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This is my first sketch crawl. It was cold here in New Jersey so my sister Joan and I decided to try a local park that has an observatory, some indoor displays and a small aquarium.


This was the view from one of the observatory windows.


A red bird feeder seen through another window.


This turtle was in a tank in the main room.

This bunny crawled into a box to hide so I didn't get to finish



The deer was stuffed; the goose was live and sketched out the window.


This big snapping turtle was in an aquarium all by himself. He moved around a lot while I sketched.

There were several goldfish and other type fish in another aquarium.



Then we drove to another park that has a small zoo. The only animals that were out were the farm animals.

By now it was getting late. The sheep was eating inside the shed, and the zookeeper was chasing us out. I didn't get to do much on this one.

We were freezing after sketching outside at the zoo, so we went to a mall to have coffee and sketch at the foodcourt. My sis wanted to sketch the waiters at the Japanese fast food place, so I did too. I liked their red hats so I added some color with w/c pencils and a waterbrush. This ended my first sketchcrawl.

Michelle

www.mhwatercolornotes.blogspot.com

I hand it to you, that's a nice big pack of cool sketches. It's dedication when you have to be chased out by a zookeeper, AND endure that cold weather. Awesome.

The turtle swimming over the log is my favorite--nice perspective.

"... and the zookeeper was chasing us out."



As I scrawled down the pages, Michelle, Iwas afraid that you'd run out of sketchbooks Thank you for sharing you animal-life!! And hope to see you again next Sketchcrawl!

Here are my sister, Joan's sketches and comments:

My name is Joan T. I am from Long Island, NY, but headed to sketch in New Jersey with my sister, Michelle. Thes was the first Sketch Crawl for us both. We wanted to do some nature sketching so we headed to a local wildlife center and the zoo near her.


We sketched at a local wildlife center. There was an indoor area with large windows overlooking the pond.First I sketched the gazebo across the pond. Next I sketched the goose and the pond.



On the left are fish that were in a tank at the wildlife center. I love their colors and their long, flowing tails. On the right is one of the cooks from the Japanese takeout at the food court. There will be more of his friends shown later.


Our second stop was a local zoo. This time we were outdoors and it was a bit cold. This cow was happy to pose, but had a mind of it's own about which direction it would face. The sheep was eating which made it easier to sketch, since it stayed pretty much in the same postion. I would have liked to sketch more animals but we were told the zoo was closing and we had to leave.

Our final stop of the day was the food court at a local mall. I was attracted to the workers at the Japanese counter. The men were wearing these great hats. I've sketched people secretly many times before and this was the first time anyone I was sketching was aware of it. The center young man definitely knew what we were doing.

Thanks, Eduardo, for being the first to comment on my sketches.

Donna, glad you liked the turtle. He was fun to draw - but he moved around so much I wasn't sure where his head or legs were at any given moment. I think he's my favorite sketch.

Peter, thanks. I hope to see you at the next one too.

Awesome! You posted yours and Joan's I still like your food court sketch.

I'm glad I got to see Joan's too. Awesome goldfish! Love the color & flowing tails, too.

Yeah, I thought Joan's goldfish came out great too. There were a lot of fish in there - the tank was about from waist level to the ceiling and had several goldfish and some all white fish that were larger than the goldfish and not as pretty. They were in motion all the time. I had trouble drawing just one - I don't know how Joan managed three of them. They look really pretty against the blue water - which was actually a murky dirty green.

Michelle - Thanks so much for figuring out how to post both of our sketches in the same thread. We will definitely have to do this again.

Julie - Thanks for coming over from WetCanvas to see these. Doing the sketchcrawl was a lot of fun, even if it was a bit cold. Those goldfish were making me crazy. The tank was big enough so they could really move around a lot. I guess that's why I sketched a few of them. I'd start one and he'd move away, so I'd start another one.

mhimeswc - I really love that sheep sketch. It's such a great simple visual shape.

Joan T - Those are some fantastic watercolors. Love the goldfish.

Michelle and Joan
Your sketches are great . I like them all but especially like the turtle from below and the gold fish. The proportions of all the animals are all well done. Very difficult to get right.
This is also my first sketch crawl but have been part of Sketch Forum since October 07. The two of you should check it out. If I am not mistaken the site is sketching.cc
Have a great day, keep up the sketching.
Robert