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... 

New England Aquarium Sketches

I figured we all needed something to help ease our frayed nerves today.  Here are pencil and watercolor drawings of the animals we visited at the New England Aquarium a few days ago:

Florida Holiday 2011 Trip Report - Sketches from Lowry Park!

Oh, thank goodness I was among patient people.











By the way, I heard less ridiculous things at this zoo in Florida than I have in New England zoos. Huh...

On to Part Four!

Florida Holiday 2011 Trip Report - In Which Trish does not Feed Giraffes

Hey, do you remember when I said that when next year rolls around, I'd be swapping out the M/W/F or T/TR schedule for a "whateveh, I post new articles when I want!" schedule? This series is partially the reason why.

Anyway, further Lowry Park Adventures!




I am so disappointed that we didn't get to do this. This was one of the reasons why our friend really wanted to take us to Lowry Park in the first place. Ah well, it's a reason to go back.





But being this close to Okapi made up for it several times over. From what little I could gather, Lowry park and Disney's Animal Kingdom have kind of an odd relationship with one-another. They apparently "borrow" each-others' Okapi for breeding purposes.



Speaking of, baby Indian Rhino! D'aww.



Lowry's official Manatee Tank Scrubber. From here, this looks like The Best Job.



After visiting the Zoo, we headed over to a beach bar which I chiefly remember for three reasons (four if you count the hilarious/unsettling thing above):

1) I became very suddenly violently ill after coincidentally -or not- consuming deep fried alligator nuggets. I must have been caught up in the moment as the phrase "deep fried alligator nuggets" now sounds irredeemably sketchy. (And this was STILL more fun then the plane ride down.)



2) The balcony seats of the beach bar was a playground for the local corvids. These guys were playing with the drink coasters hidden inside that condiment caddy thing.



3) Black Skimmers! I love these guys! Strangely shaped beaks are awesome.

Sketches from the Zoo will be in the next post. Meanwhile, I will be wondering if this impulsive "post every weekday for this special feature" schedule was a good idea...

On to Part Three!

Florida Holiday 2011 Trip Report - In Which Trish Goes All the Way to Tampa to Watch Birds

On Black Friday (11/25) my sister and I flew down to Tampa, Florida to meet our aunt and our friend and her family and hang out with all of them for a day and a half before heading over to meet mom and dad at the Bay Lake Tower to see all the wonderful things Walt Disney World does for the holiday season and visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter over at Universal.

As you might imagine, this all turned into a heck of an adventure. I'll skip over the details (in particular the awful experience my sister and I had flying to Tampa) and get right to the fun parts. This trip is going to take a lot of posts to cover and note that the larger photos are hosted at Flickr so click them if you'd like to see the large versions.



Ah, Tampa! I hadn't been here in many years. We didn't have much time here, but we got to visit the Lowry Park Zoo.



The best way I can describe Lowry Park is this: This has to be the zoo that everyone who complains about how "boring" and "skippable" Disney's Animal Kingdom is over at DisBoards has visited all their lives. And I say that because it kind of ruined AK for me too (disclaimer: Trish still loves Animal Kingdom). Disney does everything it can to keep visitors as separated from the animals as possible and appears to have a very strained relationship between the educational aspects of the park and the "show" ("You guys have had enough of driving through a savannah of real animals right? Cause we're speeding off to rescue a fake one now!")



Meanwhile at Lowry Park, I was within licking distance of one Giraffid, could have fed another Giraffid, and stood ten feet away from a whole family of rhinoceri. And I almost got crapped on by the happy chap above.

Herewith, pictures of cool animals, amusing signs, and like such as! This will take at least two posts in itself, so today I will try to focus on animals of the winged theropod persuasion.

Tangent: An interesting thing I learned on this trip is that theropod is a tough word to use in conversations with Non-Paleo-Geek People. (ME: [trying to take the "Dinosaur Train" route] "Theropods have three toes and..." NPGP: "Oh, like a sloth?" ME: "... ... ... no.")



This here is another reason why Lowry Park wins. More places where humans can interact with nonhumans need signs like this.



There were small, free-roaming herds of Guineafowl running around, possibly to take care of insect pests. I couldn't look at them without thinking of Oviraptors.



You know, I didn't write down the name of these odd little birds, but I am instantly in love with them.



And this is why.

(EDIT: I'm guessing that they are Crested Couas.)



