Zoo sketching with Sophie & Maggie

 
[Mike Daikubara in Boston] Last week I went sketching with Sophie and Maggie, identical twin daughters of our good friends and they have been interested in drawing. I had promised to go sketching with them for a while now and finally made an opportunity to go sketching together.
It was their first time sketching at a zoo so I went a little early to Stone Zoo to do some research and do a few practice sketches to see what would be easy to sketch.

My 1st choice: Flamingos. They were really loud and seemed to move a lot but in reality they didn't move very much. Even if they moved, there was another flamingo standing right next to the first flamingo in a similar pose. I thought this would be good.

2nd choice: Black-Necked Crane. Another one that didn't move very much which was good - but since there was only 1 crane, when he got up and walked away, you had to stop sketching.

The girls arrived so I took them to the Flamingo area.

They hated it!!

They couldn't stand the noise and especially the smell (which indeed did smell pretty bad)

So we started walking around and came across the alligator area.
He was all the way near the front glass and didn't move - most of all he didn't smell which was important to the twins :)
I started sketching, then the girls just followed along without any intimidation.
While we were sketching, there were lots of spectators, little children coming real close to see what the girls were drawing, yet the two just continued to sketch without being distracted - I was very impressed.
The alligator didn't move but the foreshortening perspective and the details of the reptile made it a very hard subject but they seemed to have enjoyed it and successfully captured the shapes/colors too.

 

Lots of other children were inspired by Sophie and Maggie sketching and they asked their parents if they could sketch too - that was great to hear. I also loved this one conversation:

(3yr old girl asking her dad): Can you draw the alligator?

(Dad): Mommy and Daddy aren't good at drawing...

(Girl): But I'm good at drawing!

What kept going through my head was Picasso's famous quote "All children are born artists, the problem is to remain an artist as we grow up" - I wish the little girl can keep it up.

Next we walked around and saw 2 bears.
I immediately pulled out my sketchbook to see if the bear was even possible to capture since he just kept on walking around. The girls saw me do this and starting sketching while standing on their own too. I never thought they could sketch while standing so I was impressed. They also jumped right into using the felt tip pens I gave them that day.

We also spread a blanket on the floor to continue sketching the details and to add color. A while ago my wife and I gave them watercolor pencils and a water brush which they have been using really well. The youngest sister Ellie even started drawing with her crayons too!

I drew the 3 girls.
They loved the bear poop which I also added into the sketch :)

What a fun relaxing day!
Hope to do more sketching with them in the future!

Zoo sketching - day after Thanksgiving

I read about a half off admission to the zoo the day after thanksgiving and decided to take a quick visit.

Boy, was the Zoo empty.
It was cold but the sun was out and quite nice.



Strolling around ran into a Peacock and Camel.
They looked pretty lonely.



A large indoor building housed numerous tropical birds, animals, insects.

These two little birds were really cute.
They had a small mouse in their mouth and kept on giving it to each other.
The entire time they never swallowed the mouse and when I saw them 30 minutes later they still had the mouse in their beaks.



Bat sketching.
My little book light came in handy since this display was completely dark with just red lights.
The bats seemed to be surprised by my mini light at first but then settled down.
I never looked at them this close but they were actually quite cute looking.




Coming to the Gorilla section, this one gorilla sat right next to the window and I had a great view.
He (or she?) kept looking up and we had eye contact numerous times but he didn't really seem interested in me or what I was doing. It was just me and the gorilla the entire time.

I finished the line sketch and for some reason I decided to show the sketch to the gorilla.

The gorilla opened his eyes wide open, looked really surprised, almost even a little shocked and shifted his head slightly backwards. He was fixated and starred at the sketch for a few seconds.

This was my highlighting event of the day.
I hope I didn't scare him since I never expected this type of reaction from him.





Finished line art.
A few seconds before showing the gorilla the sketch.

Sketching animals is so therapeutic

It's been a few years since I last visited a Zoo.
One weekend my wife, my photographer friend Tony and I headed out to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Rhode Island. For a small state, this zoo is quite large and it's quite nice too.

We casually walked around the park, my friend took photos and I captured the animals one at a time.
It was so much fun and very soothing - almost therapeutic when sketching animals.

I left the zoo completely relaxed!