best of zoo - July 2010

Finally got to the zoo, after far too long. This time, the Columbus Zoo!

I'd forgotten how much bigger this zoo was than Hogle - we were rushing at the end just to get to all the animals we wanted to draw!

I did the whole thing with a brush pen, except at the end where I switched to a chisel-tipped pen. The watercolors were all added after we got home, because I felt like experimenting.

black swans and a parrot-like bird, from the (South Asian) "Islands" area.

Komodo dragon, from the same area.

Okapi, from the African Forest area.

A big lazy lion. There were also some half-grown cubs, with spots still on their legs and bellies.

And at long last, the brand-new Polar Frontier exhibit. This is the first time I've been able to see polar bears live. The filtration system had some minor glitch, so the underwater viewing area wasn't open, but the two bears in there gave me plenty of sketching material.

Good ol' brown bears and a couple bison. Such awesome animals.

This I found amusing because these fish are completely native to the area, and yet, during a zoo trip, I took some of our precious time to sketch them. Oh well.