Wednesday, December 03, 2014

152-Sketching at ZooAtlanta

Color me tired. I drew for five hours minus a quick lunch with my sketching partner Cyndy Withrow.

My first sketches were terrible. I managed to 23 pages in my watercolor moleskine with two Lamys. One died. Glad I had a backup. I drew every large animal except the three multiple times. Six pages of elephants alone. Lots of double page spreads. All done in permanent ink Noodlers bulletproof that I got at Sam Flaxs last week.







The last elephant page. I have been going back since I got home adding comments and sometimes titles to the pages. Eventually I will watercolor them.







Finally I found a rhino that didn't move. The carousel was the last thing I drew.







Up close of double page spread. Left page.






Totally in love with this bird. Probably the first thing I will paint. Huge blue eyes thickly fringed with eyelashes w red orange waddles. He kept following me and staring at me like he wanted something. No idea what.

What I learned. Almost every animal moves. Something u don't realize when u r madly snapping photos. Even the rhinos moved.

If u want an animal that doesn't move much draw the gorillas. Even the acrobat baby would hold his pose.

Bring a camp stool. Benches are never where you want to draw. Everything was drawn holding the sketchbooks or leaning on the rail.

Frustrated with moving animals. There are lots of stationary ones as statues and the carousel. I finally found a rhino who didn't move!!

Oh and tell them you are drawing. We actually got in free because we were. I think it was just the sweet girl at the ticket booth but the answer is always no if they don't know.



1 comment:

Pilgrim said...

Fun drawings! Thank you for the tips! Looks like you had a great day.