Thursday, February 28, 2013

Filling My Punch Card


10/18/12 pencil (2-minute pose)
2/28/13 Pitt Big Brush marker (2-minute pose)
After last week’s Dr. Sketchy travesty, I wanted to get out to Gage for a real figure drawing session as soon as I could.
 
Today I used up my five-session punch card, and I feel excessively pleased with myself. Not necessarily because of the sketches that came out of this morning’s drop-in session, but because attending was no longer the agony it used to be.
 
When I went to my first one last October, I must have been tense the entire three hours, because I went home entirely sore and exhausted. Despite that, I committed to five more sessions by purchasing a punch card because I knew that if I had already paid in advance, I would continue to go (nothing motivates me like not wanting to waste money). 
 
10/18/12 pencil (5-minute pose)
2/28/13 Nero pencil (5-minute pose)
Life drawing is no less challenging now than it was in October, but over time I must have relaxed, because I no longer go home feeling sore and exhausted. In fact, today I was a little bit buzzed. No wonder Gage sells life drawing sessions by the punch card – they know we’ll be back for more.
 
Shown here are some sketches from two sessions. On the left are 2-minute and 5-minute sketches from October, and on the right are sketches of the same durations from today. Below is a 20-minute experiment today using unusual media – a magenta water-soluble colored pencil and diluted blue ink.
2/28/13 Albrecht Durer water-soluble pencil, diluted ink (20-minute pose)

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Budding


2/26/13 Ultra Black ink, Platinum Carbon ink wash, Stillman & Birn sketchbook
From my car parked at the Sand Point Metropolitan Market, I looked closely at a tree across the street, and even from that distance, I could see that it was full of buds. Yesterday when the sun came out, it almost seemed like spring could be on its way, but I don’t want to jinx it by talking about it. Instead, I’ll mention that I once read in a drawing instruction book that sketching trees in winter is better training than when they are in full foliage because you can see their shapes so much more clearly. (Or to put it another way, you can’t hide behind blobs that you call “leaves.”)

This sketch made me think that it might be time to replace cars with trees as my new sketching nemesis. (Based on the recent Urban Sketchers Flickr thread on this topic, trees are the sketching nemesis of at least a couple of fellow sketchers.) Not that I’ve conquered cars – far from it – but I told myself two months ago that I would sketch a car a week until I either improved or got tired of it. I am now exhausted of cars.

To keep myself honest, I’ll say it out loud here: Trees are my new sketching nemesis. I’ll sketch a tree a week until my sketches improve or I get tired of it, whichever comes first. (Maybe by then, the trees will have leaves!)

At Betty’s


2/26/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn sketchbook
Betty invited three of us over to her house for a few hours of creativity. Her home displays many of her own beautiful paintings as well as other artworks that would have been fun to sketch. But I decided to focus on the interior space with its challenging subtle differences in value. We had chatted during lunch, but once we started working, we all fell silent. I enjoyed sketching in the room filled with quiet creative energy.

Monday, February 25, 2013

Silver Subaru


2/25/13 Platinum Sepia ink, Platinum Carbon wash, Zig markers, watercolor
It’s only Monday, so I decided to get my car-sketching exercise over with early in the week. After stopping at the library’s Green Lake branch, I drove toward the west side of the lake and pulled into a parking lot (though a different one from the one where my car battery died last week, just in case bad car battery jujus lingered).
 
After a cold and breezy morning, the sun came out, so the lake was crowded with walkers, and the lot was fairly full. Twice when I targeted a car and started to sketch, its owner came by and drove away. (When Peggy and I were sketching the Ballard Centennial Bell Tower together a while back, she remarked that the surest way to make a car go away was to start sketching it.) Three’s a charm, and this silver Subaru stayed put long enough for me to finish the sketch. (Though barely – I was still scribbling shadows when it drove away, so I had to paint from memory.)

Friday, February 22, 2013

The Burke Museum


2/22/13 Private Reserve Velvet Black ink, Platinum Carbon wash, Zig marker

We urban sketchers in the northern hemisphere have to be creative in finding places to sketch during the cold, wet winter months. While my typical retreat is the coffee shop because I favor sketching people, Larry Marshall, a sketcher in Quebec, spends most of his winter sketching time at the Musee de la Civilisation (check out his collection of samurai helmet sketches). Although I have a SAM membership, I’m not inclined to take the bus downtown to sketch there for only a half-hour, which is often all the time I have between work and other commitments. But I may have found my own “winter salvation” that Larry speaks of.
 
