One of the things that wildlife artists can get criticised for is being draughtsmen rather than artists. We can get very good at copying photographs, and that's where criticism often comes in. I like to keep my work real. I don't try to make it look like a photograph, but I work hard to make it look as real as possible, and in most cases the compliments are well worth it. However, there's always someone who will say, “Why not just take a photo and save yourself the time?” It's never the sort of thing that worries me, but it does get me thinking. As artists we have the opportunity to tell a story that the photograph might not be telling. In a previous
