Animation Source Forums

I have a couple drawings. I'm not that fond of them.

Zuko, your version is quite good, and Mighty, I like the second one

Where's JC when you need him this is right up his alley.

I'm no fan artist, balto legend. I am a writer. If anyone deserves credit for the art involved in my fan characters, it is CatWhoHas14Tails...and UK (who is no longer active on this site, and goes by various names). But mostly, so far, Cat.

I figured that, since this is a fan art topic, I have nothing to offer unless a discussion starts about the finer points of portraying him visually based upon his real-life physical appearance.

Though I appreciate the tip of the hat.

Jc can post it. He can do as he likes, it's his picture hahaha

Once upon a long time ago (about 4 years) I had a version of real!Balto. He looked something like this:



Recently redrawn:



However, I was drawing this from memory, and looking back at the photos, looks like I swapped the tall sock and short sock both time, whoops. XD I also think the chest marking wound up too small on the new one. Perhaps I'll fix it later.

Something I noticed about real!Balto is that his legs seem so short compared to modern huskies. The shorter legs also make his body look longer...it almost appears foxlike. Interesting.

The link doesn't work, and do you mean his mount? Because that's just because of his being mounted. otherwise Balto was actually larger than Togo.

Hmm, it dosen't? Ah, well. It was just a picture of a husky. -shurg-

And yes, though I wasn't referring to his size, I was referring to his structure. Perhaps you're right about the length being due to the mount, but even in the "living" photograph, his legs look relatively short.

This was most likely due to his body build, thus why Balto wasn't a racing material, and was neutered at 6 months of age.

...Yeah. That's what I'm saying. I was making an observation about his build.

Remember you're looking at a work of taxidermy. Tanned skin and dead fur stretched over a wire framework (or some other molded medium). Not even the skeleton of the original animal. A work of taxidermy is always going to be structurally divergent from the original animal, by the very nature of the process. The pictures of the real, living Balto show his legs to be rather longer.

In fact, the AKC (American Kennel Club) started establishing a standard for the Siberian Husky which brought about unfortunate changes for the old breed...and the UKC and, I believe, the CKC (and then other international breed organizations) were soon to follow. Shorter legs, longer fur, shorter ears, more symmetrical markings and colors, and a generally foxier head. All selective breeding to worm out certain characteristics (even though you can still find them in certain family lines and, thus, a substantial variety from one husky to another in terms of physical structure, coat length, pattern and coloration, etc.). Breed clubs and national breed organizations have done more harm to old working breeds than good (like the old Siberian husky, which is now known as the "Seppala Siberian Sled Dog", though the old lines are all but extinct: http://www.seppalas.com, http://www.seppalakennels.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppala_Siberian_Sleddog) -- enforcing ridiculous, out-of-date physical alterations such as docking and cropping (which have happily become illegal in some nations), excessive line breeding and even some in-breeding, etc. Working lines (and foundational lines) are always where you will find the best, purest and most original of any pure breed. Not long-established show lines.


Very magnanimous. Thank you. I shall then...especially since Cat has no problem with it.

This is, after all, Cat's artwork. And while she gave me permission to use it whenever, wherever, and however I please (well golly, I paid for it. Literally. lol), I still felt a little remiss in posting fan art that I didn't create myself. Be that as it may...this is her wonderful job in bringing the real Balto visually to life for me, which assisted in fleshing out my biography and character sketch of this wonderful dog (I provided the background from a stock screen shot of one of the Balto films):



Balto's fan character sheet on Balto Source: http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en/chars/Balto_JerseyCaptain/18952.html





While we're at it, and though this may be a BIT off topic, there have been a few fan artists who have also done some wonderful, wonderful drawings of some of the other real serum run dogs for me. They are part of a slowly-developing project that is leading towards some upcoming fan fictions (and snippets for those which are actively in the process of being written now), and I thought I'd give a tip of the hat for their wonderful work! At least FOUR of these are based upon established historical photographs, which are relatively indisputable (the problem of black and white photography getting in the way of determining accurate coloration of markings aside). Others are based upon guesswork or upon photos showing several dogs, among which those historical dogs are known to be in (but which could not be pinned down as one dog or the other).

Togo, Fritz, Scotty and Fox are dogs which are known not only for their colors and patterns (based on historical descriptions and, in the case of Togo and Fritz, modeling from their taxidermy mounts in Alaska), but also by individual historical photographs of each dog (which, admittedly, are black and white). I have posted them here. The others, because there is no hard evidence (that I am aware of yet) of what they actually looked like and how they were colored and patterned...beyond them appearing in team photographs from the time, I haven't shown here for those reasons alone (the artwork is still fantastic, and can be seen here onward through the subsequent pages: http://www.animationsource.org/board/togo-and-fritz-and-a-happy-little-experiment-t33593-45.html). Togo, of course, is at least as well-known in the historical community, and to Siberian Husky aficionados, mushers and breeders, as Balto is (as pertains to the serum run and Alaskan dog sledding history). The only difference, in the case of the Balto movie fandom (and the movies themselves) is that Togo was mysteriously left out. But I am proud to say that my work at telling his story here (and that of the actual serum run), and creating the fan character version of he and his half brother Fritz, has led to more and more attempts at doing fan art of him by others, which is wonderful.

You can find historical images of Togo, Balto, Fritz and Fox here, if you look through the pages: http://www.animationsource.org/board/fan-characters-based-off-of-real-serum-run-dogs-t32007.html

TOGO:
Drawn by CatWhoHas14Tails





Togo's fan character sheet on Balto Source: http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en/chars/Togo_JerseyCaptain/18941.html



FRITZ:
Drawn by CatWhoHas14Tails





Fritz's fan character sheet on Balto Source: http://www.animationsource.org/balto/en/chars/Fritz_JerseyCaptain/18944.html



SCOTTY:
Drawn by Eska (Cat also drew him based upon Eska's interpretation, and the historical photo mentioned below; and Eska, if I recall, also gave me permission to use this drawing and all related to the project)





You can find Scotty's historical photo on this topic page, second-to-last photo of the first post: http://www.animationsource.org/board/real-dogs-that-look-like-balto-characters-t31015-15.html (there are also historical photos of lesser-known, but no-less valuable, dogs of the time and location...most of them sled dogs, in that and the following post)



FOX:
Drawn by CatWhoHas14Tails

Curious, but I guess I understand. lol

Unfortunately, many interpretations of these dogs, done by these other people, have since been linked to my three fan character pages. But I don't know that they necessarily qualify as fan art of my characters. I guess you'd have to clarify that with them on a case-by-case basis if they post them here. *Shrug*