A trip to the LA Zoo...

Every fall I plan an LA Zoo sketching trip with my students.  I go and do some sketching in advance...there's always apt to be some newborns to check out and I map a route.  Here are some sketches from the most recent trip...

Sketching materials at the zoo need to be easy and portable...I used a combination here of pencil, ink and ink wash in brush pens (and some watercolor on the large giraffe drawing below...)

In the Red Ape Forest...

Orangutans and Gorillas...

The the daily "elephant training" is a great opportunity to get a close up view of the elephants, today it was Billy...he seems to enjoy the grooming and feeding with his trainers, and doesn't seem to mind all the visitors...

A young orangutan...


The giraffes with a 3 week old baby!

A slow-moving tortoise gives us plenty of time to sketch....and a languorous jaguar draped in a tree...








Meerkats never stop moving and checking the skies for flying predators...

A howler monkey family and a giant otter in the newest part of the zoo, Rainforest of the Americas...