Sunday 15 February 2015

We're going to the (dead) zoo! Zoo! Zoo!

Having not been to Dublin's wonderful National History Museum in a while to sketch, I decided to pay a visit this weekend. It's a great old place full of animals stuffed about 100 years ago. Naturally it's pretty busy with families but you can still get some drawing done fairly peacefully. On today's trip  my energy was buoyed by a free coffee from a lovely guy at Lolly and Cooks on Merrion Street who could have made me spend the €5 minimum on my card on finding that I had no change but instead sent me off with a free latte! Then I'd just come out of the cafe to see traffic police holding everyone back so that the Irish rugby team in their big green coach could go past on their way to the National Stadium where they would trounce the French! (Well, beat them at least, I know nothing about rugby to know whether it was a trouncing or a fluke!) Anyway excitement over and it was on the the Museum.


I usually start with something 'easy', in other words small, and for some reason birds seem easier than mammals, maybe because the form is easier to observe on something with feathers than fur??











This pair of wild dogs fighting is something I'd been wanting to draw for a while. There should be a big skull of a some kind of deer in the middle i.e. what they are supposed to be fighting over!


Big giant moose seemed to big a task to draw the whole body but he had such a sad look on his face so I thought I'd just do  that.


Koala bear looked cute in his exhibit box but turned out a little evil on paper!


Young zebra unfinished - I was moved on and out of the museum at closing time before I could add all the stripes! Though maybe just as well as it was probably going to get a little tedious to be honest!