I found this incredible photo on Pixabay a little while ago and immediately decided to attempt making art from it.

Vultures have a really bad rep but in all honesty are perfectly adapted for their role in the food chain as scavengers. In areas where the vulture population is in decline, and corpses are not picked clean. The number of rabid dogs has multiplied.

NOTE: Vulture stomach acid is exceptionally corrosive (pH=1.0), allowing them to safely digest putrid carcasses infected with botulinum toxin, hog cholera bacteria, and anthrax bacteria that would be lethal to other scavengers and remove these bacteria from the environment. (Wikipedia)

These two pieces of photo-art are based on the original photo. Out of the two, I much prefer the gritty pen and ink sketch to the smooth oil version.

I do have prints available in my ArtBox Direct store if you would like to check them out. Hover and click or tap on an image to see what's on offer. The store pages will open in a new browser window.

Note: Not all images are available as prints.