I got the Inspiration for these creatures as well from our lovely cats. When they sometimes run around like fawns.
The Red Degali is a species of Deercats and is a Mix between Deers (Red Deer, White-tailed Deer+ Muntjac) and Cats (Somali+ Bengal).
The size of the Red Degali is between a cat and a Deer. They have sleek bodies, long tails, and large pointed ears. Only the males have antlers, which start growing in the spring and are shed each year, usually at the end of winter.
Its coat is reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The males also grow a short neck mane during the autumn.
Their long canine teeth can cause serious damage, but they usually use their tusk to fight for territory. It has a strong flexible body and quick reflexes. They use their tail for communication and balance. Its night vision and sense of smell are well developed.
They are generalists and can adapt to a wide variety of habitats. They are recognized for their energetic and social nature. For most of the year, they stay in single-sex groups. During the mating season, from August into early winter, the males protected their group of females.
Diet
Red Degali eats large amounts of food, commonly eating legumes and foraging on other plants, including shoots, leaves, grasses, prairie forbs, and even cacti (in deserts). They also eat acorns, fruit, and corn. Their multi-chambered stomachs allow them to eat some foods humans cannot, such as mushrooms (even those that are toxic to humans) and poison ivy. Their diets vary by season according to the availability of food sources. Though almost entirely herbivorous, they have been known to opportunistically feed on nesting songbirds, field mice, and birds trapped in mist nets, if the need arises. When additional minerals such as calcium are needed in their diet, they can resort to osteophagy, chewing on the bones of dead animals.
On to my first painting of the red Degali. Here are some thumbnails to find my composition. I did them in Procreate.
I made the finished linework for the chosen thumbnail in procreate as well.
After a digital value and colourstudy, I moved on to my traditional painting, acrylic colours on canvas.
And in the end I also made a Booking out of my painting, just for fun!
