Heavenly Jewel - Early days

This is my design for Elephant Parade London 2010 - an event that will see 250 decorated, fibre glass elephants spread out over the capital to raise awarness of the plight of the Asian elephant. After two months out under the London sun they will be auctioned off to raise funds for elephant conservation in India.

More details can be found at www.elephantfamily.org - the charity that is organising this event and www.elephantparadelondon.org - about the event itself.

In these next few posts I want to show how my design developed from the blank statue through to the finished artwork. I started off by painting the outlines of the major details and then filling the shapes in bit by bit. Due to the nature of the surface and the acrylic paints it took several layers to build the correct intensity of colour.

The concept is based on the role of the elephant in Hindu mythology. In one form it is the mount of Indra, king of the gods, who rides on his back across the Heavens. This is represented by the clouds floating around the whole sculpture. The flying figures on the side are apsaras - celestial dancers who I have used to personify the elephant's graceful movements.