Peek In The Studio: Amur Leopard in Sketch For Survival

Amur Leopard in Sketch For Survival

I was invited to participate in the 2018 Sketch for Survival charity exhibition by Explorers Against Extinction. This is my piece for the event, approximately 9″ x 12″, Graphite on Bristol.

The Amur Leopard, described by WWF as the world’s rarest big cat, is critically endangered. The Amur Leopard’s central habitat, The Land of the Leopard National Park, has seen a welcome growth in their numbers – 84 adult cats and 19 cubs inside the park, up from only 30 cats in a 2000 census.

I hope you are able to view the original if you happen to be in New York or London during the scheduled exhibit dates before the auction to support this worthy cause.

It’s currently estimated that 55 elephants a day are killed for their ivory, that’s one every 26 minutes. An average of three rhinos a day are killed for their horn. There are c. 23,000 lions left in the wild, down from 200,000 a century ago. There are c. 4,000 tigers left in the Indian sub-continent, down from 40,000 a half century ago.

Sketch for Survival is all about raising awareness of these shocking statistics, while also raising significant funds to fight wildlife crime.
We ask artists, illustrators, cartoonists and celebrities to spend just 26 minutes, the same amount of time it takes for another African elephant to be poached for its tusks, on a sketch of any endangered species. All these sketches are then displayed on a nationwide gallery tour in October and November 2018, including a week in Central London and three days in New York, USA. The collection will also be available to view and to bid for via our online auction site. The auction will conclude on the evening of Sunday 25th November 2018.

Amur Leopard, graphite on bristol paper, Rebecca Latham