Affectionate Animals

About the Affectionate Animal Series

Each painting in this series is based on a vintage photograph of real people.

While all types of love are represented—familial love between siblings, romantic love between partners, the platonic love that sustains meaningful friendships— it is important to note that I feature same sex couples in an effort to commemorate how queer love survives and LGBT+ couples have existed throughout history.

Too often people have tried to erase the stories of gay men or fix lesbian women or campaign like transgender people shouldn’t exist. This series is a visual reminder that queer love not only exists, it is timeless.

Queer love is wholesome. It is tender. It is something to be treasured and celebrated.

The more we see images of same sex relationships, the less afraid we will be to express other forms of connection: the love between brothers, between neighbors, between friends.

We have survived countless odds, and the people we love along the way are what make our lives meaningful. It is important to cultivate moments of affection in light of that.

I invite you to peek behind my curtain of watercolor and ink illustration to encounter the source images that inspired each of the paintings in this series.

Ordering or Wholesaling the Affectionate Animal Series

  1. If you are a wholesaler who would like to carry this series in your shop, check out my wholesale catalogue.
  2. If you would like to know where to purchase this series, email me at hello@darlingillustrations.com and I can help you find a local retailer.

♡ Erin Darling

Quick Links | Blackbirds | Bluebirds | Cats | Chickens | Chipmunks | Cows | Deer | Dogs | Foxes | Frogs | Giraffes | Hedgehogs | Lions | Ocelots | Octopus | Otters | Polar Bears | Rabbits | Raccoons | Red Pandas | Seagulls | Skunks | Sloths | Snow Leopards | Zebras

Blackbirds

Source: Sam Cooke 1965 Photographic Print by William Lanier, via pinterest.

Bluebirds

Kitty Ely class of 1887 (left) and Helen Emory class of 1889, Mount Holyoke students, via vintagephoto.livejournal.com. Source for image.

Cats

Nusch Éluard and Sonia Mossé. Paris. 1935 Photographer: Man Ray. Source for image.

Chickens

Source for image.

Chipmunks

Source for image.

Cows

An Irish couple by Catherine Ursillo. Source for image.

Deer

Source for image.

Dogs

Source for image.

Source for image.

Foxes

Photograph by Thurston Hopkins, Tango in the East End, London, 1954. Source for image.

Source for image.

Frogs

Photograph from a collection called “Hidden in the Open,” curated by Trent Kelley. Source for image.

Giraffes

“Tough Threads.” Ken Russell photographed Teddy Girls in London -1950s. Source for image.

Hedgehogs

Chuck Rowland & Harry Hay (Apr. 7, 1912 – Oct. 24, 2002), 1983. © Stephen Stewart, via @onearchives. Harry Hay was the visionary behind the queer liberation movement in the U.S. With his background in leftist politics, Hay merged the revolutionary idea of homosexuals as an “oppressed cultural minority” with the fundamentals of organizing. (verbiage by lgbt_history read more here).

Lions

Ocelots

Photograph by Romualdo Garcia. Source for image.

Octopus

Circa 1970 by Donna Gottschalk. Source for image.

Otters


Source for image.

Polar Bears

Source for image.

Rabbits

Source for image.

Source for image.

Raccoons

Photographed by Kay Tobin, circa 1977. Source for image.

Red Pandas

Mariana Romo Carmona and June Chan (b. June 6, 1956), New York City, 1988. Photo © Robert Giard Foundation. (read more about these activists here)

Seagulls

Source for image.

Skunks

Photograph from the etsy shop The Vintage Image Boutique.

Sloths

Castro Street Fair, San Francisco, California, August 17, 1980. Photo © Paul Fusco. (read more about this street fair here)

Snow Leopards

Gay Pride Day, NYC 1980 / © Stanley Stellar.

Zebras

Lord Alfred Douglas & Oscar Wilde. Source for image.

Ordering or Wholesaling the Affectionate Animal Series

  1. If you are a wholesaler who would like to carry this series in your shop, check out my wholesale catalogue.
  2. If you would like to know where to purchase this series, email me at hello@darlingillustrations.com and I can help you find a local retailer.

♡ Erin Darling