Tropical World

For me, the aim of going to Tropical World was do get back into observational drawing as its something I don't feel I have been doing enough of. We realised that going on a bank holiday monday was a bad idea because it was so busy we couldn't get a proper view of anything long enough to sit and draw from it properly. I took plenty of photos inside to worm from them as reference later on, and then did some observational drawing outside of some flowers. 

Piranhas - Observation 

Flowers - Observation

 These are my drawings from my reference photographs. I feel like I had relied quite heavily on using  ink and a brush for the later stages of first year so I wanted to restrict myself and use pencils and a variety of pens for these drawings. 

This tortoise drawing on the right was the final one of about three or four sketches of the same thing using different media. I think this one is my most successful and I like how the hardness of the media used captures the dryness and roughness of the creature and its environment. 

I like drawing tortoises. I find it strange how inanimate they look all the time. 

I found meerkats quite challenging to draw, and they don't stay still for very long so it was hard to get good reference photos let alone actually sit and draw them. I think after a bit of practice I started to get familiar with their shape and fur markings. 

This was the first time I've got back into drawing for fun since finishing my modules for first year. Ive got a good feeling about summer and want to continue visiting different places, drawing and taking lots of photos. I hope to visit somewhere else soon where theres better opportunities for observational drawing.