I’m not sure why I haven’t spent more time at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, which is tucked into one end of the University of Washington campus. Ten minutes away by car and 20 by bus, it’s an ideal place for me to pop in for a quick sketch between appointments, yet it’s never been on my radar. So I was all for it when a few Seattle Urban Sketchers decided to meet there.
 

2/22/13 Private Reserve Ultra Black ink, Platinum Carbon wash, Hand Book journal
Bones, bones and more bones! While some of the stuffed, lifeless birds and animals made me a bit sad, I found the skeletons thrilling! I summoned my inner paleontologist to sketch the huge Paraphysornis brasilienis, or Terror Bird from Brazil, a cast replica of a 22-million-year-old skeleton. And talk about timing – I finished my sketch just as a billion children on a field trip suddenly surrounded the Terror Bird.
 
Tucked behind the main exhibits is an education area that wasn’t in use today (a quiet respite from the field trip). There I spotted a case with a full skeleton of a Hoplophoneus, a cat similar to a saber tooth that lived 25 million years ago. We were meeting to share sketchbooks in 15 minutes, so I focused on the skull. But next time, I’m going to tackle the whole cat.
 
By the time I sketch every bone at the Burke, maybe it will be summer.
Photo by Kate Buike


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Finding Solace at the Family Farm


2/19/13 Platinum Carbon Black
2/19/13 Diamine Eclipse
Do you ever have one of those days when every sketch you attempt turns to crap? When every church tower points a long finger of perspectival judgment, and even an ordinary water glass is a million shiny surfaces reflecting doubt and self-criticism?
 
On days like this I retreat to the Woodland Park Zoo’s Family Farm, where the sheep and goats are nothing but forgiving. Chewing cud in the sunshine, blinking lazily with a what-me-worry gaze, they don’t give a shit about today’s sketches. And suddenly, neither do I.

2/19/13 Private Reserve Ultra Black ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook

Monday, February 18, 2013

Jump-Starting the Nemesis


2/18/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook
This week’s Urban Sketchers Flickr Group weekly theme, “Sketching Nemesis,” is one that was inspired by my own blog posts about how I have been trying to improve my sketches of cars by forcing myself to draw them regularly. At some point, I made a loose commitment (how’s that for an oxymoron) to sketch at least one car a week. When I read the weekly theme, I remembered that I didn’t sketch a car at all last week and felt a pang of guilt. So I went out this afternoon and sketched four in one composition (and actually several more in the background) to make up for it.
 
But there was a little more to this otherwise mundane sketching adventure. When I sit in my car to sketch, I like to listen to jazz and NPR news on the radio. I was about 40 minutes into my sketch when the radio suddenly died. What the heck…? I started fiddling with the radio knob when – uh-oh. I realized I had left the headlights on, so it wasn’t just my radio that was dead.
 
Fortunately, Allstate Roadside Assistance came to my rescue! And what did I do while I waited for my jump start to come? Finished my sketch, of course, and then sketched some more.

Disappointing Dr. Sketchy

2/17/13 Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn sketchbook

Maybe I just had other expectations.
 
Or maybe I just got spoiled by the professional life drawing models at Gage and other drawing studios, who are probably among the best in the industry.
 
In any case, what I got last night at Julia’s on Broadway, host of Dr. Sketchy, was quite different.
 
When I first heard about Dr. Sketchy – which, according to its website, “combs Seattle for the most dazzling burlesque dancers, the most bizarre circus performers, and the most rippling hunks of boylesque. Then, on the 3rd Sunday every month, we let you draw them for three hours” – I was intrigued. Apparently Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School is an ongoing national event hosted by local venues. The up-yours attitude appealed to me. I started looking online for sketches from various Dr. Sketchy locations, and I was particularly inspired by the work of Portland urban sketcher Kalina Wilson (AKA Geminica).
 
