Ruppel's Vulture Illustration done for National Geographic January 2016 issue.

First round of sketches:

The client was happy to move forward with the last one, and provided a mock-up of the illustration together with graphic layout:

I started over on the sketch with a better foundation and with more attention to anatomy and detail specific to the species. 

Stage two of painting:

Lots of iteration on shape of feathers, beak etc to make sure that it did indeed look like a proper Ruppel's Vulture. National Geographic provided plenty of reference material and also had an expert on this bird to look over the detail and make sure that I was on track.

Wing details:

Head detail:

Finished image with text overlays:

Clean finished image:

The complete article on the situation of vultures around the world, in which this illustration is featured, can be read in the January 2016 issue of National Geographic. There's an online version of that same article here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/01/vultures-endangered-scavengers/