"Leopard Portrait"

The leopard (Panthera pardus) is the most discreet of the African big cats. Solitary and largely nocturnal, it owes its survival as much to concealment as to strength — capable of hauling a kill twice its own weight into the fork of a tree, out of reach of scavengers.

The gaze is turned slightly to one side, towards something beyond the frame — an oblique that creates a mystery the frontal view would not. The drawing deliberately plays on two registers: a near-photographic precision of the mask, spots and whiskers included, dissolving into free strokes the moment the eye leaves the face. The unfinished is not a fault — it is what gives the portrait life.