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My sister and I did the sketchcrawl in Van Saun Park in Bergen County, NJ. We started at the Bergen County Millennium Carousel. It was hard to sketch because it moved and didn't stop with the same animal in front of us each time. I did one horse and the lion. There was a great variety of animals to pick from. I'd like to go back and do more of them.


Next we went into the Bergen County Zoo. I sketched the Greater Rhea which looks sort of like an ostrich. The Red-Footed Tortoises should have been easy to sketch, but they move around more than you think!

They had a baby American Alligator that was sunning itself in the grass. He was cute! In another enclosure there was a beautiful Great Blue Heron. He was hiding in the back. I think all the kids scared him. We found some American Elk trying to keep cool in a pond. They were sitting there so quietly until the bison came lumbering over and scared them out of the pond.


Here is one of those pushy American Bison. It was difficult to see their faces. I think this looks more like a furry rodent, but take my word for it...it is a bison. We ran out of animals that were still enough to sketch easily. Our last stop was back at the carousel. This time I sketched the camel. It would have been nice to sketch another one, but it was 5 o'clock and they shut the carousel down for the day. That ended our sketchcrawl!

Joan T

Great stuff!

I love the look in the deer's eyes as if thinking "watch who you're drawin!"

Joan is going to be a hard act to follow. I love her watercolor sketches. Well, here goes....


The carousel - note the different animals, even a gorilla!


and here are a tiger and a rhinocerous.


And here are some real animals, a Greater rhea (looks like an ostrich to me) and a Capybara.

Some tortoises and a partial alligator.


Some kids had scared the alligator I was sketching, and he moved to the other side of the enclosure, so I walked around and sketched him, and a great blue heron that was sitting in the grass.


The American Elk cooling off in the pond.

An American Bison in the pond.


And lastly a dragon on the carousel - I started to paint him. He is actually a very dark green, but they shut the carousel down and closed it up from view so I never got to finish.

I enjoyed sketching these animals, real and fantasy, much more than I did the few animals that we sketched here for the January sketchcrawl. Brrrr.... June is much better for outdoor sketching.

Michelle

Joan T
nice sketches.
1st one is the very interesting for me!!
and lower animal sketches are sweet!!!
I like your soft and sweet sketches!

mhimeswc
wow lot of animals!
I know the animal sketch is very difficult.
because they are moving anytime!! hahaha
neat sketches!!

Donal - Thanks. I think the elk with the antlers was protecting the herd. They moved pretty fast when the bison started heading over to the pond.

Mickey - I still can't believe you got so many of the carousel animals! Great work on all the animals. I do hope you finish painting the dragon. It was a fun sketchcrawl to do together. Where will we go next time?

PaintMonster - Thank you. It was fun to do the carousel and the other animals.

Joan T

Thanks, Paintmonster! We tried to choose animals that we thought wouldn't move much, but you would not believe how much those tortoises moved. And the fake animals (carousel) moved more than the real ones.

Joan, I had fun too. We'll have to go back again. Where do we go next? Hmmm.....will have to see when it is and what the weather will be like.

Mickey

Joan, I love your sketches of the carousel animals, and the subtle watercolours you used. I also like very much the elk grouping in the pond -- beautiful composition.

Nicola

Nicola - Thank you. I really enjoyed sketching the carousel and couldn't help but do it in color. The elk were sitting far enough away in that pond that you couldn't really see the facial features. Luckily by the time I was almost finished with the painting the bison came running over and made them get up. They came closer and I was able to do their faces.

hi guys,

joan - the carasoul with horse is very nice... and the family of deers is cool too...

michelle - love the softness of all your animal sketches...

Thanks, rohit. I actually would be happy if I could make my sketches look a little bolder.

Nice work!

I'm detecting a carousel theme this year...

Nice animals. I've been planning one ZOOcrawl for some time, but now I feel inspired enough to actually do it. Cheers!