Mountain Gorilla and Baby

Gorillas are our closest living relatives after chimpanzees.

The Mountain Gorilla is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla. It has longer hair, jaws and teeth, but slightly shorter arms, than the other subspecies of the Eastern Lowland Gorilla. Adult males grow a patch of silver hair on their back and hips, giving them the name 'silverback'.

They can also develop a dark ginger crop on their forehead.

There are approximately only 1004 Mountain Gorillas left in the wild

On average, adult males weigh 160 kg, and adult females 98 kg.

Mountain Gorillas are found at high altitudes (2,500-4,000 m) in mountain forests, as well as bamboo forests.

A group of Mountain Gorillas usually consists of a single dominant silverback male, three adult females, and 4-5 offspring.

From the time that young gorillas are old enough to move away from their mothers, they follow males everywhere. Males, in turn, are extremely tolerant. Some regularly hold, play with, groom, and let infants sleep in their nests with them.

Starting with a simple non-detailed sketch and covering the background black my next stage was to define the colours with a first coat of acrylic blocking.

Working across various areas I started to apply the fine detail.

For my next stage I concentrated on adding the detail on the Gorilla and babies face and slowly building up the detail on the fur. Finally, the rest of the detailed hair was added to complete the painting.

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