Okay, this one needs to carry a warning - this image may upset some viewers, so if you think that may be you, please don't look!

For that reason, I'll carry on about the process and inspiration a bit first...




It was drawn in brush and pen on paper in black and white, then the colours were painted out on a separate sheet of paper, the two images were scanned (at the same resolution) and combined on the computer. I like to keep black linework looking sharp! Originally, it was going to be in black and white only, but I thought adding some colour would make it even more striking (not less so, as is sometimes the case). Unfortunately his face became washed out with scanning, but I'm not sure it matters.

I'm pretty happy with the way the composition came out: it's set up a bit like a horror image, but that's intentional. There were a lot more dogs at the pencil stage, but I removed them, because I thought they diluted it.

The inspiration for this picture came about from a very stupid story I was reading in a weekend magazine from a local newspaper. Just as this particular "sport" has been outlawed in the U.K., apparently some locals thought it would be a good idea to get it going here. While I recognise the problem of introduced animals in Australia (only too well), this is not the solution - one can only think some people are after an excuse to carry out such activities! By the way, it's a crowbar our sporting hero is holding in his hand - sorry if that's ambiguous.



Thinking back, maybe one reason I have such deep contempt for this "sport" is because I remember as a kid in Northumberland (when I was visiting England), seeing the badger holes all blocked up before a foxhunt, so the fox couldn't run down them!

Labels: Illustration Friday