Trip to the Zoo

During Christmas break my family and I took a trip to the zoo, and after an unusually cold week, it felt amazing to be outside on a warmer day. I loved seeing the primates as usual, but this time I especially noticed the giraffes and reptiles. The giraffe enclosure was set up so that we were at eye level with them, and they would come up close for visitors to feed them. I don't think I had noticed before how beautiful and graceful they are. The snakes, too. One of them had a pattern I had never seen before and it was really pretty.

I loved seeing the bright colors and patterns and textures on all the animals, and I thought I'd sketch some of them when I got home based on the photos I had taken. That night I did a few pencil sketches.

Once I got back to South Carolina as break was ending, I decided to use watercolors to paint two of the birds. What caught my eye the most about the birds was their colors, so I thought paints would be the best way to capture that.

This semester in Drawing II we'll be drawing the human figure from observation, with some focus on drawing quickly with gestural lines. So I thought it might be neat at some point this semester to go to a zoo in the area with some classmates and draw the animals in person rather than from pictures. Hopefully that works out!

Also, I just recently set up an Instagram for my art that I'll be starting as well as continuing this blog - laura.c.artwork

I'll be posting some photos of my artwork, videos of working on pieces, things I have for sale, and maybe some smaller sketches, photos of things or places I found inspiring, etc. I hope you all enjoy it!