2/17/13 Velvet Black ink
I started thinking about attending a Dr. Sketchy sometime, but I was a bit nervous about going alone. When I heard that Frances and Lynne would be going, that sealed it for me: I was looking forward to a fun evening of unusual life drawing.
 
Unusual would be an accurate term. Our model was Gleda, a “medicinal scientist by day, contortionist by night.” She did, indeed, strike poses that I would be unlikely to see at a Gage life drawing session. But I use the word “pose” loosely. As a frequenter of “horror conventions and events,” maybe she is used to modeling for photographers but not artists. In any case, she moved constantly. During what was supposed to be a five-minute pose, she held one leg straight up behind her back. Two-and-a-half minutes into the pose, she decided to switch to her other leg! (Granted, holding a pose like that can’t be easy, but she did tell us she has held some poses for as long as 30 minutes.)
 
2/17/13 Velvet Black ink, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook
I encountered other frustrations, such as not being able to see much of her for much of the time, like when she posed on the floor and when I was dodging heads and bodies of other participants in front of me (though I don’t blame the model for the latter). Not to mention that the room was cramped and so cold that I had to keep my jacket zipped up to my chin (OK, now I’m just whining).
 
At one point, I heard Frances, also frustrated, muttering that she might as well go out to the other part of the restaurant and sketch people sitting at the bar. That’s when my attitude changed. I decided to stop seeing Dr. Sketchy as a life drawing session and instead see it as an urban sketching opportunity, where the “models” never stay still and my view is often blocked.
 
2/17/13 Nero pencil
After that, I enjoyed myself more, and I have to say that the quesadilla was quite good. But I’m not sure I’ll be going back to Dr. Sketchy.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Ballard Centennial Bell Tower


2/15/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, S & B Gamma sketchbook
The weatherman predicted temperatures in the balmy 50s and sunshine for today! Although it wasn’t quite that warm yet in the morning, that didn’t stop several Seattle Urban Sketchers from meeting up with sketcher Sharon Bryant in the Ballard neighborhood for an ad hoc sketchcrawl. Temps in the foggy 40s did seem balmy to this visitor from Vermont who managed to leave town just in time to miss the Storm of the Century.
 
Peggy and I found hospitable tables and chairs outside Miro Tea with a great view of the Ballard Centennial Bell Tower. Standing in Marvin’s Garden, the tower marks the site of the original Ballard City Hall building, which was destroyed in the 1965 earthquake. Typical for me, I ran out of space on my paper for the bottom of the tower, so I considered sketching it again. By then, my hands were cold, even with my fingerless mittens on, so I warmed them up with some green tea from the tea shop. Fortified and warmed, I sketched the tower again, but this time I got more interested in the tree in front of it.
 
2/15/13 Diamine Grey ink, Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
I had to run to an appointment before the sketchbook sharing, but not before snapping a photo of Peggy and one of Sharon and Frank sketching across the street from us.
 
By afternoon, the weatherman delivered the goods: On the way home from my appointment, MiataGrrl took the top down!
Sharon and Frank
Peggy

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Black Does the Work


2/13/13 Platinum Carbon ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Delta sketchbook
A great admirer of the work of Steve Reddy, I once asked the Seattle artist and intrepid urban sketcher what techniques he uses to achieve the beautiful tonal variations and spatial depth seen in his sketches. He told me he puts a dilution of waterproof ink into a waterbrush to apply tonal washes. Even when he paints the sketch later with watercolors, he still applies shading initially with the ink dilution. Quoting another artist (whose name I didn’t catch, unfortunately), he added that his technique is based on the principle, “Black does the work, but color takes the credit.”
 
Hearing about his technique, I went home and immediately filled a waterbrush with diluted Platinum Carbon Black ink. Although I carried the waterbrush around in my bag for a few weeks, I never used it in the field because I wasn’t sure what to do. That was several months ago.
2/13/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

Yesterday I was looking for something else when I came across the waterbrush still filled with diluted Platinum Carbon. I decided to give it a try with a couple of simple still lifes. (I also amused myself with the example of self-referential metasketching above – a bottle of Platinum Carbon Black and a Lamy pen sketched with Platinum Carbon Black in a Lamy pen.)

