ABOUT

Colour illustrations commissioned for a 16-page children’s book to be published later this year. Briefs were given for each picture, and the narrative is in fact based on a true story.

excerpt from the assignment:
'The story is about a famous South African game ranger who was attacked by two male lions while riding his horse in the Kruger National Park one evening in 1903. One lion jumped onto the back of his horse, the horse panicked and bucked, knocking off both the lion and the game ranger, who nearly fell on top of the second lion.
The first lion then chased after the horse—with the game ranger’s dog chasing after the lion—while the second lion grabbed the game ranger by the right shoulder and dragged him, on his back, into the bush. The game ranger was badly injured but while being dragged along he managed to pull out his sheath knife and stab the lion in its heart. The lion let go of him and slunk off to die.
The game ranger then staggered to his feet and, thinking the other lion would soon come back, he looked around for a tree that, with only one good arm, he could climb. He managed to find a small tree to climb and, when the second lion came back and picked up his trail of blood, it tried to get at him in the tree. But his dog had also come back, and it harassed the lion. Eventually the game ranger's helpers arrived with their donkeys and other dogs and they fired off shots and made a fire to scare off the lion. The next day they made a stretcher to carry the game ranger and it took four days to reach a town where the game ranger’s wounds were finally treated.'

All pictures were hand-drawn, and enhanced and coloured in Adobe Photoshop.

My client on this project was Colin Collard, best known as the founder of South Africa's 'Wine-of-the-Month Club'.