For the Totem Cards Project (http://community.livejournal.com/totemcards), here is my card for the Thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus).

I went back to my usual style (symbolic & stylized) and my favorite painting materials (gouache on watercolor paper) for this. I love to paint skulls, so I added one in, to symbolize the fact that it is considered extinct (though I secretly hope there are some hidden and alive somewhere out there). The eyes are empty for that reason, too. Additionally, the skull provides a definite "up" direction (so it has, for totem deck purposes, a "reverse" if it is drawn from the deck upside-down).

I looked up hundreds of references for the thylacine, and did it in my own way (with a little bit of artistic license). It was a lot of fun to do all that research (mmm *drools*), especially since I've always been fascinated by them.

It's mostly gouache on Strathmore watercolor paper, with a bit of pencil and Micron pen. Slight touchups in Photoshop.