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