Sketching At The Minnesota Zoo

There is so much good stuff going on in my life this week. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the zoo with a friend. It was one of those times where I planned ahead and decided that work could wait. I was taking an afternoon off. The underlying reason for the zoo visit was to attend the Indigo Girls concert at the zoo's outdoor amphitheater that evening (with no less than front row seats - - - I have amazing friends).

We arrive at the zoo around 1:30 and meandered throughout the exhibits. I wish that I would have brought my camera. Instead, I used my phone until I ran out of batteries. I also sketched. Here is what I wanted to sketch:

I got busy taking pictures. By the time, I put the camera down and warmed up, the Amur leopard moved, making it hard to see anything but his hindquarters. You guessed it. Sketch what you can see.

Whether I am warmed up or not, I can be sketching, sketching, sketching and it's just not really working. Then, boom. All of a sudden, I can see the shapes and do a reasonable job of recording what I see.

The same thing happened with the prairie dogs. Here are several attempts. The one below the words "prairie dog" had the potential to go somewhere good until the subject also decided to go somewhere good, which was away from and out of the sketch.