;_; so cute.

It's so cute, and it looks so soft.
Very awesome reference to have.
I am so jelly~.

Its a bit diffrent kind of rabbit then those I am used to see, but its cute none the less :3

I love it!

aaaa beautiful

As beautiful as it is, idk if I would use it as a reference because it's not quite done well enough for that.

I was mostly looking at the fur textures around the cheeks and generals. With sculpting I hit up google images.

I agree that well-done taxidermy mounts and even well tanned hides are excellent resources when it comes to studying details like hair length, whiskers, eyelids, lips, ears, etc. Some of those things you just can't get a good sense for via photos. Additionally, having some experience with skinning/taxidermy/anatomy helps to create realistic suits. (I've had such experiences, and I think they've helped me do what I've managed to do so far.) As long as one has a sense of respect, I see no issues.

The only issue I have with this, even if animal died of natural causes, is that you will inspire others to create something similar, and not everyone is able to acquire an animal that's died of natural causes. Some people will buy from fur farms, creating unnecessary suffering so you can create something pretty. Faux fur is fantastic and doesn't hurt anyone, moreover if you want good reference try looking at a real rabbit. I'm fostering a rabbit and seeing her actually move and her facial expressions has taught me more about drawing rabbits than any mount possibly could.

Actually, faux fur is a petroleum based product, the biproducts that's formed is rather harmful. With real fur for taxidermy, you get to see textures that cannot otherwise be replicated by humans. There is also numerous methods to acquiring real fur, not just through farms. This rabbit I believe was a feeder rabbit for snakes for instance. Although it may never be as good as the living animal, it allows those that want such an animal who otherwise could not (say if they lived in an apartment or were allergic)

Uhh, what? I'll just take what you're saying about faux fur being the more 'harmful fur' for a second and tackle the rest. I KNOW there are various methods besides fur farms to acquire fur, but these options are not available to everyone. That's the problem, you make a demand, and people want supply, not everyone is as aware about fur farms or caring about them as you may or may not be. For some people it's as simple as "I want it now and through this place it's available". Someone recently was selling furs their parents bought them from fur farms, some people just are not aware. If you're allergic to living rabbits you will still be allergic to a dead one. You don't need to have a rabbit in your house to draw one, visit a friend who owns one, check out a pet shop, go to a rabbit show etc etc, they are not hard to find alive. If you're allergic to them then maybe taxidermy isn't for you.

Going to approach your allergy thing a moment. While its a common misconception, it's the dander a person is allergic to, not the fur itself. When a skin is tanned, all dander and allergens are removed, thus making a rather hypoallergenic piece. For me, I don't live anywhere close to a pet store or someone that owns them and getting on the computer all of the time isn't always convenient for a brief reference.

With fur farms it is actually more difficult to purchase from a ranch than perhaps a trapper or hunter as those are far more plentiful and cheaper. Farming out animals though isn't all horror and pain as PETA likes to make it seem. While I cannot speak for those outside of the US, American fur farms and ranches have strict rules set by the USDA that require all animals comfortable and healthy as well as to be euthanized quickly and painlessly. This is also assuming that what is being harvested is in a short supply. It's really quite the opposite really. People and pets eat rabbits as well as trap/hunt them as there is an excess amount of them. A family of cotton tail rabbits can easily ruin a good crop in a garden if not dispatched. Same goes for other common taxidermy specimens such as coyotes and fox, often going after smaller livestock and pets. There has been a supply for hundreds of years and will continue so long as people have livestock and crops, but if there is no demand, the bodies go to waste and no knowledge is shared.

As I've said many times before, not everyone will be able to get fur from a background they are certain of, unless you are meeting the people and seeing the rabbits killed yourself you don't know. I'm actually from Australia, and there are many artists online in areas outside America. Here I'm disturbed by a growing trend in the furry fandom for people to wear hacked off wolf, fox and coyote tails and I know those certainly are not from here! They don't know of the origins, they just 'like them because they are soft and pretty', that's how little thought and how little question can go into these purchases. The less readily available and publicised they are the better in my opinion. I would say the majority of the fur in Australia comes from overseas, China in particular, and you could not convince me PETA are trying to make it look any worse than it is. I won't list off the ways they are killed, owning furs I'd hope you're educated on what you could be funding if you purchase from the wrong place, but it is nightmare material, pain in the fullest sense. I cannot imagine how it feels to have your skin pulled from your broken body while you're conscious but I can assume bad, very very bad. Nothing I would wish on a criminal, let alone an animal. Now I'm not an extremist, I understand, rabbits are pests in our country areas here too, and even though I like them as domesticated pets I acknowledge the wild ones are pests that are damaging our ecosystem. If they are killed and you want to feed one to your ferret or dog, fine, that's good. But fur doesn't serve any purpose than to be pretty. And publicising it actively puts other animals in danger of a painful and unnecessary fate. There are some fantastic faux furs out there, and the main part you are really referencing is the mount. Why use fur when you're aware it actively endangers other animals? You'd have to be selfish to believe your artistic needs outweigh the suffering of innocents. (In my opinion)

What people don't seem to understand is skinning a live animal is reckless, stupid, hazardous, and just is not done on a regular basis. It damages the fur, is far messier, and also puts the skinner in danger of wounds. Something that may have also been overlooked is the fact that I do indeed know where my pelts come from and how they were treated (as well as I do not purchase outside of the US.) As it is, coyote and wolf tails would only be harvested from the wild, not fur farms. Those animals are not raised by humans and only a handful of fox are since only certain colors are available though specific breeding. So many people assume a fox was ranch raised but in reality it was most likely trapped or perhaps even salvaged from a pelt that would have been discarded.