I put the diluted-ink waterbrush back into my bag. I’m going to start letting black do more of the work.
 

Work Spaces


Photo by Greg Mullin
The Art House Co-op, sponsor of the popular Sketchbook Project that I recently took part in, also sponsors a series of free projects called “Encyclopedia of.” The current theme is “Work Spaces,” and participants were invited to submit images of their studios, offices and anything else they see as a work space.
 
As an urban sketcher, I think of my primary “studio” as the bag I carry wherever I go, and the whole world is a potential work space, so I submitted this photo of myself “working.” The collection of images is a fun slide show of more than 900 work spaces, including many art studios.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Book Review: The Art of Urban Sketching

4/29/12 Pitt Artist Pen, Tombow markers, Hand Book journal
Note: On March 8, 2012, I wrote and published this book review on Amazon.com shortly before this blog went live. I wanted to make the review part of my blog, so I am republishing it here. I’m also republishing a sketch I made of Gabi when he gave a presentation about urban sketching at the Seattle Public Library in April 2012. Going to that presentation and seeing so many enthusiastic sketchers and sketcher wannabes in the audience helped pushed me out the door toward my first Seattle Urban Sketchers sketchcrawl the following month. The rest, as they say, is history.

I have admired the sketches of author Gabriel Campanario ever since they started appearing weekly in The Seattle Times. Known as the Seattle Sketcher, Campanario takes even the most commonly photographed, iconic Seattle scenes, such as the Pike Place Market, and gives them his fresh, personal perspective that no camera can capture. I was so inspired that I became an urban sketcher myself. As I dug for more of his work on his personal blog, I was led to the local and then the international Urban Sketchers blogs (initiated by Campanario), which showed me the world “one drawing at a time” – and further compelled me to explore my city (and any city I visit) with a sketchbook. Now The Art of Urban Sketching: Drawing on Location Around the World brings to print the same types of visual expressions that I have been admiring online.

The 300-plus pages are divided into three parts. The first helps beginning sketchers gather the right tools and attitude to adopt the urban sketchers’ manifesto.

The second, and largest, section, the meat of the book, compiles the work of more than a hundred artists worldwide giving us their unique urban views. It’s nothing short of amazing to see the variety of styles, media and perspectives. Some sketches are casual and loose, while others are intensely detailed. Some are completed in minutes; others in many hours over the course of weeks. All are the result of careful observation and the desire of the artists to truly know a place by sketching it.

I especially enjoyed the artist profiles, their first-person anecdotes about the scenes they sketched and the photos of those artists sketching (usually standing on a street corner, sitting against a building or on a bench). I also appreciated brief technical tips the artists offered to make outdoor sketching more comfortable or make drawings more interesting, and information about how long the sketch took and media used. Some sites depicted are easily recognizable because they are widely photographed, yet the sketches are more intimate and personal than most photos. Other cities are less-often seen in the media, so these glimpses of faraway neighborhoods seem led by personal tour guides.

The third section covers themes – architecture, seasons, nighttime sketching – that urban artists are compelled to sketch. “People in Action” – my personal favorite sketching subject that I also find most challenging – includes helpful tips on how to capture movement, mood and energy when you only have a few minutes or seconds before the “model” is gone.

As a long-time wannabe sketcher, I have read and admired many books on nature sketching (Hannah Hinchman’s fine work comes first to mind), but as a city dweller, I don’t often or easily see the breathtaking landscapes and wildlife shown in those books. Finally, here’s a book of sketches for the rest of us that makes it clear that the urban landscape can be as compelling, moving and ever-changing as nature. If you have any desire to capture your urban life in a sketchbook or view how others have captured theirs, you will love this book.

(This book review also appears on Amazon.com.)

Monday, February 11, 2013

Ben Franklin in Drag


2/11/13 De Atramentis ink, Hand Book journal
As far as coffee shops go, I know I keep saying that most Starbucks stores aren’t ideal. Despite that, I find myself sketching there because there’s always one or another conveniently located, no matter where my errands take me.
 
