Finishing out 2016 and moving on!

To any of you who have so kindly checked in here from time to time, thank you!  And now, it's time for me to come back!  So, a few posts to finish out 2016 and move on...

I make an annual trip with students to the LA Zoo for some animal sketching.  I like to go in advance to get in some practice and map my route, so here's a batch from the last trip...

These trips start with what the Zoo calls "Elephant
Training"...essentially the grooming and feeding of
retired circus elephants, and an opportunity to get
close to these three beautiful Asian elephants--Tina, Jewel and Billy.  Controversy continues about whether or not the 6.56 acre habitat is adequate for all three.
















And a few meerkats...















Next, the orangutans in the Red Ape Rain Forest...

And gorillas, who have no interest in us whatsoever...

Chimpanzee families, monkeys, Francois Langurs, a macaw and a bit of the bird show...

And, I cannot visit the LA Zoo without drawing those most beautiful and elegant giraffes!

And finally, the lovely Nubian Ibex family...

Road Trip: San Diego

Catching up here with a summer's worth of sketching, and a road trip in July to San Diego!

I was again fortunate to be riding "shotgun", which means I get to passenger-sketch my way from Los Angeles, except for occasional navigation duties...

Lovely to see a turquoise ocean as we passed through San Onofre...where you also see the decommissioned nuclear power plant peeking around some trees...

Balboa Park was our destination...which I loved visiting as a child, and it's every bit as beautiful and gracious as I remember it.  The San Diego Zoo is vast--with far more habitat than animal "exhibits"--just as it should be.  Some quick sketches here of the pandas, and the gerenuks...

Sketching a view here of the "Skyfari" and the lovely Museum of Man over lunch at the zoo--in the flight path of the airport,  so Southwest airplanes passed by frequently...

Balboa Park takes many more than a few days to explore...gardens, theaters and something like 16 museums.   The architecture goes back to the 1916 Panama-California Exposition--and the grand buildings along El Prado promenade are referred to as "Spanish Colonial Revival" style--with wonderfully over-the-top ornamentation...I want to go back and spend more time sketching the way they catch the light!  

My last sketching stop at Balboa Park was the lovely Botanical Building, next to a long reflecting pool.  It seemed to me that people were more caught up with their phones than usual...and discovered later that this was the day Pokemon Go was released--apparently the Park is full of them!

Leaving San Diego, just had to visit historic Old Town, as restaurants and shops gear up for lunchtime visitors...

And the road trip continues--home to Los Angeles...

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...

Animal Drawing

Every fall I take students to the LA Zoo, and I go a few times in advance to sketch, see what's new and mentally map out the best routes.  Some sketches from this fall...

Meerkats greet you near the zoo entrance...(while they watch the skies for winged predators)

 We watch and sketch the "elephant training"--Billy, Jewel and Tina.  The girls are retired circus elephants...

Someone said you cannot be in the presence of gorillas for an hour and not be completely awed...this is very true.
















Chimp mothers...

Amazingly, we happened to be at the zoo the day after the birth of a baby hippo!  Seen here nestling with mom--baby's sex hadn't been determined yet since mother and baby were being left alone to bond...

Orangutans in the "Orangutan Forest"...

 One of my favorites--Francois Langurs--visitors stand in a little house surrounded by the Langurs' forest habitat...














The siamang making his extraordinary resonating calls with his throat pouch...






I always find zoo visitors pretty interesting to sketch as well!

At the Zoo...

Every year I take students to draw at the L.A. Zoo, so like to spend some time before hand sketching there, and plan out the route in my head.  Here are some of 2013's sketches...

The meerkats--always watching the skies...

 Watching the giraffe as he bends to nibble...

Okapi...

 Francois Langurs grooming, cassowary, echidna and koala...

And a few from years past...

Watching the watchers at Mahale Mountain...

Gita, the lovely Asian Elephant who died a few years ago...I believe she was posing for me!

The watchful world of the gorillas...