Drawing at the San Diego Zoo

I'm enjoying a 10-week San Diego Zoo drawing drawing class for adults with Instructor Tom Babbey through Watts Atelier (based in Encinitas). Tom is an awesome animal artist (link to his sketch blog at bottom of post). If you can find a class offered by him jump at the opportunity. Tips for Young students: Animal models generally move a lot (even the Galapagos tortoise pictured here), so animal artists have to develop a visual memory of their subjects so they can keep drawing while waiting for their subjects to strike a similar pose. 

One week we were drawing Grevy's Zebras (also pictured here), and for almost three hours these animals conspired against us artists by keeping their faces obscured in troughs of hay. Much of my zebra's head that day was drawn using my "visual memory" of what a zebra's head looks like.

If you are serious about learning to draw animals well, it helps to have a good camera with zoom lens and fast shutter speed so you can develop your own image library. If you don't have a camera or can't get to the zoo, visit the San Diego Zoo website and find an image there to draw. The images here were taken by me over a period of several weeks at the San Diego Zoo. I also took many close-up "detail shots" of different parts of the animal such as legs, hoofs, eyes, muzzles, ears, etc.

Tips for Young Students: Make a habit of keeping a daily sketchbook where you practice, practice, practice! When you go to the zoo or any other place where you can view animals, practice drawing them from life in your sketchbook. Over time, as you flip through your book, you will be amazed at your improvements. 

You are welcome to print out these zoo pictures and sketch them.

Students: With parent permission, we invite you to send a scanned image of artwork made by you of one of the pictures in this blog post. Send your image file to us at director@carlsbadartfarm.com. We just might exhibit your art on our blog! Remember to include your first name only and your age.

Tom Babbey Animal Sketch Blog