The whole walk-through aviary at Lowry was outstanding. Fruit Doves are a standard in such places, but I always love seeing the Nicobar Mulletpigeon.



I'm not following you, Sunbittern...



I'm not following you and hoping you will display your beautiful wings, Sunbittern...



(And not for the first time on this trip would my photography skills fail to capture something amazing.)



And around the next corner were Seriemas. The last surviving relatives of the Terror Birds. They could walk right up and lacerate me if they wanted to.



This Sandhill Crane was preening and I just happened to capture this amazing pose. I could draw the shape of that left wing and who would believe me?



I'll end here for now with this Southern Bald Eagle. I was surprised at how much smaller he looked compared to our Northern Balds. He was just a little bigger than one of our Red-tails.

On to Part Two!

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Sketch of the day!

I'll have zoo sketches in the next post. For now, visit the Perch, which gave me a nice shout-out! And here's something inspired by Cinnamon Bunzah:

More Sketching at the Maine Wildlife Park!

I've been working on so many text-heavy posts lately that I felt it was high time for a post that focused on my drawings. Fortunately, I recently had the opportunity to visit the wonderful Maine Wildlife Park... briefly. The drawings you're about to see may seem a little rushed. I was there with someone who'd never been before and they were laser-focused on seeing the male moose. All told we stayed for maybe an hour after that so... yeah.

Still, in that hour, I managed to get in some quality life drawing time:









And the inevitable

Sad and/or Hilarious Things Overheard At The Zoo:

"I wish they had elephants here." - A person who either didn't read the sign or didn't quite "get" it

"Is that ALL your vocabulary?!?" - Some lady, directed at a bird. (WTF?)

"BWAAAARK! BWAAAARK!!! Cuck-cuck-cuck-coooooooo!!!" - Old man -um- communicating with the animals. There was also a crazy kid, totally unrelated, hissing at the Lynxes who were trying to sleep. There are times when you wouldn't like it if certain zoo visitors were maimed by angry animals and then there are times like that...

And the usual, "I don't understand what I'm seeing here so I will make wild assumptions instead of reading the f&^%ing signs!" 

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Since this is a little short, here come the inevitable Links of Interest!

Sticking with the subject of this post, Andreas Deja shared some truly beautiful and sensitive animal drawings by Marc Davis.

The biennial Focus on Nature exhibition has posted a call for entries. The deadline is October 1 and you may enter two paintings (or... four. The rules are a bit convoluted as you will see.)

I am not the only one who is bummed out at the end of the Space Shuttle program... But there is, if you will, a New Hope according to Geek Dad.

Speaking of bummers, the film that disrupted my visit to the Franklin Park Zoo a while back is arriving in theaters soon and... it's pretty much exactly what I guessed it would be.

But in happier movie news, there's a new "Hobbit" production diary.

Twenty paintings from the Crazy For Cult Show have been revealed online. Holy crap, the "Predator"/"Goonies"/"Big Trouble in Little China"/"Neverending Story" crossover!

I was in no way aware of this never-made "Dazzler" movie and now I am kind of sad that it does not exist. Because who wouldn't want to watch a film where K.I.S.S. and the Village People are rival superhero teams?

The theme for the next Science 3.0 Blogging Contest is dinosaurs! Submit one (or three) of your dinosaur-involving blog posts or (even though I hate to be That Person) vote for me!

And, if you love dinosaurs and message boards, please join Hell Creek!

MOS Week: Sketches from "Reptiles: the Beautiful and the Deadly"

Well, I didn't quite fill a Sketchbook during this visit, and I didn't have any opportunities to do long studies. The museum gets very crowded over winter break (PROTIP: Avoid the Museum of Science over school vacations. I feel like, after five hours, I came home with everything school teachers build up an immunity to over the course of five years.)

But I did do a lot of sketches on this visit to the wonderful Museum of Science. It was well worth going, because as I have said many times before, there is no substitute for sketching a living, breathing, eating, pooping animal. Especially if that animal is one that usually sits very still:



A beautiful Green Tree Python and an unconventionally adorable Gila Monster. This is exactly how I'd be spending my day if I lived in a tree.



The Veiled Chameleon was surprisingly frisky. Turns out they have a particularly hilarious way of walking on the ground, which I was struggling to sketch.





And here's the star of the show. A handsome Water Monitor who was incredibly spry. As you can see, I never got a chance to do a long study of him - but I did get some awesome action poses.

