·:[ Rusty Innards ]:·
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Nothing much to show today, outside of a bit of studying for the upcomming demo and lecture at the San Deigo Zoo.  If you’re in the area and free Saturday morning, swing on by and say hello.

My apologies for the lack of updates lately; I’ve been pretty busy with my new role as the Zorganizer (Zoo Organizer) for TheIllustrationboard.com.  Head over to the boards, sign up, and say hello.  While you’re there, check out the animal drawing blog I’m running for the board, and take a look at the “Events” section to jon us for our zoo drawing trips.

Anyways, you’re probobly wondering what’s been going on in my sketchbook.  Well, here you go…

      Here’s a few pages from the last trip to the zoo.  In case you can’t tell, we hit the camels and giraffes.  I hardly ever head in the direction of the giraffes, which I think will change on future zoo trips..They’re just a blast to sketch, with that awesome, graceful gestural swoop they have.  While I’m happy with how the head turned out in the sketch, I was a bit confused and had trouble with the way their lips worked in relation to their skull while sketching them.  That said, I headed home, took out the trusty Goldfinger Animal Anatomy for Artists book (that’s right, he has an animal anatomy book, too) and did a quick skull study.

     I’m going to have to do the same with those damn camels.  I always love sketching them, because of those exaggerated, full-of-character features they have, but they’re a pain for the exact same reason;  Exaggerated, charactertured features.  Let this be a lesson, all…  Anatomy studies are not just for the human figure.  I’ll be posting a few animal anatomy studies I’m doing (including the camel and giraffe) in the next few days, and I’ll be carting my anatomy book to the zoo from here on out;  It’s a valuable tool, and there’s no reason to leave it on the shelf.

Today seems to be the day I pay for my past sins against my sketchblog and Update update update.  This page was done yesterday, while at the Wild Animal Park with Efrem, and today while at the zoo with my lovely wife, Becky.  The gorrillas at the Park are always great subject matter, as they seem to have no problem giving the artist great poses and gestural practice.  I arrived just in time for the morning feeding on this particular day.

   The jaguars at the zoo, on the other hand, always give me trouble whenever I try to give them a go.  Cats in general are tough subjects,  with thier super-flexible, graceful bodies.  Do you think figure quicksketch is tough?  Give cat drawing a try… Today was my day though, as this gal seemed to be pretty tired as was more than happy to just lounge about for me.

The other day I found myself at the zoo with two good friends and fellow artists, Efrem Palacios and Ryan Schutter.  Although the trip resulted in some terrible orangutan sketches (one pictured above) done from some super-squirrelly apes, I did manage to sneak in a chance to sketch one of my favorite mammals, the Bornean Bearded Pig.  Don’t ask me why I like boars and pigs so much..I really have no clue. If you want to ask me a question I do know the answer to, go ahead and inquire as to why I find the Malayan Tapir (also pictured above) so freaking terrifying.  It’s because these pre-historic throwbacks have a horrifying tendency to swim in their enclosure’s pool at night, slowly rising from the depths like some Frazetta-spawned swamp beast, baring thier horrible people-teeth and shrieking  like a velociraptor at you.   While an Internet search left me dry as to the terrible shrill noise they emit, I did manage to find a picture of a Brazilian tapir that gives you an idea of how creepy their grimace is.  It’s like their skulls are trying to escape through their mouths…Gahh.

A week or two ago, my sister-in-law flew in for an impromtu visit. While I mananged to dodge trips to hollywood and shopping excursions, I did tag along for a visit to La Jolla’s children’s pool to get a peek at the seals.  I love watching these guys..There’s so much character and variation among each individual. This tubby fellow would take a gander up at me every now and again, only to plop his head back down when he realized just how exceedingly uninteresting I am.

Zoo sketching is one of my favorite pastimes, so it was only fitting I spent my birthday doing just that.  Being my birthday, I felt I was entitled to cheat a bit and I went ahead and decided I wasn’t going to deal with anything that moves.  With that said, I bring to you a Caribbean rock iguana and a Galapagos tortoise.  Don’t give me that look…It was my birthday, I’m entitled to be lazy with my subject matter.

The subject of today’s weekly zoo trip, you ask?

Birds.

Specifically the Western Burrowing Owl, the African Open-Billed Stork, and one rather massive, foul-smelling California Condor.