It's been ages since I've been to London Zoo to sketch, and after recently seeing a television segment about a new Silverback Gorilla, I decided to head there for a day. I picked a bad day weather wise, I only had spring clothing, at it was a very wintery spring day! Standing sketching at the Gorilla enclosure is quite a wind tunnel, and it wasn't long before my hands were frozen in sketching position.
 |
| this new guy seems pretty laid back about his new environment |
 |
| never can get Ape faces right, but sort of happy with the main one here |
There's a fantastic new Tiger enclosure, so pleased to see after they had such a tiny space previously. Of course it also meant I couldn't see any of them! On a second pass by I found one who was soaking up a spot of sun.
I sat for a while on a bench opposite the Lion enclosure, most of them were snuggled up on their deck catching what little afternoon sun there was, but too hidden from my view. I warmed up with a coffee and eventually was rewarded with them briefly peeking their faces over the edge of their deck.
When I finished the drawing I was struck with how much it looked like drawings of these same cubs I made a couple of years back. So I dug these out when I got home for comparison. I'm pretty sure I can identify the cub bottom right in the sketch above as Ruby from my previous drawings. The one in the centre (who's name I haven't collected on my visits) certainly looks like the other old sketch. The top right corner is Mum of the cubs, and I have an old sketch of her too. I'm really thrilled to be able to see a resemblance, sketching a live animal two years apart.
 |
| Ruby, from my old sketchbook |
 |
| I don't have a name for this girl, but what a sad face she has |
 |
| 'mum' from 2011 |
No comments:
Post a Comment