As part of the Elephant Family charity outdoor Jungle City art extravaganza in the Scottish capital during August & September, Hartwig has been asked to transform a fiberglass crocodile sculpture by dressing it with his distinctive hand-drawn design style of the Edinburgh cityscape.

The Elephant Family is a charity, set up by Mark Shand (brother of the Duchess of Cornwall - Camilla Parker Bowles) raising money to protect the endangered wildlife in south-east Asia. Last year their Elephant Parade in London involved more than 250 artistically dressed fiberglass baby elephants dotted around London for 4 weeks. The elephants were later auctioned and raised over £4 Million pounds, which were used to establish migration corridors for the animals to minimize and prevent human-animal conflict.

Hartwig is one of the 130 artists, designers and celebrities from across Scotland, England and the rest of the world that have been invited to adorn various wild animal sculptures especially for the event which aims to raise awareness and funds for the survival of endangered wild animals.

Hartwig really liked the idea of taking part in this event saying:

“To be chosen for Jungle City amongst such prominent artists is a real honour, marking a key step in the journey since establishing myself as an artist. I’m extremely proud to be able to make a contribution with my design for such an important charity that is having a significant impact on animal conservation.”

The drawing of the Edinburgh image, one of Hartwig's most complicated and detailed designs to-date, took around 7 weeks to complete - working literally night & day:

The artist’s Jungle City sculpture is of Edinburgh showing the city as you’ve never seen it before! Within the hand drawn illustration wrapped around the sculpture are many historic and recognisable landmarks including the Castle and Castle Rock, Grassmarket, the Usher Hall,Princes Street Gardens, the Royal Mile, the Hub, New College, Bank of Scotland, St Giles' Cathedral, University of Edinburgh, Canongate Tollbooth, "Our Dynamic Earth" exhibition building, the Scottish Parliament, Holyroodhouse Palace and Calton Hill.

Click on image above to see a bigger image.

Click on image above to see a bigger image.

Due to the nature of Hartwig's work we had to get a specialist team to apply the intricate artwork onto the crocodile. Under the artist's direction the image was neatly and meticulously wrapped around the animal in a process that took almost 3 whole days to complete. The process involved printing the artwork on a special material and carefully heat-wrapping it onto the fibreglass body of the crocodile in a process, which requires steady hand and lots of patience:

The results were stunning! It was the first time we have applied Hartwig's work onto a 3 dimensional item and it was wonderful to see how well the image translated onto the curved body of the crocodile.

“I am thrilled to see my artwork so vividly come to life wrapped around the crocodile as part of this important and exciting event in Edinburgh. The nicely curved and undulated back of the crocodile resembles Edinburgh’s topography with the Royal Mile as the spine climbing up all the way to Castle Rock – the city’s head.”

The countdown has started for the Jungle City outdoor event which launches in the Royal Botanic Gardens on 16th August and will see the animals unleashed on to Edinburgh’s streets on 6th September 2011. All the animals will be later auctioned to raise money for the charity and we hope croc-a-doodle will find a good home, where it will be looked after with love & care.

For more details on the event and the other fab animals taking part visit Jungle City or Elephant Family websites.