There are some fantastic faux furs out there, and the main part you are really referencing is the mount. Why use fur when you're aware it actively endangers other animals? You'd have to be selfish to believe your artistic needs outweigh the suffering of innocents. (In my opinion)

Again I am aware of how amazing some faux furs out there can be, being one that works with it on a daily basis but I can promise you no matter the quality that you buy, it will never match the real thing in texture, how it moves, how it looks. Do I believe in killing an animal just for its fur? No, but I certainly don't believe in letting parts on an animal go to waste. People don't just throw a body away, especially in a country where meat is scarce or money is tight. Bones are used and sold, the meat is used to feed pets or the people themselves. I've been a hunter far too many years of my life to be fooled by a few videos on the internet, especially from an organization that kills more animals than it saves. I know how it is when harvesting an animal for food and fur. You put far too much work into it to waste any, especially if things are tight.

Coyotes here are a nuisance, as are rabbits Most ranched foxes in the states today aren't being raised for their furs anymore so much as being domesticated, killing those that are aggressive or ill. While, again that's the US, not China. I do not speak for them, nor will I ever. Seeing as this rabbit was a feeder rabbit for a snake, however, I do not regret it being mounted as the rest of it was used entirely. While I do thank you for a very mature and level discussion about this, I fear you may be misinformed about the general fur industry. While yes there's clubbing, drowning, strangling, and other violent ways to kill a fur bearer, all of those methods are harmful to the hide itself. As selfish as this sounds, the better quality of hide, the higher the price... people have long since avoided these methods for that reason. Euthanasia is the most common method of today as it is the least painful and calm way to put an animal down. Other trappers will do a bullet behind the ear if they are in the back woods if the need should arise. Both being quick and effective.

There is good news amongst the gloom though. Putting the bi-products aside created from Faux fur, people are turning to that for fashion more so now a days as it's easier to match the coloration as well as price, leaving the real furs to be purchased by taxidermists, those in colder regions for warmth, and live animals for domestication. There will always be a dark side to everything and there's no control over that or any growing trends that may follow, one can only make do with what they have and keep moving forward.

You're saying you don't believe in killing an animal for fur, but you publicising fur will actively increase the incidence of this happening, and that is something you have to recognise.

Animals trapped for fur are not good either, I don't know why you've even brought it up as it just adds to the point that there is a global demand for fur. You, a hunter, are a rarity in the world of people that use fur these days. Many are artists in the city, friends of mine have used fur and feathers that certainly weren't sourced from something they had killed themselves. As I said, in furry communities there is a craze for tails at the moment, it seems most of these people are in the city, they are buying something sourced from an animal they have never seen.

I'm fine for harvesting things for food, that makes sense, we need food, we don't need pests. But we have evolved (you'd hope!) enough to know we don't need fur. The only people who wear fur any more are brain dead anorexic models on the runway who do what they're told by uncaring fashion designers. We don't require fur to survive. You might like fur and think 'why waste'?, but I've told you why. It influences others, who certainly have no intention to go out and humanely kill a wild animal as you have done, they intend to buy over the internet, often sourcing outside the country.

As for the animal being alive while skinning occurs, when I said the bodies were broken I meant it. If someones just broken your spine and legs you aren't going to have a lot of fight in you, but you will be conscious enough to experience the skin being cut from your flesh. Plus, those may not be the better quality furs as you said, it really seemed to be more about quantity in the video I saw... Animals were beaten with pipes and swung against the ground head first. While I can agree the methods you mentioned earlier were about as humane as you can be in the wild, the word humane didn't come to mind as I watched the video from China. Not everyone will be able to afford or want high quality furs depending on the projects they're working on.

I can agree in day to day clothing there is a high occurrence of faux fur at the moment, I don't know that that really means there is less fur being used. Although as people become aware as I did they will probably decide never to risk supporting the industry. For me even using fur from an animal you have humanely killed yourself is supporting the industry, as you are publicising fur and increasing the likelihood of someone seeing and wanting to work with fur. You are an incredibly skilled artist and suit maker (it's why I'm following your work after all!), so I suppose it saddens me that all your followers see this element of your work as well, and may then consider working with it. Thanks for a mature discussion on your side as well, I hope you understand my concerns.

Taxi'd or not, that is one stunning rabbit! _