Inky Animals

I have started to paint some animals to use within my campaign pack idea, using paint brush and ink I was able to replicate the certain faces over a series of different animals. I think a stylised approach works for a campaign in favour of the protection of nature.

At this point I think it may be useful to combine this imagery with text to create promo material for a campaign. Leading on from this I may end up making an entire promotional pack in favour of a hunting ban - focusing mainly on the problems with poaching in Africa.

I think the most shocking factors are those to do with the animals highest in the food chain, and how this affects the balance of nature for the rest of the animals. As long as you have the money it is possible to shoot any animal in African wildlife, it is purely based on cost and the expense of doing so. Elephants, lions, leopards, etc are all available to buy as a trophy.

As I am aware of the hysteria that certain cases like Cecil the lion have caused, I would like to maybe look into why that is. Why, as meat eaters, is there something so wrong about someone killing an animal for sport? Cecil was such an awful case as he was an inhabitant of a national park, which should serve as a home and protection for all animals within it.

I remember after that a lot of images came to the surface, especially on social media, of trophy photographs which is where a picture is taken of a hunter with the animal moments after it is killed. Almost boasting and a way to show off the whole animal to others, before it is beheaded for the trophy wall.

Although I have my own views on the subject matter, as it is obviously something that disturbs me, I realise that for other people it is a way of life that they have been brought up in. For instance, many of the hunters have hunting families so have never known any different - just as I have never killed an animal, I still eat meat.

I want to look into the other side of what hunting means to someone who has been doing it their whole life.