The Reality of Sketching Animals From Life
Greetings! I recently went on a family outing to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, with the goal of sketching animals while we were there. In this post we will be diving into the big day itself, with an honest and raw look at the reality of sketching animals from life. The previous post to this one detailed the preparation work that went into the trip such as self study exercises, choosing the art supplies, and my creative mentality for successful sketching sessions. Now we will see how all of that was put into action, with all the random chaos sketching in nature and the public brings. Let’s dive in!
A compilation of photographs from my day out at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Starting top-left and moving clockwise: a lioness pencil drawing from life, a photograph of a sleeping polar bear, and my painting kit.
Starting the pen moving
As is ever the case with art, oftentimes the hardest part is actually picking up the pen and starting. This is particularly so when learning a new skill, or when in an unfamiliar environment. To ease my way into the day, I tried to remove as much resistance in advance as possible. I walked into the park with one art-thought in mind.
Get the pen(cil) moving.
I took out my sketchbook and ballpoint pen in advance, carrying it as we walked. In my hands is easier to use than in my bag, one tool in hand is easier than three in a case. It was not long before the group wandered to my first target: the cheetah. Two cubs had been born at the park last year, and were now nearly the size of their mum! A healthy crowd was gathered along the pathway, but I was able to find a spot at the front. I began by observing the trio. Watching how they moved, what forms and simple shapes the more complex anatomy could be broken down into. Sketchbook and pen already in hand, I opened the book and began.
The thoughts came. You know the ones. They were not the goal though. The goal was starting the pen moving.
I spotted the turn of a head. I jotted down a circle, and quickly indicated a head and neck. The cheetah had moved. I saw another cheetah bend down. I moved the pen to follow the flow of their spine. The cheetah had moved. I could recall where the limbs where, so I jotted them down.
The pen was moving.
Very fast attempts at gestures of cheetah, sketched from life in black ballpoint pen. The purpose of these was to start my pen moving.
The rest of the group wandered off, and so I followed. We made our way past various animals, and I spent time with my family. I had decided in advance to focus on the big cats and polar bears, in part so that I could also just enjoy the rest with my family. Alongside being artists, we are humans. The humanity even helps to inform the art further, and I have wonderful experiences and memories to pull from now. Even so, I still kept the sketchbook and pen in my hand. Path of least resistance, and all that.
The leopards and tigers were absent, for now, so we eventually made our way to Project Polar. The home of the polar bears. Once again I began with observing. Noticing lines of action, where weight was placed when walking or resting, what simple shapes I could break forms down into. I opened my sketchbook, and quickly captured gestures of some of the bears. As a side note, I love how polar bears look when they are laying down. They just flop everything out.
A quick gesture drawing of a polar bear laying down, sketched from life in black ballpoint pen.
Keeping the pen moving
The pen was now moving. The next part was making sure it kept moving.
Or rather the pencil kept moving, because now I felt comfortable enough to start some longer poses and felt the urge to use pencil for that. I swapped out the pen for my 0.7mm 2B mechanical pencil and eyed a polar bear sitting down. The bear was half sat on the grass, and half laying over a large rock.
Animals that are laying or sitting down are a great subject for learning to draw from life, since they will likely hold that pose for more than 5 seconds. You can’t guarantee that they will hold it for too long though. The polar bear got up and moved away within about 5 minutes of me starting the sketch (shown below).
An animal figure drawing of a polar bear sitting down on a rock, sketched in roughly five minutes from life using a 0.7mm 2B mechanical pencil.
Dealing with unexpected interruptions
Soon it was time to continue on. Sketchbook and now pencil in hand we made our way through various sections. I once again focused on spending time in the moment with family. We wandered through the lemur area together, and enjoyed how the enclosure allowed the lemurs to actually be climbing fully grown trees. On the woodland floor, people gathered and looked up into the canopy to spot any fluffy tails among the foliage.
The plan was to continue around the park, and then stop for lunch. After that the group would split up and spend time in different sections. That would be my time to settle down and paint, but for now I set my mind on my final sketching target. We were approaching “Lion Country”, a seven acre habitat home to the Yorkshire Pride of rescued lions.
Almost immediately we spotted four. A male and two females were up on a hill in the distance, sunning themselves and cuddling together. Much closer to the human walkway was a fourth, a lioness laying on her own. What an opportunity! I quickly opened my sketchbook and got to work. I was planning on drawing a longer pose this time, but my approach followed the same principles as before. I took a moment to observe, and then I captured the gesture and roughed in some simple forms to denote their location and proportion. Running along the walkway was a wooden fence at a good height to rest my sketchbook on, which was a plus!
