Bird Show

Relatively few people were at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park today. Between the low attendance and gorgeous weather, conditions were awesome for a day of sketching. This is a sketch of a small audience enjoying the bird show. I was in a rush to capture the action and the proportions of the presenter and bird are inconsistent with the audience’s, but I like the sketch anyway.

I began this series of sketches with white charcoal on black paper, thinking that it would help loosen me up for quickly capturing animal movements. Later I abandoned the charcoal for gel pens to avoid the smearing and blurring of detail. I carried a very small palette with twelve gouache colors, a spray bottle and three water brushes, along with two sketchbooks, and an assortment of pens, pencils, and charcoal.

This is a gel pen and gouache sketch on black paper.