Drawing at Oakland Zoo

Eland and Giraffe

I love to draw animals and today was my first visit to Oakland Zoo. I enjoyed it enormously. The white handed gibbon was doing all sorts of acrobatics in the trees - obviously enjoyed showing off! The Giant tortoises were being tended to by several keepers and they moved around a bit like lumbering tanks. The Eland were very cool - and a couple of them had a little sparring match which of course was impossible to capture with the pencil - although I tried!

Giant Tortoise

White Handed Gibbon

Eland fighting and a giraffe

Elephants

Simiang Gibbons and Chimpanzees

Although I didn't draw tigers, they were the most amazing part of the visit. Four tigers in one enclosure and all of them up and active - they were incredible to watch! Can't wait for my next zoo trip!

Drawing Special at Sunnyvale Heritage Orchard

Green Tractor abstract -oil pastel

Yesterday I ran a drawing exercises special for the plein air group.  I tortured them with fun stuff like drawing with your non-dominant hand, blind contour drawing and mark making to create textures!  I was quite pleased with my contour drawing of Helen and Dick, and the negative space exercise was key to helping me think abstractly when it came to painting. I love drawing - whereas painting frustrates me. I recently discovered some oil pastel crayons I had laying around the studio and I'm really enjoying the combination of drawing with luscious color.

Green tractor abstract - oil pastel

Blind contour drawing - Helen and Dick

Winchester Mystery House, San Jose

Foreman's House

The Winchester Mystery House is always a fun place to visit. My son was a tour guide here many years ago so we used to come here all the time with visitors.  The building is so quirky it's very intimidating to paint.

Windows in the central courtyard