Description
Using Talens inks as a backdrop, I place them randomly down on watercolour paper then using carbon paper. I draw over the top with my enlarged drawing so as not to mark the surface too much. I then map in the Rhino with black and white gouache. Great fun doing these and you can really let your imagination get carried away
In January 2018, at 10:00 local time, Minister Edna Molewa from the South African Department of Environmental Affairs released the 2017 poaching numbers from across South Africa. 1,028 rhino were poached in 2017, a slight decline (26) from the 1,054 animals killed in 2016.
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. And while poaching is down in Kruger National Park, it is significantly up in other provinces, particularly KwaZulu-Natal.
Although it is encouraging that poaching levels are not escalating, losses are still extremely high, the outlook for rhino population growth severely impacted, and poachers are proving adept at changing their target sites and trafficking strategies.
Furthermore, there are continuing and worrying signs that poaching gangs are increasingly moving beyond South Africa’s borders; gaining a foothold in other African countries – many of which have less resources available to protect wildlife. We’re certainly not out of the woods yet.