In today’s case, it was the Wedgwood neighborhood, where I found the tables to be a little too close together for sketching comfort, as usual. On the other hand, I liked the natural light, the distance between the tables and the counter and other spatial elements that made the interior challenging to sketch, but not overwhelming. An unexpected challenge was the way a young man was sitting, affording me a view of a foot that I don’t get often.
2/11/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen
 
A nicely placed chair gave me a square view of a texting man and later a woman scrolling through her smartphone. Although I doubt she will ever see my blog, I publicly apologize to her here for making her look like Ben Franklin in drag. Something about the Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, which I am really getting into as a sketching medium, brings out the “character” in people, flattering or not.
2/11/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen



Sunday, February 10, 2013

A Sketchbook Observed



The life drawing session that I attended today was in a shared art studio space. During the breaks, I took the liberty of wandering around to look at the artists’ works in progress. I saw some interesting art, but what caught my attention wasn’t art so much as one artist’s sketchbook. I didn’t peek inside, of course (as tempting as that was), and I didn’t have to: The sketchbook’s condition was riveting enough.
 
It was bulging with so many clippings, photos, Post-its and who-knows-what that the binding was held together with strapping tape. The front cover looked like it had been in a flood and then half-devoured. Even the dog ears had dog ears. That sketchbook had seen some hard – and creative – times.
 

I thought about my own collection of sketchbooks from the past year, neatly arranged on a bookshelf. I take good care of my sketchbooks, both full and in progress, and I’ve managed to keep them away from floods and devouring creatures. I don’t think I can keep them any other way.
 
Still, there was something very appealing, compelling, even seductive about that tattered sketchbook. It made me want to see that artist in action, to see the paces he/she puts that sketchbook to. It made me want to see its pages to get a peek inside that artist’s mind.

When Torture Turns to Reward


2/10/13 Conte crayon
2/10/13 Conte crayon
The first and only time I took a figure drawing class, it seemed like self-inflicted torture. Drawing the human figure was (still is) one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, and for most of the time I spent in that intensive weekend workshop, I kept saying to myself, “I paid to do this…? Voluntarily? Of my own free will?”
But by the end of the workshop, I had started seeing just enough improvement that the torture turned into its own reward. I actually began to enjoy it.
That was about eight months ago. Since then, I’ve participated in several life drawing open studio sessions at Gage, and today I attended one at Anita Lehmann’s studio. There’s still an element of self-inflicted torture and the moment in every session when I think to myself, “I could leave anytime… no one is holding a gun to my head…” Yet somehow, I stay, and I always eventually get to that point when the torture turns into reward.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Lunar New Year


2/9/13 Zig markers, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
 
Although I grew up in a nearby neighborhood, I hadn’t been to the Seattle International District’s Lunar New Year Festival in decades. When Jane initiated an ad hoc sketch meet-up near the Lion and Dragon Dance stage, I decided it was high time to see the festival again. But something happened in the decades since I was last there – the crowd grew by a thousand-fold! 
 
I met two sketchers, Kate and Connie, at the meeting location, and we quickly staked out some space on the bleachers that looked like it would give us an ideal vantage point. Even though I was standing most of the time, this photo shows what I was able to see!
 
I bumped into a couple other sketchers on my way out, but due to faulty communications (I couldn’t hear my phone ringing amidst the firecrackers and other noise), I missed Jane completely. But I had fun and managed to get a sketch of a lion.
 
Happy Year of the Snake!

Friday, February 8, 2013

Museum of Flight


2/8/13 Platinum Carbon Black ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
A flying car! That’s one of many amazing things I saw and sketched at the Museum of Flight today with Kate, Peggy, Carleen and Nilda. The museum also houses many other amazing things that, unfortunately, I never got around to seeing and sketching this time, so I’m looking forward to going back again.
 
“After World War II, many people envisioned an airplane in every garage,” according to the placard. Moulton Taylor, a man with that vision, developed the Taylor Aerocar to meet that apparent need. This sketch is of the Taylor Aerocar III made in 1968. It took only 15 minutes for the car to fully sprout its wings and be ready for flight. (By the way, this counts as my car-sketch-of-the-week. As I sketched, I thought the Aerocar’s front oddly resembled my Miata.)
 
