Lincolnshire graduate wins Wildlife Artist of the Year award for his hyper-real drawing

Levi Hurst with his award-winning artwork.

Levi Hurst, 21, was chosen as the winner of the ‘Human Impact’ category of this year’s awards run by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) in association with BBC Wildlife Magazine.

Entitled ‘Not a Gift’, his artwork is a hyper-realistic charcoal drawing of a lion’s paw – highlighting the horrors of the illegal big cat trade.

Upon hearing he had won, Levi said: "I am beyond lost for words.

A close-up of the hyper-realistic, hand-drawn tiger's paw.

"I felt validated as an artist. It was great to think that other people could also share my vision and reacted to it in the way I had hoped."

Levi said he only entered it into the competition “as a way of putting my art out there" – and never expected to win.

He skillfully produced the 40x50cm artwork out of charcoal, used in pencil and powder form.

"In general I like producing artwork that invokes a reaction from people, whether good or bad,” he said.

Levi's drawing of a bulldog looks like a photograph, it is so realistic.

"I started creating work around animal conservation as I want to use my work to bring a voice to those subjects.”

Judges commended Levi’s work, with wildlife activist Martin Aveling applauding his “exquisite detail”, while CEO at DSWF, Georgina Lamb, described his work as “hauntingly striking in its simplicity”.

Levi said the artwork was produced as part of his BA Creative Arts degree course at Boston College, which he graduated from this summer.

He spent three months researching the subject of the barbaric global trade of tiger parts, and feels very passionate about the subject, and wildlife conservation in general.

A close-up of the detailed Kate Moss artwork.

"I wanted to showcase how these animals are poached in the wild, with parts of them used to make necklaces and pendants in some countries to show off their a person's status.

“I took lots of reference photos and them combined them in Photoshop, which is what I then based my charcoal drawing on.”

A spokesperson for Boston College said: “Levi Hurst’s artistic talent is simply world class, he has academically and vocationally progressed from a Level 3 Art qualification onto the Higher National Diploma in Art before finally finishing on the Creative Arts BA (Hons) Degree.

“It was during his mentoring sessions with the Creative Arts BA (Hons) co-ordinator Mark Lyon, that Levi developed wildlife artwork during the courses Innovative Practice module.

Some more of Levi's work - each hand-drawn in charcoal.

“Winning the Human Impact category is a fitting testimony to his amazing talent and his values in the conservation of wildlife.

"He has been an exceptional and inspirational student in the Creative Art Curriculum.”

Levi says he hopes to be able to donated proceeds of any future sales of prints of his work to charities which help to conserve tigers in the wild. He is now in talks with last year's winner of the awards category about a collaboration artwork in colour.

• To see more of Levi's artwork, follow his Instagram account @_lh_art_