SF Zoo: The Mega Catchup Part 2

And now to finish clearing out my backlog of animal drawings from Bay Area establishments! Here's the last four months' worth of San Francisco Zoo sketching.

October 31, 2016: For Halloween, I went to the zoo with Sarah Barrie Fenton and her animation students. My theme this time was bugs bugs bugs, whether giant sculptures, pinned specimens, or living cuties.

November 5, 2016: This time I tried to complete Sarah's scavenger hunt, although I didn't get very far - I kept getting distracted by critters that weren't on the list, or (in at least one case) weren't even supposed to be at the zoo.

 

 

 

 

January 5, 2017: National Bird Day! Instead of exotic avians, I ended up making close studies of ducks and turkeys. Plus a completely bizarre arachnid, and a speed round of monochrome critters...

 

 

 

March 1, 2017: Another group outing with Emma Burns and Ian Grabinski. This time, less fancy painting, and more structural studies of bears and sea lions and such. Plus a rare sloth action sequence and the surprising Best Of The Day!

 

 

 

 

 

At the Academy of Sciences

Since I live virtually next door to the California Academy of Sciences, I've been visiting it pretty often, even if it's just to admire Claude the albino alligator.

August 26, 2016: Here's ace nature illustrator Terri Nelson drawing Antarctic isopods in the Academy lab. Plus a couple quick taxidermy studies from the Naturalist Center, because I'm obsessed with bird feet...

 

 

 October 1, 2016: A quick round of African taxidermy to warm up for the Safari West fundraiser drawings.

 December 21, 2016: An emergency one-hour trip to admire the caribou and stoke my penguin obsession!

 

February 19, 2017: Another research expedition. I'm sculpting Claude for a class, so I needed to study his scale patterns. But there are always a lot of other distractions!

 

 

 

Return to OZ

I don't get over to the Oakland Zoo as often, but I have a couple of trips' worth of drawings saved up from there as well.

August 3, 2016: A nice day out with fellow artists Ben Jelter and Alexa Dunham! The baboons put on a great show for us.

 

 

  

February 22, 2017: Finally, a break in the rainy weather! I needed to practice camels, I wanted to draw elephants in memory of Judi Reynolds, and I did some tigers since I'd been discussing them with George Cwirko Godycki. But if I had my druthers, I'd be happy to draw hyenas all day long...

 

SF Zoo: The Mega Catchup Part 1

I have almost nine months' worth of San Francisco Zoo drawings that I never got around to posting here. I think I'd better break this up into a couple of installments...

June 16, 2016: I'd been pretty busy with my teaching courseload and a big pile of freelance work, but there was a baby anteater to admire!

 

July 29, 2016: For Global Tiger Day I learned how to tell tigers apart, said hello to Boone the rhino, and checked in on the anteater family.

July 30, 2016: March of the Penguins! Two chicks returned from Fish School to rejoin the penguin commune, and people lined up eagerly along the parade route for photo ops.

I chatted with a couple of very knowledgeable volunteers about the fine points of penguin anatomy, and there was a penguin-suited mascot to entertain the kids.

Inti the bobcat gave me a good drawing availability, and I witnessed the new spectacle of a peccary mudbath.

 

According to keeper Sandy Huang, Leanne the tiger is the loveliest animal in the world, but Kachina is the most adorable.