Devolution

A tail is a characteristic that I feel clearly represents the majority of the animal kingdom. With few exceptions, nearly all other creatures have a tail in one form or another. Developmentally, all human embryos have tails which, for the vast majority of the population, are gone by birth.

I consider the back and spine to be one of the most aesthetically beautiful parts of the human body. In this piece, I tried to preserve that beauty despite the obvious addition of a tail. This piece was an experiment. When I took the stock photo, I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it. It took me several months, however, to muster up enough patience and time to sit down and try to build a tail. I had initially set out to build a thick, reptilian-style tail but as I drew the initial shape, I felt a smaller, thinner mammalian style tail would blend in more naturally with the model's physique. The most difficult part was matching the lighting but I feel like it ended up looking pretty natural…for a tail anyway.

I also pointed the model's ear and made other minor modifications. Expect minor revisions.

Manipulated with Photoshop 7.0.

Stock photography from my personal collection.

***Update***

Several people have pointed out that the tail was positioned too high on the model's back. This is something that I was aware of when I posted the image. My rationale, other than the fact that this image is an experiment, was that clothing covers the actual end of the model's spine, where a tail would sprout. Despite this, however, I have managed to lower the tail as much as possible and am overall pleased with the results.

Please Full-view...you'll miss detail if you don't!