Perth Zoo

A visit to Perth Zoo yesterday, I spent 5 & 1/5 hours sketching yesterday. So much to draw….feathers, fur and scales….all sorts of shapes and sizes, some of the creatures are “collages”….those that moved around….either I had to wait until it returned to the same spot of pick another similar relative! The lioness was one that got away….I’d just started drawing her when a noisy bunch of school kids arrived so she got up and walked off into the long grass and I didn’t see her again!

Perth Zoo

Visited Perth Zoo this morning…. I’ve been to the Zoo many times in the past but always with children in tow so this was a very different experience to be on my own…able to sketch at will with out having to think about anyone else! It can take a while to create a sketch from a live animal as you often have to wait for some time for the animals to come back into view as they pace up and down or round and round behind bushes or rocks. It is of course so much quicker to take a photo…. but I did find my self noticing small details as I was sketching that I know I wouldn’t have seen if just taking a quick snap…..The knobbly shape of the tortioses shell and the way it’s legs creased as it walked…. The matching stripes of the Zebra and how their tails seemed to swing in time together (plus at Perth Zoo the Zebra are not black and white…more a black and dirty yellow…maybe from rolling in the ochre coloured dirt). The elephant was a real challenge as he was quite far away and kept turning around. But it was lots of fun to try to capture the real live animals.

I spent about 3 hours in total wandering around sketching, mainly the larger animals that stayed still (usually the sleepy ones around midday)….the monkeys and smaller animals really move around a lot.

Perth Royal Show 2015

Only a quick couple of sketches at the Perth Royal Show…I hoped to draw alot more but as expected got caught up in seeing as much as possible …It’s a really big show.

We always go to check out the chickens…very noisy barn with roosters showing off and hens clucking. Such a variety of birds…different breeds of hen, turkey, fowl, duck, game, pigeon and others.

Other favourite in the show is the “wood-chop” – strong men competing to fell or chop a tree trunk with razor sharp axes….it really is impressive but hard to sketch as they swing the big axes so quickly.