Vulture Culture

I've always had a soft spot for the slightly less attractive animals in the world but I LOVE vultures and the Northern bald Ibis, however these images are not generally something that people want on their walls. This made me feel quite sad as this birds are awesome and seriously endangered too! Ok, they may not have the cute or glamour factor of a panda or tiger but I think they're pretty handsome and perfectly designed for their function in life.

The Hawk Conservancy in Andover does amazing work to help the Vultures and are constantly raising awareness and part of a global network to save these birds.

I decided to do a project based on the ' less attractive endangered animals' as inspired by Simon Watts of the Ugly animal preservation society and it is going to include these guys...

The Northern Bald Ibis which I sketched at the fantastic Marwell Zoo who have a great aviary for these guys, it was a joy to sketch them. I love the way their bodies and feather go into crazy directions as they're grooming and when then hunch over they look like old men.

These studies have been done in water colour and pen and are a bit larger than A4.