Red Panda: An Arboreal Mammal
Red panda is slightly larger than the domestic cat is an arboreal mammal and is the only species of the genus Ailurus. They are characterized by the presence of reddish-brown fur, long and shaggy tail and waddling gait as the front legs are short. The chief food of the animal is bamboo but is omnivore as it also feeds on eggs, fish, birds, insects and small mammals depending upon the circumstances. They are solitary and are active from dawn to the dusk and largely sedentary during the day. They are widely distributed in the temperate forests of Himalayas, Nepal and China. Also found in northern India, Bhutan and northern Myanmar. According to an estimate the population of these animals may be from 2,500-20,000 at present. They are well protected under the laws of different countries as they are at risk because of poaching and habitat destruction. It has been classified as vulnerable according to the IUCN re list in 2009. Two subspecies are known today. It is quite adaptable to live in captivity and is very commonly noticed in the zoos. More than 800 individuals have been observed to dwell in the zoos all over the world.
The taxonomic classification of red panda is controversial from the time when it was discovered first. Evidences based on serology, reproduction, karyology, anatomy and behaviour shows resemblance more towards Procyonidae than Ursidae. However, the feeding habits and geographical distribution points towards the need of a separate family. Recent molecular-systematic DNA technique has confirmed that they must be classified in a separate family. Now they are a part of family Ailuridae. There are two subspecies of red panda at present. The first one is the Western Red Panda living in the west of its range like Nepal and Bhutan and the second is the Styan’s Red Panda living in the east of its range like China and Myanmar. Styan’s Red Panda is larger and darker in colour than the western fellow. The colour variation is very frequent in both the subspecies and shades of yellow and brown are very common apart from red.
Red panda is considered as a living fossil and is distantly related to Giant Panda. It is believed that they first originated during the Tertiary period about 10 million years ago in Eurasia. Fossils have been found in China and Britain. It lives at an altitude of 2,200-4,800 meters inhabiting areas of moderate temperature change. It prefers mixed deciduous and coniferous forests especially with dense old trees and understories of bamboo. The head and body of the animal is 56-63 cm long and the tail measures about 35-47 cm. males weigh about 3.7-6.2 kg and females 4.2-6 kg. it has long, soft and reddish brown fur on the undersides, blackish fur on the lower parts and light face with tear markings and robust dental-cranial features. The face also bears white markings which resemble with that of the raccoons. The rounded head has soft and upright ears, black nose and very dark eyes. The tail is long and bushy with six alternate reddish transverse ochre rings which provided balance to the body and is also a source of camouflage. The legs are black with short thick fur on the paws. The fur provides insulation when the animal has to face snow covered conditions and also conceals the scent glands present on the anus.
Red panda is specialized for feeding bamboo shoots and is blessed with strong, curved, sharp and semi-retractile claws for holding the bamboo twigs. Like the Giant Panda it also bears a false thumb which is an extension of the wrist bone. It has been reported that they are nocturnal to crepuscular, sleeping on tree branches and hollows of logs and become active in the late afternoon or the evening hours. It sleeps on the branches with legs dangling down when it is hot and tail curled over the face when it is cold. It is heat sensitive and can survive within the temperature range of 17-25°C in summers but cannot tolerate temperature above 25°C. After walking for a short distance the animal is known to clean its fur in the same manner as done by the cat, licks it paws, cleans its tail, stomach and the sides of the body. It marks its territory by the musk like secretion of the scent glands as well as by spraying urine. It searches the food in the dark by running and climbing on the trees. Front paw is used for passing food towards the mouth. Red panda is territorial and the adults are solitary except for the mating season. It is generally a quite animal but uses twittering and whistling sounds for communicating with other fellows. The predators of this animal are snow leopard, martens and humans. If the animal is frightened it climbs over the trees or uses its front paws for defence.
It is mainly a bamboo feeder but like the Giant Panda it is not able to digest cellulose so it has to consume large amounts of bamboo in order to survive. The diet consists of 2/3rd of bamboo but can also feed on lichens, fruits, berries, mushrooms, acorns and roots. It can also feed on small birds, fish and eggs occasionally. When kept in captivity it feeds readily on meat. It is an excellent climber and works less, eats more as it feeds on a low calorie diet. Bamboo shoots are easily digested than leaves. They show highest digestive ability in summer and autumn, intermediate in the spring and lowest in winters. This may be correlated with the nutrient variations in the bamboo according to different seasons. It processes bamboo poorly especially the cell wall and cellulose components. This may point towards the minor role of microbes in digestion. In order to survive red panda feed on high quality sections of the bamboo plant like the tender leaves and shoots. The food passes rapidly through the digestive tract in order to maximize nutrient intake.
