Elephants on Parade!

So I've been a bit obsessed with the Elephant Parade London 2010. Raising awareness of the urgent crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant, it is an outdoor art event featuring 258 fibreglass elephants decorated by an assortment of creative artists and designers, scattered across London. I have been fascinated with seeing the elephants positioned within the city, and also observing the way in which the public reacts to them. I've been out trying to photograph all of the elephants, and posting the results over on Facebook. There's still a fair number left for me to capture, but I'm enjoying the photographic hunt.

Anyway, all of which leads me to some rather exciting drawing news! Yesterday I was informed that Amelia's Magazine had been asking on Twitter whether anyone had any photographs or illustrations of the Elephant Parade, so I sent them an email with a link to my photo album, plus informing them that I was an illustrator who was very interested in the Elephant Parade and would really like to produce an illustration. A few emails later, and I was hard at work producing an illustration to send to them by first thing this morning. One slightly sleepless night later, and I came up with an image featuring a group of elephants from the Parade riding around in one of the many rickshaws that zip around Central London...



You can read the full article (which also includes some of my photographs) over at Amelia's Magazine, and also sign the petition to save the Asian elephant at the Elephant Parade London website.