How time flies, I can't believe how long it has last been since I last posted on the blog. I get very wrapped up in my work and when artworks take hold of me I find there is no time for blogs and such. Apologies to all who read my posts and were expecting something sooner.

Sometime ago I mentioned here that I was involved in a commissioned piece of artwork depicting the Chinese Alligator. The picture was originally to be a spectacled caiman but when the opportunity arose to draw one of the rarest reptiles on the planet I could not help myself from getting excited.

I have had a huge love of crocodiles ever since childhood. The highlight for any trip to the zoo was the reptile house and especially the crocodiles and alligators. These wonderful creatures strangely captivated me, (strange as they are not particularly mobile and will often sit for hours without movement,) not for any romantic reason that they reminded me of dragons or even dinosaurs. The reason they captured my imagination so intensely was that they are so exotic, they spoke to me of jungles and far away lands deep in the tropics, they were something completely alien to everything around me.

Becoming a professional artist later in life who specialized in  drawing animals I hoped one day the occasion would arise to put one of these reptiles onto paper doing it justice and giving it the time a picture of this persuasion deserves. Receiving a commission for this subject is as close as I can get to a personal drawing dream come true. I have had an idea in mind for years and now I had the chance to realize it in pencil.

A simple drawing of an alligator would have been nice, but the topic needed more, something to captivate the viewer, maybe an insight into behavior. The perfect representation of alligators was to show the incredibly gentle way a mother alligator carries her young to the water without harming them in her ruthlessly powerful jaws. I was nervous that although I had a clear picture of this in my mind it may not turn out anything like it. Often I will visualize a picture years before putting onto paper with mixed results. Sometimes it ends up looking nothing like I had planned other times it is as though I have had a complete transfer from mind to paper. I must say when it happens like this it is incredibly satisfying.

This drawing was also another opportunity to raise the profile of yet another very endangered animals, the Chinese Alligator. The Chinese alligator is listed as a CITES Appendix I species, which puts extreme restrictions on its trade and exportation throughout the world. It is IUCN Red Listed as a critically endangered species. Efforts are underway to reintroduce captive-bred animals to suitable wild habitats, but thus far have not met with much success.

I had the chance to view Chinese Alligators up close and personal through a contact with a private crocodile collection this gave me invaluable time to sit and study these creatures to make sure if I was going to draw it I would get it 100 percent anatomically correct which I hope I have accomplished.

Prints will be released of the alligator in glclee form in an edition of just 100 with a percentage being given to the chinese alligator conservation fund. They should be available for purchase some time in june.