Trish and the Viral Sketchbook go to Pineland Farm

How is everybody doing?  I bring you drawings of animals I met at a lovely local farm.  Did you know chickens can just have Microraptor leg-wings?  Because they can and it is a trip to see them just running around with them in real life.

Goat Yoga and a Sketchbook Roundup!

 I not only have sketches from a Goat Yoga experience we had at a local dairy farm, I also have a Sketchbook Review!  First, a roundup of recent Sketchbooks:

The one I'd like to talk about today is the Talens Art Creation Sketchbook.  

It's rather nice.  Very good for drawing on the go and the pages have a nice quality, as you can see:

So what did I think of Goat Yoga?  If it's your thing, cool, but I don't see myself doing it again.  I had more fun sketching and petting than exercising.

Next week - a very unusual Sketchbook with very unusual needs... 

Disney's Animal Kingdom 2023 Sketches and Trip Report!

Earlier this year, my family and I went to Walt Disney World.  Here are some thoughts.

The Flower and Garden Festival was lovely as usual.  We got to ride on everything we'd wanted to experience.  The weather was perfect; we even got to float in the pool more often that I'd expected.  And the new-to-me Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was a blast!  

A few not-so-great things: EPCOT is really suffering with all the construction in Future World (and the day I call Future World "World Celebration/Nature/Stuff" is the day I call Twitter "X").  Space 220 had very good food and I enjoyed some of the little touches, but for the price and popularity, I was expecting more than feasting in the warming glow of a screensaver.  The idea is similar to Coral Reef but I think I'd rather eat in the company of real actual fish.  On the subject of food and drink, I did not care for the Villain's Lair retheme of the Bay Lake Tower DVC Lounge.  Not everything needs to have Disney characters or a Theme and we all agreed that the drinks are ghastly!

And Genie+ is a disaster, but I think I went over that last time.  I still can't get over how confusing this must be for Newbies.  Dear Joe Disney, your park has too many attractions named “Space”, “Star”, and “Galaxy”.  Please change the names of three.  (I’m not a crackpot.)

Anyway.  Animal Kingdom sketches!

More Art and Thoughts From Around WDW

 Okay, this post was originally going to be The Trip Report but as soon as I started writing that, it turned out to deserve a whole blog of it's own.  So look forward to that next week (Edit: Sorry, make that NEXT next week.  Probably.  I hope.)  

Meanwhile, more sketches and thoughts from Animal Kingdom park, the Coral Reef restaurant, and around the Beach Club pools.

So. The Pandemic.  It did not end up adversely affecting much that I could see.  (Indeed, we mostly had a great time and any bad times were almost always due to things neither we nor Disney could've controlled.  Almost.)  One of the big changes was how character encounters work.  You can't go up to meet them, so they'll show up in the little patios at EPCOT, or riding a boat along the river in Animal Kingdom. It is almost like how it was in the 70's-90's where random characters would just show up whenever, and I have to say, hearing music and looking around to see Mickey riding in a boat is a heck of a lot more fun than waiting in line to meet him in a room.

Above, you see my very brief impression of Disney's Kite Tails.  This is a new live show at Animal Kingdom, replacing Rivers of Light.  Rivers of Light was very nice when all of the effects worked, which, more often than not, they did not.  Kite Tails, as I'm sure you know if you've already seen the videos, is Very Special.  Part of me wants it to stick around for a while so everyone can experience it for themselves.  BUT!  Another much louder part of me wants it to end up a short-lived Bizarrerie like Superstar Limo or Barbie's Birthday Bash.  Only better because I was there this time!  I got to see the show!  And years later, I'll try to describe it to younger WDW fans -- and they will probably just assume I am recalling a weird dream.  Which is fair.

The parks were way more crowded than I ever would have guessed, given the reservation system.  I have heard since that there are no more "slow days" or less-crowded weeks at Disney.  What a bummer, especially if you're trying to eat dinner at EPCOT with no reservation.  There was no getting into Space 220, nor the Garden Grill.  But where the sky and land failed us, the Sea welcomed us.  Er, we got into Coral Reef I mean.  What a nice, underrated restaurant.  The sharks and rays were very active that evening and the food and drinks were excellent.

We'll round things out today with a trip to Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Kidani Village had a special tour of one of their savannas and I got to see their elusive Okapis up close!  This was another of my favorite experiences this trip; right up there with Harmonious.

2022 Animal Kingdom Sketches!

We went to Disney World earlier this month!  It was wild!  I may do a brief trip report next post but for now, we had a lot of fun.  And as is tradition, my drawings of the residents of Disney's Animal Kingdom:

I got to watch the Great Argus Pheasant "Peacocking" in real life right in front of me and I'm not even kidding, this was one of the coolest things I got to experience on the whole trip!  Right up there with Rise of the Resistance!

The Painted Wolves/African Wild Dogs/Cape Hunting Dogs/Lycaon pictus are, I think, a new addition to the Safari.  And they're very cool.  (And boy I wish I was not sitting adjacent to a very loud fool insisting "No, those are Hyenas like in 'Lion King'!" 😞 )

"Feathered Friends in Flight" is the latest and maybe the best iteration of "Flights of Wonder"/"Up!  The Big Bird Adventure"/"Whatever, IDK What You Call It Or What The Framing Story Is, I Am Just Here For The Birds".  Simply because - get this - there is NO framing story, just a lot of cool birds doing cool things!  What a concept!  I got to see a Harpy Eagle in real life!  That's right up there with the Skyliner!

Animal Kingdom Sketches 2020

Approximately five and a half million years ago*, my family and I went to Walt Disney World.  As usual, I took loads of photos at Animal Kingdom and did sketches of the residents.  Mostly birds, of course.  Enjoy:







* - It sure feels like.  In reality it was only three weeks ago which seems impossible.  I'd like to do a trip report once it doesn't feel like a big fun and exciting blur that happened ages ago.

Animal Kingdom Sketches 2019

Brought my Illo on an adventure to Disney's Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Lodge!

Franklin Park Zoo in October?

Sure, why not? In the middle of everything else, my cousin and her daughter were visiting and this was the only chance I'd get to bond with them.  And the giraffes were out!

A Self-Imposed Challenge at Maine Wildlife Park

For want of a more interesting term, I'm going to call this the Little/Big Challenge.  Do quick little sketches of the Charismatic Megafauna and long, detailed studies of the small, unpopular animals.  If I may say so myself, I think the results are a-pretty good: