New work / Wildlife study #1- White Rhino / Charcoal on paper

White Rhino's head study - 2018
26 × 38 cm
Charcoal on paper

For me, drawing animals is something more relaxed than drawing portraits or figurative. That's because if a bit of a mistake on the animal's drawing is still intangible compared with portrait or figurative drawings that require more accuracy and focus.

So I choose rhino for the subject because it is interested in the texture of their skin and curiosity, why their horns are so valuable that they are killed just for the horn.

The process

So I started this drawing with a basic sketch on paper.

I used charcoal pencil to detailing the skin texture.

Half way done.

Here comes the precious horn

The white rhinos consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinos with an estimated 21000 wild-living animals in the year 2015, and the much rarer northern white rhinos. The northern subspecies had very few remaining, with only three confirmed individuals left in 2017 (two females and one male), all in captivity.

Rhino poaching has escalated in recent years and is being driven by the demand for rhino horn in asian countries, particularly Vietnam. It is used in Traditional Medicine but more and more commonly now it is used as a status symbol to display someone’s success and wealth.

There’s no reason to celebrate: 1,028 rhinos killed in South Africa alone during 2017 works out nearly three rhinos being killed every day.