAFFLESIA!!! How can you not love a 3 foot wide flower that smells like rotting meat?

All of these are native to Malaysia, so obviously they are important to the country, and there are two tigers instead of one because the Malaysian crest has two tigers that symbolize courage and strength (although my tigers are confused by the rafflesia, so they don't look quite so strong XP). And hopefully I did a decent job depicting a tropical forest since two-thirds of Malaysia is covered by forests similar to these.

Also, and this is a very subtle reference, but the two trees 'tied together' by a vine is supposed to be a reference to the Petronas Towers. I think I made it too subtle though, so therefore I had to tell everyone.

I'm having way too much fun drawing in a more graphic style ... it's probably my graphic design class getting to me, but it's really entertaining to do, and I end up loving the results. Now to go finish a secret pumpkin picture~

Time taken: About 6 hours
Done in SAI