I started working on wildlife subjects in 2021. I was apprehensive about it since all I did to that point was human subjects. As it turns out, I've become pretty accomplished on certain animals. I like using tiger subjects to raise awareness of its near extinction status. This Sumatran Tiger is a subspecies that numbers less than 400 left in the wild in the world. I used a scalpel to create this image. It took much longer than most other projects due to the size and also because I was planning to add color. If I tried to color it after I initially scratched it, the clay would soak up the color and the black ink residue would muddy the colors. So, as in all color pieces I do, I scratched, colored, and re-scratched multiple times. I did this until I achieved the texture and tone I wanted in the work. My best guess is that I probably spent around 100-125 hours on this one. I’m very happy with the way it turned out and it is among my favorites.