'Dappled light' - in the making

I was delighted to be invited to participate in an international wildlife art exhibition to be held in Namibia in April 2018. The Kayamoja ArtConnects Trust is holding this exhibition in conjunction with some local Namibian artists, encouraging them by creating wildlife art, that they will in turn learn to respect it and therefore encourage conservation. This exhibition will be a fundraiser for conservation.

I chose to draw a leopard for this project and had wonderful memories of an encounter with a female leopard in Botswana some years ago. This lovely leopard had just moved into a new territory with a young cub and was out patrolling when she chanced upon a male cheetah. After a short stalk to get a bit closer, she broke cover and chased him away. Afterwards, she rested in the shade to catch her breath and I managed to take some lovely reference photos. The following images are a snapshot of my drawing process taken over a few months as I worked on her. Due to the large size and complexity of the drawing, I took regular breaks, sometimes for weeks at a time, so that I kept a fresh perspective.