The adults rarely interact with each other except for the breeding purpose. Both the partners may mate with more than one partner in the breeding season. A few days before the birth of the youngs the mother collects food material like the brushwood, leaves and grass for the nest. The nest is usually located in the hollow of the tree of the crevices of the rocks. Gestation period lasts for about 112-158 days after which about 1-4 blind and deaf cubs are born weighing 110-130 grams each. After the cubs are born the mother cleans them and recognizes her cubs by their smell. In the beginning she spends 60-90% of her time with the cubs. After one week she spends most of the time outside the nests and returns after few hours for nursing and grooming the cubs. The cubs open their eyes when they are 18 days old. At the age of 90 days they achieve colouration and fur that resembles with that of the adults. And venture out of the nest. They also start feeding on solid food materials at this age. They stay with the mother until the next generation is born in the coming summer. The males rarely participate in raising the cubs. Red panada is able to reproduce at the age of 18 months and becomes fully mature at the age of 2-3 years. The average life span is 8-10 years but some may also live up to 15 years.
Colour Mixing Tips for Oil and Acrylic Painters
Colour mixing is one of the most difficult aspects of learning how to paint using acrylic or oils. It is very easy to create muddy or lifeless colours which deaden a painting. The following colour mixing tips will help you create very interesting colour mixes both bold and subtle.
Mixing Flesh Colours
The problem for the artist with painting flesh colours is that the shadows often look dirty and not too convincing. Restricting ourselves to just white flesh in this instance, because dark flesh is a completely different range of colours, here are some ideas. The colours I use are: titanium white, yellow ochre, light red, Indian red (now called Red Oxide), alizarin crimson, cadmium red, cadmium yellow light and cobalt blue.
Generally speaking I mix a standard flesh tint in the following proportions: 5 parts white, 1 part yellow, half a part of red; the mixtures are approximate. A cool flesh tone I would use Titanium white, yellow ochre and Indian red, a warm flesh tint Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light and Light Red. Variations on this theme could be to replace Indian red with alizarin Crimson in a cool tint and light red with cadmium red for a warm tint. The highlights can be a mixture of alizarin crimson and titanium white for cool areas and cadmium red and titanium white for warm areas.
Shadows, if they are very deep, could be a mixture of Indian red and Cobalt blue, this creates a cool mauve colour which is ideal.
Don’t be afraid to use blues, purples and mauves in shaded areas. As a very simple rule the areas of the face that are in shadow or further away paint in cool tones, the areas closer to you in warm tones. Obviously this will vary depending on light, angles etc. Lines on the face can be defined with Indian Red but this may well need toning down depending on the general colour scheme chosen.
Try to avoid mixing flesh colours with blue because they will be come muddy very quickly. Also avoid the earthy brown colours (burnt umber for example) as they too become muddy when mixed with flesh tints.
How to mix Greys
Mixing greys to provide the artist with the subtlety required in oil/acrylic painting cannot be achieved by simply mixing black and white together. Try this for an idea. Take the three primary colours; Red, Yellow and Blue – which particular red, yellow etc will affect the outcome so experiment – and mix them together. Use small amounts of paint and try to mix equal amounts. You will end up with a sludgy colour; now add a little white and bingo a grey appears. If you want a cool grey add a little more blue, for a warm grey a little more red and so on.
An endless range of ‘greys’ can be achieved, for example, using alizarin crimson as the red, will give a different grey from using vermillion. If you want a more sophisticated approach try to find out whether the colour you are using is a cool tone or a warm tone, then just mix the cool tones or the warm tones. For example, Permanent Rose is a cool red – slightly bluish, mixing it with ultramarine and a cool yellow like lemon yellow will give less sludgy grey.
A really good exercise in colour mixing would be to produce a whole painting just using greys, cool greys in the background, warm greys in the foreground and a huge range of tones of grey in between would be a good starting point.
General Colour Mixing Tips
The following are simply suggestions you may wish to consider:
If you need a black this is not just flat like Mars Black try mixing together Ultramarine or Phthalo Blue with Burnt Umber. This gives a ‘black’, which can be used in the background – more blue than brown to give a cool black – or in the foreground, more brown than blue to create a warm black. Remember, that black used from a tube in both the foreground of a painting and the background will have a flattening effect. This idea can be used for oil/acrylic painting as well as watercolour.
