I’ve been saying for years that I would eventually add Pluto to my Planet Horse series, and last month I finally pushed it forward and finished it! Pluto my not be an official planet anymore, but he will always be a planet in my heart. However, in a nod to his current scientific status as a Dwarf Planet, I’ve adapted him here into a burro, or miniature donkey, and included with him his “moon” Charon. I used quotes there because Charon is hardly smaller than Pluto, and in fact doesn’t so much orbit Pluto as Pluto and Charon orbit a baricenter somewhere in between them. So here are Pluto and Charon, the little planet burros, chasing each other round and round.
Mixed media ink, metallic paint pen and colored pencil on 9″x12″ bristol board. Pluto’s planetary symbol appears in the lower left: the combined P L of the first two letters of his name, as well as the initials of his Western discoverer, Percival Lowell. Charon doesn’t have an official symbol as far as I could tell, so I made her one: like Pluto it’s a combination of the first to letters of her name (C h), with the C stylized to form part of a crescent, reminiscent of the symbol for Earth’s moon.
The original will debut at the World Fantasy Art Showin Baltimore next month, and prints will be available at Anthro NorthWest, and afterwards through the Heliopause Online Store. If you would like to pre-order a print, simply drop me a line at goldeenogawa@gmail.com and I can take care of you.
Behind the scenes bonus:
Principle reference photos were the famous “Pluto has a heart!” shot from New Horizons, and this lovely picture of Charon.
WIP photos can be seen and comments left over on my Patreon!