Zoo Trip 16th January 2011

Zoo time. Often, I spend a lot of time painstakingly rendering a pose of an animal that has been kind enough to stay in one position long enough for me to draw the basics. This time I had a go at much quicker sketching. This, of course, leaves the chance of doing a plain shitty drawing much higher than normal, but I guess that's all part of it. Plus, I never know what I'm going to get to draw when we're there. All manner of factors are at work: the weather, the crowds, my focus, how recalcitrant the animals are being...
I askjed AD specifically if we could NOT go near the giraffes and zebras, cos I draw them every time. And what happened?

I got to draw very little, it seems. We had intended to go to the Australian animals section, but all the 'roos were flaked out in the shade and hoardes of parents with kids would come rocketing through in clusters, disturbing the animals. And the sun was burning the living daylights out of me. Melbourne zoo really has little shade for observers. Actually, looking back on how little I drew, that's really quite pathetic.
AD took these photos.

This gentleman looked like he'd just crash landed into the garden bed, but he seemed quite comfy.


Ostriches... weird birds.

Eeee, these made me laugh! They look like the'd be as light as polystyrene if you picked them up, and I love their feather patterns.

A kookaburra looking extremely business-like. There were dead mice being handed out, so the cage's inhabitants were rather chipper.

While in the great aviary, I happened to look up and spot this forbidding specimen of a black cockatoo.
Lace monitor foot close-up. I've always thought their skin looks like what those glittery purses from the 60s were made of.

If that's not a "f*ck off!" expression, I don't know what is!

Elegant lounging.



And why not?

Xmas Break Sketches

Whilst in Perth, I had my sketchbook with me. My aim was to draw a little each day, mostly from the Posemaniacs website.
A chance to visit the Perth Zoo with Mr Teal, Timothy Merks, Rosaline Lau and Aeronik arose. Zoo sketches are always patchy for me. I start off concentrating on one animal, then as the day goes on, my focus wanes. Plus, some animals never sit still! The pygmy marmosets were so cute but fidgeted and leapt about constantly.

Hands. Not my strongest, so the fact that the Posemaniacs site had hand close-ups meant I could spend a bit looking at these.
A small portion of the sketches taken from the figures on Posemaniacs. I'd do 30 second and 1 minute poses, mostly, as I need to draw faster. Oftentimes my page would end up a total mess as I'd draw poses overlapping since it's an exercise more than a display piece. Consequently they ended up looking like a Futurism piece like Nude Descending A Staircase. Or in my case, Smashed Nude Falling Off A Cliff. These are a few of the cleaner ones, with some I went over afterwards for more clarity.

Zoo Sketches

Being a member of Melbourne Zoo, I really should get along and sketch there a hell of a lot more than I do.


I lost the original comp of the sketches below when my hard-drive shat itself last year.