I went to the zoo today during lunch with a friend. We drew the giraffes and they were in a playful mood. They came over to us a few times and sometimes seemed to pose just for us.
Back at work, when I had some down time I tried to take a couple of the rough gestures I had and do a memory sketch of them trying to capture the mood I saw at the zoo. So here's a few samples of the day.
The first two are straight sketches done at the zoo.
I liked how this guy was stretching for the food on the tree.
This one was just acting so regal, going look at me. Draw me. Although I noticed that a lot of my drawings were of profiles. I have to remember to not do so many profiles.
This was a gesture I didn't capture well of the baby giraffe leaning against what I assume is the mother, but could be the father.
So back at work on a trusty post-it I worked out this memory sketch, switching the position of the baby for composition reasons.
And this was the last gesture at the zoo. This guy was so haughty in the way he/she strutted across the grounds.
So back at work on another trusty post-it I tried to work out a better way to get that haughtiness across.
I unfortunately couldn't remember the walking gait of a giraffe. Later I checked and yep the leg positions are wrong. The back legs should be switched.
I wish I could get a sketch like this started at the zoo and then have the animal in front of me to study and get the drawing right. But for some reason I always get flustered by the moving animal and try to capture exactly what they are doing instead of just looking. Finding a pose I like. Work it out as a gesture and then use the live animal in front of me to complete it. Maybe one day I can stop being flustered by the motion.
