The Small Three

Every time we go on safari you hear mention of the big five, supposedly the most dangerous animals to track and hunt on foot in Africa. Despite the fact that most safari tours are done by Landcruiser you still get interest in seeing them all and many tourists are happy with a snap of each on their phones. We like to spend longer and the animals we watch and photograph are the ones that are interacting. We have ben lucky enough to get really close and often we are the only ones there.

Now we are back at home I like to remember those encounters by drawing and I wanted to do some series on the juveniles and babies we have seen as they are fun to watch/

First there was a family of White Rhinos we saw in Namibia , this was very special as we got to help feed them as the rangers wanted to encourage them to move away form the boundary of the park to make it harder for poachers to attack them. Poaching is a serious concern and the team were armed not to protect us but to defend these magnificent animals from harm.

I have done each of these in grpahit pencil as they are not that colourful and the black and white treatment emphasises the textures and tone.

A baby White Rhinoceros still a little unsteady on his feet

We also went to the Chobe river between Namibia and Botswana. We saw large herds of elephant reminiscent of a Sunday picnic where families would come and say hi and the young would play with each other. This lillte chap has had his afternoon bathe to cool down and like any sensible child he’s applying sun block (aka mud) to protect his skin..

mud mud glorious mud - you can see all the splashes on him and how he’s drying out.

Finally there’s the most dangerous animal for humans in Africa the Hippopotamus. This was taken by Juliet of a hilarious half an hour where the little lad is playfighting with dad even though he hasn’t got his tusks yet. After doing that he decided he wanted a piggy back ride while dad quitly puts upwith all this unwanted attention.

I am the king of the castle

I am pleased with the result, I think the rhino is the weakest of the three perhaps I need darker shadows to create more punch like the other two?