Now that I had more time, and the lioness was still laying there, I began detailing the head. I tried to still work somewhat quickly but deliberately, because I did not know how long she would stay still. The main thing I wanted to capture was her expression and likeness in the portrait. She looked like she had a rather sad expression, which led to me considering a story that she was sulking on her own while the other three were enjoying themselves together. That was something I really wanted to capture, and was a focus of my efforts.
Then came the interruption. Now one thing you cannot control when drawing out in public is other people. There are some things within your control, but sometimes you have to go with the flow of what happens around you.
The consequence of the lioness being so close to the walkway was that many people started to gather to see her. A crowd of children gathered either side of me and grabbed hold of the wooden fence, shaking it backwards and forwards in their excitement. There aren’t often earthquakes in Yorkshire, but my sketchbook was feeling one. I tried to step back a little and hold my sketchbook to draw instead, like I had done for the cheetah and polar bears, but at this point the children were very enthusiastically and continually screaming. More people were arriving, raising their voices ever louder to try to be heard over the growing noise. The rush and commotion was quickly becoming more than I could handle, so I decided to stop the sketch there and find my family further into Lion Country. After all, the park is for everyone to enjoy. Not just one person trying to sketch.
The sketch of an attempted longer pose of a lioness from life, abandoned halfway through. I took this photo while on the lunch break, deciding whether to continue it.
We sat down at the tables by Lion Country to dig into our packed lunches, which is where I took the above photo of the lioness sketch. When I had wandered away from the lioness I thought to myself that I would continue the detailing from memory and knowledge later. However, when looking back at the sketch I decided to keep it as it is. It’s a memory for me now.
Painting a polar bear from life
Bellies full, we all split apart and headed in our own directions. I set off for Project Polar, having been tempted by the benches there as a painting station. I chose a spot by one of the entrances, where a lone bear was wandering around. Most visitors were just walking by this section to join the bulk of the crowd in the middle viewing area, so I had a clear and somewhat peaceful view.
I took out my painting bag, and set up my watercolour travel palette and water pot. Out of the two painting surfaces I packed, I chose the cold press watercolour block for ease of holding. Despite never getting around to using the hot press watercolour sketchbook, I’m still glad I packed it as an option.
My watercolour kit and set up for the painting session, sat atop my art bag.
Directly across from the bench I could see a rocky hill, partially coated in grass. As I began setting up my supplies the polar bear wandering around this area climbed up and sat down on the top of the hill in front of me.
The lighting was gorgeous - a moody wash of shadows countered by golden backlit lighting coming in from the left. I wanted to already be painting it! I grabbed my pencil and roughed in the gesture of the spine and simple placements of the bear and environment.
The pencil sketch of the polar bear sat on top of a rocky hilltop, drawn from life with a 0.5 HB mechanical pencil.
Disappearing bears, rain, and people staring
Not long into sketching the sky rapidly began to darken, which you can see from the moody lighting of the above photo. Please, not rain! To make things worse, right after I took the photograph the bear stood up and started wandering around again. Fearing a repeat of last year’s non-stop rain and now left with a moving subject, I changed plans. Rather than approaching the painting as if I had 45 minutes, I approached it as if I could get rained on at any second.
One of the photographs of the polar bears I took on my first pass through Project Polar before coming back later on to paint.
I turned my focus to representing the simple statement of the original scene, which was the lighting I had seen on the bear. To do that I pulled from what I could remember, the lighting I could see on the hill now, and the local colours I could see on the bear who was now enjoying a mid-afternoon walk. Now was not the time to focus on details or making a “pretty” image, nature was truly forcing me to stick to my intentions of being there to put paint on paper and learn.
As I was painting, some people had a look as they wandered past. Some people smiled, some people stared, and some people wandered on by without a glance. It quickly became a part of the background setting to me though, and no one broke that flow to approach closer and speak to me. That can happen, but it hasn’t happened to me yet! In zoos and animal parks, people usually seem to be more preoccupied with the animals than with what their fellow humans are up to.
The finished watercolour sketch of a polar bear painted on location at Project Polar in Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
I hope that sharing my experience of one sketching trip offers a little window into the reality of drawing and painting animals from life. There is a lot you can do in advance to prepare and form a path of least resistance to you putting pen to paper. However, a lot of the skill building comes from what you do on the day itself, and the “success” comes down to what you deem success to be and how you respond to the chaos that is outside your control.
In the end, it is worth it all to me.
