So dudes: I went to the zoo this past weekend to draw animals. I had a blast and got a few good sketches done, but I also learned some exciting lessons. Turns out that if you sit down in front of an enclosure and start drawing animals, people begin treating you like an animal. Seriously. It only ever took about two minutes before loud mothers were looming over my shoulder, screeching “Look at the lady, kids! She’s a lady, alright! The lady is drawing! Gee, isn’t that somethin’!” I don’t think anyone attempted to directly engage with me the entire time.
However, there were some upsides. While trying to sketch a trio of distant lions in the (fairly) recently-opened Predators of the Serengeti exhibit, a lioness suddenly noticed the fact that I was relatively immobile and low to the ground and made a beeline across the enclosure to stand directly in front of me. Shortly thereafter, I developed a deep appreciation for the inches of plexiglass between me and this magnificent creature as she made it utterly apparent that she was bent on devouring my skull. She swiped, reared, clawed, headbutted, pawed, and bit that poor stretch of wall, eventually resorting to murderous licking when the other tactics proved ineffective. It was awe-inspiring and, of course, fearsomely adorable.
One particularly grating onlooker loudly told everyone surrounding me that they were obviously witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime moment of psychic connection, interpreting the lionesses’ vicious attempts on my life as blatant displays of affection and kinship — doubtless based on the fact that I possess a mane-like cloud of blonde hair and a birthday which falls within the realm of a certain astrological sign. While it would be lovely to think that this was the case, and that I’ll eventually spring her from her touristy prison so that we may go frolic on the plains of Oregon together, the extensive opportunity I had to examine her vicious fangs suggests that this is an unlikely outcome.
ANYWAY, on to the goods! Sadly, not as many as I’d like, but any drawing is good drawing at this point.
Finally, in other news, all the drawings for TALES FROM THE FRAGMENT are due this Friday, so I’ll be hard at work for the next 24 hours wrapping all that up. I guarantee you sneak peeks when appropriate, dear readership, but for now, let me just say that I never thought I’d need to download so many goddamn reference images of stalactites. Jeez.