You may Have seen these little chaps on television wildlife documentaries, these are the monkey’s that lounge around in hot tubs all day long! Mind you, the snow monkey lives in areas where snow covers the ground for months each year, so wouldn’t you do the same!
They live in Japan, in the Mountains. The Japanese Macaque (to give it it’s proper name) is the most northern living of all the primate’s apart from humans. In the Jigokudani Monkey Park, the Macaques are notable for visiting the hot springs in the winter to warm up.
The Macaques are very human like, and that is probably why the capture our imagination. Their social behaviour can be very playful and fun, for instance they roll snowballs and have snowball fights!
This watercolour as you can see is in progress. I have used masking fluid to outline the fur and the snowdrops, then put a wash of cerulean blue, burnt sienna and paynes grey over the background area, that way the snow and the monkeys fur will stand out white.
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With the exception of artists, inventors, and teenagers - we humans are diurnal daytime creatures on the whole, and although it’s one thing to be out and about during the night in a street lit urban environment, it’s a very different scenario if you find yourself in, say… oh, I don’t know, a forest per se. Where, if you’re lucky, you may hear the unmistakable cry or hoot of an Owl: natures very own nocturne, a stark reminder of the unknown peril of night, and a creature that has featured heavily in myth and folklore throughout the ages.
Daniel Mackie
Author