Chubby unicorns

“If we can teach people about wildlife, they will be touched. Because humans want to save things that they love.” 

~Steve Irwin~

It's hard to believe over 7 years have gone by since I was in Africa and yet I have never drawn one of the rhinos I saw there! I guess the elephant (I've drawn 7...so far) was the animal I deeply connected with while on safari...and then the lions (drew 5 of them)!

It wasn't until my friend Shaney told me how much she loved them that I took a closer look. So I began following a few Rhino Conservation pages on Instagram: Rhinos in Africa Foundation, Rhino Man the Movie, Save the Rhinos and Rhino Republic, and I fell in love with them too, just as my friend had. 

So, of course I now have about 3 I want to draw!!

I started these white rhinos for a demo I gave last weekend at Blicks Art Store in Pasadena, CA. It's not the typical way I start a drawing, but since it was for a demo I wanted to have various parts started so I could talk about my technique. But now that has come and gone and I can really get cracking...in between my commission work that is...and get them done for a few upcoming exhibitions. And if it sells, as always, a portion will go to one of the groups below to help in their fearless efforts to save the rhino.

And here is the educational portion of this post!!!

The white rhino is the largest of 5 different types of rhinos. It's mouth is wide for grazing and is the friendliest of all of them. Once thought to be extinct, they now thrive in protected sanctuaries (we saw them at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy) but still a fraction of the estimated 100,000 that existed in the early part of the 20th century are now gone due to loss of habitat and poaching.

Several conservation tactics have been taken to prevent the rhinos disappearing from the earth. The northern white rhino have guards 24 hours a day watching over them at Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Image from: https://imgur.com/gallery/Q1xuD

If you feel moved to help, you can give to Lewa Wildlife Consevancy or Ol Pejeta Conservancy. And if you give $50 or more I will send you a matted print of my rhino drawing...just send me the proof and I will put you on a list when it's done. Thanks!

https://www.instagram.com/kathrynhansendrawings/

All Done~ recently completed drawings up for sale!!

I recently realized that I show you so many beginnings to my work but never show you the completed pieces here on my blog, only on Facebook do I ever seem to post the final piece! What the heck!!!

So here are some completed works of late. If you are interested in any of these pieces you can find the prints for sale on Fine Art America or for the original piece contact me directly!

Rest Stop   9x6.5  sold

Piercing Glare   8.5x6.5    $459.00

Hushed Majesty  10x6.5   $375.00

Eye Spy   5x7   $75.00

One Step Ahead   6.25x10.5   $539.00

**to see oodles of more drawings go to Fine Art America**

Dolores and friends

With Quiet Solitude aka Edgar completed, I'm diving right into my next drawing, a duck I named Dolores.

Quiet Solitude  Kathryn Hansen  (c) 2014 7.25x10.25

I spotted this beautiful Mallard duck in Santa Barbara while on vacation with my super fun girlfriend at the Botanic gardens on the out skirts of town. Its leisurely paths take you thru a small redwood forest, native plants, and a lovely pond filled with birds and turtles!

With some luck I should have Dolores done in time to enter into a gallery exhibit in the San Fernando, Ca area.

the birds of san buenaventura, ca

my boyfriend and i took a mini vacation to san buenaventura this past weekend. we intended to spend it riding our bikes in town, along the ocean and into the seaside wilderness park but it was sooo cold that we mostly just rode our bikes a short distance and sat on washed up logs and watched the bird show! i can't tell you how much i love doing that...just observing animals in their natural habitat...i find it fascinating, i learn SO much!! i just wish i had brought my binoculars, which i always seem to forget!!

2 new drawings on the board!

 this is tucker, a horse from the wild west campground and corral in wisconsin. my youngest daughter, emily has been attending summer camp there since third grade, she's now 16! last summer she took a plethora of photos for me to use as references for my drawings. i loved this photo as soon as i saw it but haven't gotten around to drawing him out until this past weekend! i'm hoping to have him completed so i can enter him in a competition through north light books in april. i entered last year but didn't make the cut...so cross your fingers (and/or anything else you'd like to cross...eyes, legs, etc) for me this year!! 

and this is gracie! i commissioned myself to create her for my other daughter, allie, for her birthday coming up quickly in just a few weeks. she found gracie behind her work place last summer and was in pretty bad shape...skinny, fur all around her tail area gone. so allie brought her home, fixed her up and intended to put her up for adoption. well...gracie is still with allie (rarely leaves her side!), but now with a beautiful, soft grey coat and a very, very round belly!

until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened. 

~anatole france~

coonie

josie

nyan

diamond, upside down...as she likes to sleep!

 since i am working on a secret rush portrait that needs to be done by wednesday night and shipped overseas on thursday, i can't share any progress shots. but as i sat on the couch most of the weekend drawing, the animals loved snuggling up around me and walking all over my drawing board! had to nudge our foster kittens, nyan and coonie off more than a few times!! it's hard as they are so sweet...but i was on a mission!

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

 

~Mahatma Gandhi~

 

Cloven Hoofs (c) Kathryn Hansen 2012

 

progress of the horse drawing:

with carmeggedon II here this weekend in los angeles i may just be able to finish up my horse drawing this weekend...crossing my fingers!

drawings in progress

 i am back to work on my deer drawing! yay! this is where i left it in july, in this post. tedious and confusing at times working on that ivy...but highly enjoying the process!! (of course if i'd quit watching the big bang theory at the same time... :-/ !! i love that show!)

i've also started these two new pieces. 

this is a collaboration between my daughter emily and i. emily took the photos for me this past summer in wisconsin at her very last horse camp because she just turned 16, she's been going since 3rd grade! i begged and pleaded for her to take lots of photos for me because i was in the mood to draw a horse.

she not only took photos of horses but loads of other animals as well...goats, donkeys, dogs, squirrels!!! she went above and beyond...what a great kid! 

i've desperately needed to restock my etsy shop with new work, so you'll see plenty of these small, 5x7 pieces flying off my drawing board in the next few months!!

check out emily's flickr page here

and

if you want to see photos from saturday nights closing show at the liberty gallery in long beach click here!