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Malayan Tiger

Malayan Tiger line art illustration (click image to enlarge)

Malayan Tiger full color illustration (click image to enlarge)

Artist's notes:

The Malayan Tiger was completed on 11.2.2011. There are nine subspecies of tigers; with the completion of the Malayan, I have now illustrated four of them (five if you include a White Tiger, but that isn't a subspecies but rather a color variant.) Tigers are fun to draw, and not too hard. But this image gave me some problems, so much so I had to go back and re-work the face a few times until I was satisfied with it. The drawing is based on a photo by 'Houston Zoo' - on Flickr. The subject is a nine-year old named Hana that the zoo received from the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in California.

Information about the Malayan Tiger:

The Malayan Tiger is a subspecies of tiger native to the dense forested areas of the Malay Peninsula. It was not classified as a subspecies until 2004. There are thought to be only about 600-800 of these large cats in the wild, and few in captivity. While these numbers may seem small, it is the most abundant tiger in the wild, second only to the Bengal Tiger and perhaps the Indo-Chinese tiger. This tiger, along with the Sumatran Tiger, is perhaps the smallest of the subspecies, with adult males weighing about 260 pounds (120 kg) and the females being slightly smaller. Malayan Tigers are apex predators - which means they are at the top of the food chain and are not preyed upon by other animals. They feed on the more common rainforest animals such as wild boar, tapir, barking deer, and even sun bear cubs and elephant calves. The scientific name of the tiger has created some controversy, as it was originally named after tiger specialist Peter Jackson, but Malaysia protested this demanding the name should reflect the geographical region instead. So, in that nation the scientific name is Panthera tigris malayensis