ENDANGERED: Fine Art & Photography Contest 2019 Winner

First Prize Winner: Young Artists - Congratulations to Noah Moussa (aged 13 years) for Adult Amur Leopard

The endangered species I picked for the Endangered Apes competition is called the Amur Leopard. Amur Leopards are a subspecies of leopard except they live in colder climates and have thicker coats than normal leopards. Their coats are colored in creamy yellow to rusty orange depending on what their climate is usually like and live in northeast Russia and China. The gaze poise and presence in the picture that the leopard expressed was fascinating and interesting to me. I discovered how to create an impression for the fur and depth in the painting as well as how to create a different sense of focus to accentuate the gaze and expression in the leopard's face. This was also one of my first completed oil paintings in this size (16 x 20). Today only about 84 are recorded living in the wild now we are gradually helping raise the numbers and becoming more aware of them.

I am a 13-year-old young artist living in Miami, FL. The subjects I'm most interested in are portraits of animals and humans; capturing the fur textures, skin tones, and expressions. I also look at different compositions, perspectives, and poses. I am most interested in oil paints as a medium, but I also find pastel, pencil, and watercolors exciting as well. I'm also interested in exploring still-life as a subject and building techniques in shading and value to add to my overall skill set. I aim to continue building my skills to be able to capture expressive emotions and movement.