More Woodland Park Zoo sketches!

I celebrated my 27th birthday yesterday, so, naturally, I toted my one-year-adultier butt to the zoo. After visiting San Diego Zoo  for my birthday last year, I decided I might start a tradition!

I ended up having fantastic luck with the animals this trip - the weather was fairly gray and cool, which seemed to encourage the animals to be out and about more. In preparation for Inktober, I decided to forgo the pen while I can and go with pencil, while still trying not to waste time erasing.

Tiger pile! These three were technically still considered cubs, snoozing in a big lump together. Dangerously cute.

Wallaroos! So adorable. The beginning of the raptor show here as well

I haven't yet had a chance to see the raptor show at Woodland Park, so I was excited to get the opportunity today. Turkey vulture, pharaoh owl, and a falcon I unfortunately missed the name of.  

The orangutans were very willing to pose for me today; the gorillas too: "draw me like one of your French girls"

More birds - I really need to start writing down the names as I draw them. The one in the middle right had fantastic weird flaps on  its face

The Komodo Dragon was surprisingly mobile, came right up to the glass to say "sup"

Adorable meerkats, an owl and a lazy-ass two toed sloth

Red lemurs and flamingos, and a random swan

Overall it was a really fun day and I consider the trip a success - strongly considering an annual membership even though I don't qualify for the student prices anymore. If nothing else it will force me to get my butt back there more to get my money's worth!

This week I also was able to keep up with my resolution to fit in some fundamentals practice during my workdays. Living in Olympia, there is a frustrating lack of accessible life drawing. I wonder if I just haven't been looking in the right places, or if there just aren't enough artists around that don't already have student access to figure drawing through Evergreen or SPSCC to warrant other sessions being available.

In any case, I've been making do with the SketchDaily life drawing tool online, and it's certainly better than nothing. I've been taking Scott Eaton's Anatomy for Artist's course online (I'll write a review post on this at some point), and trying to reinforce the lessons with life sketching in between lectures, in addition to the course assignments. I've found this to be extremely helpful, and even adhering to the very low bar I set for myself of 20 minute a day has really helped to hammer the lessons home.

I do intend to get back to a place where I can attend true life drawing sessions with a model, but in the meantime this is a decent alternative. So, there's truly no excuse to not be practicing, even if you don't have access to life drawing sessions!

That will do it for September this year - incoming next week is the start of Inktober, which I intend to follow with more dedication than I did last year. I hope someone's found today's ramble somewhat useful, and that you'll join me next time for the crazy fun that is Inktober!

Happy sketching!