endangered species watercolors

During the Scales, Tails, Feathers and Fins art camp, in other words an animal themed art camp, I discussed with the kids how artist create images to make the viewer aware of social causes.

And that they could create art to make people aware of issues important to them.

I then introduced a series of animals currently on the critical endangered species list and told them if they wanted, they could pick one to highlight in their artwork and make others aware of the animals' plight.

I also gave them the option to just do an animal of their choice but almost all the kids were quite interested in not only learning about the different animals I had shared with them but also wanting to use them to create artwork.

I tried to pick a variety of species of animals that children usually gravitate too when creating art in the studio.....tigers, turtles, elephants, porpoises...and I tried to pick at least one animal containing scales, tails, feathers and fins like the mouthful of a title I gave this art camp.

What was I thinking when I came up with that????

I brought out the liquid watercolors and some larger than normal paper and let the kids have fun. After a quick demonstration of some of the different techniques they could try with the watercolors, they began to sketch and create a pen drawing on their papers.

Vaquita 7 year old

Several of the children felt a connection to the Vaquita and chose it to highlight in their artwork. Maybe because it is close to home? Or maybe because it is so very close to extinction as the world's rarest marine mammal, with half it's population lost in the last three years due to illegal gillnet fishing in protected areas within Mexico's Gulf of California.

Vaquita. 7 year old

Or probably because it is so darn cute and it's plight truly touched the heart of these young children.

Needless to say if you are like me and before now have never heard of this sweet porpoise, thanks to these artworks you are now aware of the imminent loss forever of these beautiful creatures if something doesn't drastically change immediately.

Sumatran Tiger.

Another popular choice was the Sumatran Tiger, the last of Indonesia's tigers due to deforestation and poaching. There are as few as 400 left in the world now.

Sumatran Tiger.

And as always, there were those children who truly felt moved to create awareness to save the turtles.

Giant Tortoise

Whether it be the vulnerable state of the Giant Tortoise,

Leatherback Turtle

or the critical endangered Leatherback turtle. There was no surprise that a couple of the children gravitated to this animal for their artwork.

falcon

I did have one child who just wanted to focus on his love of birds of prey. He absolutely loves using them in his artwork and I wasn't surprised when he requested I pull the Falcon and Eagle reference files for him to use.

I was surprised however that only one child gravitated to the elephant. 

I would of expected more kids wanting to make sure the world knew of their endangered status, but the lone preschooler in the camp made sure you don't forget about the elephant's plight. She loved the process of mixing the primary colors and seeing what new color she could make. 

We had drawn the elephant together, side by side, while sketching. I asked her to find the different shapes that made up the elephant and then we drew them onto our papers. Afterwards, I had her connect the shapes with line and then go over it with an ink pen. 

However during her process of mixing color, the elephant was long forgotten so at the end I gave her some black and asked her to fill in the elephant shape. I then retraced HER LINES with a black oil pastel to bring the elephant back to the forefront in the end. 

At the end of the day, I think the kids learned a valuable lesson in the power of art in terms of relaying a message of importance to them. Hopefully this proves to them that they have a powerful tool in order to make their voices heard in the future. 

I mean here they are reminding the worldwide web that we need to take care of the animals on our planet as stewards of the earth, paying special attention to these beautiful creatures we are about to lose forever, through their artwork.

Proving you are never too young to make a difference, to use your voice, or in this case a mighty paintbrush in order to try to change the world for the better.