Sketches from the San Francisco Zoo

Indian Rhino - minus his horn

Maribu Stork and Zebras

Sketching animals is such a wonderful challenge as they don't often keep still unless they are asleep.  We sketched with pen, then broke out the watercolors and I really enjoyed drawing with the brush.  I used an Escoda 20 round which has a great point and will make the finest lines and hold lots of paint.

I felt bad for the Maribu Stork, who is a rather ugly fellow and all the kids squealed with horror to look at him.  Certainly he has a face only a mother could love, but I liked him because he was so curiously odd looking.

This tiger was asleep - so we thought we could get away with painting him - but no he wakes up as soon as the paints are out and moves away!

We watched the giraffes being fed, then moved on to sketching the gorillas, which are one of my favorite animals

The kangaroos were all sleeping when we got to them - some of them just lounging on their backs!

The hippo (Brian Wilson) was the star of the day - just doing all sorts of fun things to entertain the crowd.  He loved to show off his big teeth!