2/8/13 Diamine Grey ink, Zig markers
On May 15, 1918, the first U.S. air mail service flight was made. Along with the mail, this Boeing Air Transport, Inc. plane carried passengers, like this one about to board her 26-hour flight from New York to San Francisco. (Whenever I sketch people, I try hard not to make them look like mannequins. Here, I sketched a mannequin and wondered if she would look like an over-dressed museum visitor.)
 
Another mannequin takes flight aboard the Gossamer Albatross II, a pedal-powered aircraft that weighs about 70 pounds (according to the docent I overheard as I sketched).
 
2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink, Zig markers
Outside the museum, a bronze sculpture called “Team Effort” by Larry Anderson is a memorial to Katharine B. Lenhart and Lieutenant John J. Lenhart, U.S. Navy Schneider Team Pilot, 1927.



2/8/13 Diamine Eclipse ink

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Make Sketches While the Sun Shines


2/7/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
I had errands to run this afternoon, but suddenly the sun appeared! I dashed into the zoo just long enough to paint some flamingoes and sketch a giraffe’s head.

2/7/13 Platinum Carbon, Platinum Sepia inks, watercolor

The Brush Pen Approach


2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker
A few weeks ago I did some brush pen portraits from old photos of my mother and father. The broad, relatively imprecise stroke of the brush pen forced me to look for the essence of the face and character of the person instead of obsessing about resemblance.
 
In the past when I’ve used brush markers in the field, it was usually to capture the essence of a landscape or eliminate the details from a wide open view that would otherwise overwhelm me. I decided to take out my brush pen again – this time to try for a few portraits from life. Interestingly, even though the brush still didn’t allow much detail, I think I captured the resemblance of some of these people better than I sometimes do with the fine point of a fountain pen.
2/7/13 Kuretake Fountain Brush Pen, Pitt Big Brush marker, Hand Book journal


2/7/13 Kuretake, Pitt Big Brush

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Hair Studies


2/5/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink

Among the 10,000 challenging things about drawing people is hair. If you try to draw its shape, it can look like a helmet. And the way light reflects on its varying surfaces plays such an important role in showing its texture and volume.
 
Waiting at a Starbucks while my car got its oil changed, I found two “victims” with interesting hair to use as studies.

2/5/13 Caran d'Ache Grand Canyon ink, Hand Book Journal

Monday, February 4, 2013

The Toroid of Wedgwood: Top Pot Doughnuts


2/4/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
to·roid
noun Geometry.
A surface generated by the revolution of any closed plane curve or contour about an axis lying in its plane. (Dictionary.com)

Or, as Debora posted on the Urban Sketchers Flickr weekly theme thread, “A toroid is a round shape with a round hole in the middle. Think bangles, bagels, rings and tires.

I admit, I had never heard the name of the geometrical form toroid before, but as soon as I read the description, I knew what I wanted to sketch: the Wedgwood neighborhood’s Top Pot Doughnuts.

I’ve sketched the interior of this Top Pot a couple times before, but whenever I’ve driven past its funky palm trees and retro giant donut on the roof’s overhang, I’ve made a mental note to sketch the exterior someday. With a theme like toroid to respond to this week, today was the day.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Australasia’s Dozing Residents



2/1/13 Platinum Sepia ink, watercolor, Stillman & Birn Gamma sketchbook
The weatherman promised temps in the high 40s, possible sun breaks and no rain! That was good enough for me – I made time in the afternoon for the year’s first trip to the zoo.
 
Making my way toward Australasia with hopes of seeing the snow leopard cubs, I found a wallaby leisurely resting in the shade. She stayed nearly still for a full 20 minutes, allowing me the rare opportunity to use watercolors at the zoo. Amazingly, just as I finished up, an emu came by to annoy the wallaby, who hopped away.
 
2/1/13 Diamine Chocolate Brown ink, Zig markers
The snow leopard cubs weren’t out today, but I got a different rare treat: a view of their exquisite mom. Like the wallaby, the leopard was dozing and stayed still for the 10 minutes I sketched her – and got up to leave just as I finished.
 
Despite the balmy temperature, I was chilled by the time I got to the owls, so I didn’t linger long. Once again, a snowy owl looking dozy posed perfectly still for a few minutes – just long enough for me to capture it.  
2/1/13 Diamine Eclipse ink
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