Have you ever been stuck trying to work out which colour to use in the background of a painting. One idea that can sometimes work well is to choose a complementary colour to the predominant colour of the foreground. Complementary colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel. So red is the complementary of green, blue of orange and yellow of purple.
It is very easy to mix muddy secondary colours; orange, green and purple if you mix together the wrong reds, blues and yellows. Colours can have what is called an undertone, for example French Ultramarine has a red undertone and Permanent Rose has a Blue undertone. When these are mixed together they produce a pure purple. Prussian Blue has a green undertone therefore would create a muddy purple when mixed with Permanent Red. The following colours can produce clean secondary colours if you mix the right combinations, experiment but remember they are not the only ones,:
Oil Colours: Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Hue, French Ultramarine, Phthalo Blue, Permanent Rose, Cadmium Lemon Hue Acrylic Colours: Cadmium Yellow Hue, Vermilion Hue, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue, Permanent Rose, Cadmium Lemon Hue Watercolours: Winsor Yellow, Cadmium Red, French Ultramarine, Winsor Blue, Permanent Rose, Lemon Yellow
If you find a colour is too strong or intense, for example, red, you can tone it down a little by mixing a very small amount of its complementary colour, in this case green. All colours can be reduced in intensity by mixing with their complementaries.
Tips on Oil Painting – Advanced Palette
In this article I will discuss the tube colors belonging to an advanced palette based on a basic 6-color palette. I find these colors the most useful and often necessary to round out a versatile palette.
The 6-color basic palette consists of the following colors:
1. Lemon Yellow
2. Cadmium Yellow
3. Cadmium Red
4. Permanent Rose
5. French Ultramarine
6. Phthalo Blue
To these 6 colors we, of course, add
7. Titanium White
8. Ivory Black
Note that you can already create amazingly diversified paintings with the above palette. But, for various reasons, artists tend to add a variety of other colors to their palette. One reason is that tube colors are, by and large, always brighter than mixed colors. Other reasons have to do with the tinting strength or the undertone of certain tube colors. Or, maybe just because a certain tube color looks particular good to the artist and can not easily be mixed.
Here are a number of tube colors I like to work with beyond the ones already mentioned:
* Burnt Sienna – Burnt Sienna is a warm, orange-red, and transparent brown. This brown is a medium-to-fast drier and has a medium tinting strength. Mixed with Lemon Yellow it yields a clean orange-brown.
* Cerulean Blue – Cerulean Blue is a cool, green leaning, and opaque blue. This blue is a medium-to-fast drier and has a medium-to-low tinting strength. Mixed with Lemon Yellow it yields a spring green.
* Cadmium Orange – Cadmium Orange is a warm, red or yellow leaning, and opaque orange. This orange is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Mixed with Permanent Rose it yields a sharp hot orange.
* Cadmium Yellow Light – Cadmium Yellow Light is a warm/cool, somewhat green leaning, and opaque yellow. This yellow is a medium-to-slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Mixed with Cadmium Red Light it yields a bright orange.
* Cadmium Red Light – Cadmium Red Light is a warm, orange leaning, and opaque red. This red is a slow drier and has a high tinting strength. Mixed with Cadmium Yellow Light it yields a bright orange.
* Yellow Ochre – Yellow Ochre is a warm, brown leaning, and opaque yellow. This yellow is a medium-to-fast drier and has a medium tinting strength. Mixed with Cadmium Yellow it yields a glowing sandy color.
* Burnt Umber – Burnt Umber is a warm, red leaning, and fairly transparent brown. This brown is a fast drier and has a medium-to-high tinting strength. Mixed with Cerulean Blue it yields a series of colors from green-gray to green-brown.
* Viridian – Viridian is a cool, blue leaning, and transparent green. This green is a medium drier and has a medium tinting strength. Mixed with Burnt Sienna it yields a nice fall green.
* Cobalt Blue – Cobalt Blue is a cool, violet leaning, and semi-transparent blue. This blue is a fast drier and has a low-to-medium tinting strength. Mixed with Permanent Rose it yields a glowing violet.
There are few more colors I use occasionally, such as Dioxazine Purple, Permanent Sap Green, Raw Sienna, and Raw Umber. But the palette here described has more than enough colors in it to paint just about anything as long as you also use mixtures of these colors.