This traveling exhibit was created by Clyde Peeling's Reptiland, which is in Allenwood, PA. I may have to visit their dedicated reptile zoo some day, if only to add this to my collection.

And since you love it, and I love it, here are

Hilarious And/Or Sad Things Overheard While Sketching!

A Downright Obnoxious Number of People: "Oh, I'm SO freaked out here; I HATE snakes!" ("WTF, why did you even come into this room full of snakes? It isn't like there wasn't informed consent going in," I wanted to ask, but I was too polite.)

Crazy Lady: "Oh crap! Now I really don't want to go to Africa, LOL! It'd be SO easy to step on a Gaboon Viper!" (I am hoping this woman re-evaluates her priorities [She's just afraid of the snakes? Ffft!] if she ever goes to Africa. Which is, incidentally, a pretty effing big continent. Imagine somebody seeing the Cottonmouth and vowing to stay away from North America. Yeah.)

Even Crazier Lady: "Oh, he looks so SAD! And he's in the aquarium all alone! Mr. Reptiland attendant guy, does this poor creature ever get lonely?" (Said attendant actually gave her a straight answer, but I would have had to say, "Gee, I don't know. I will ask him. Hey Mr. Giant Alligator Snapping Turtle Who Is, All Things Considered, The Scariest Nonhuman In The Room And No, I Am Not Forgetting The Nagini-From-Harry-Potter-Inspiring Gaboon Viper, are you lonely?")

Multiple People: "Are they real/awake/alive?" (*Head-desk*)

Sketching Reptiles at the Museum of Science

The Museum of Science just opened one of their very rare live animal exhibitions this weekend: "Reptiles, the Beautiful and the Deadly". The exhibit will run, thankfully, for a considerably long time: from now until January fourth. I still want to get to it as early as possible.

A couple of years ago, M.O.S. had a similar temporary exhibit during a school vacation week run by the same people (the delightfully named "Reptiland"). I'm very excited about this return because I almost filled half a Sketchbook at the last Reptiland exhibit.

Which means, dear readers, that you get a picture heavy post today! For all of these, click to see the larger images:



By far, this Rhinoceros Iguana was the most downright endearing creature in the whole show. Very sedate and easygoing, I was able to do several long studies of him. (I'm assuming it's a him. With most Squamates, unless the male and female look very different, it's hard to tell.)





Look at that cute pudgy-cheeked face. Look how cute he is.

Sadly, he was right by the entrance. Therefore, he was the first animal any guests saw and flocked to. That didn't bother me, especially given my experiences drawing animals in zoos and farms and such.



What did bother me a lot was the running commentary I heard. And here's the thing. I heard most stupid things almost exclusively from adults, not kids. Everyone under the age of fifteen knew what they were looking at, actually paid attention to the signage, and were eager to learn more. I'll let some sociologist decide if this is proof positive that, sadly, once they grow up, most people become more and more disassociated with the natural world.

OK, rant over. On to more drawings of cool animals.



Clockwise from the upper-left. The Emerald Tree Boa was a surprisingly small one. He stayed curled up tight like this all day and, as such, could have rested comfortably in my cupped hands. Beautiful colors.

It surprised me to learn that the frill on the Frilled Dragon doesn't get in the way much when he turns his head. They had a pair of them, though neither displayed at the other. (There was, however, an epic wallbanger of a sign that assured us that they can't spit poison.)

In the case of these two Basilisks, I think it's fair to assume which is female and which is male. The crowned male spent the day hiding behind a bromeliad. The female hung out on a tree branch. Neither of them went for a swim, much less a run.

Now I especially like it when I go to sketch live animals and go home with a new favorite animal or two:



Like this Green Tree Monitor. One of the most elegant and beautiful creatures I've ever had the opportunity to observe and draw. Very flexible and graceful. I had no idea how the tail would move as a lizard clambers along on the ceiling - now I do and my life is the better for it.



I might have been reduced to a "squee"-ing mess in front of these Collared Lizards.



And the Blue-Tongued Skink (it's like a sausage with little legs OMG!) AND the Gila Monster. Got some weird looks for that.



One of the best things I got to watch was this Veiled Chameleon display (I promise you, he was a dull puce a minute ago). It was amazing to watch. It's like he knew he had an audience.



So (leaving you with two Water Dragons) I will hopefully get to this new exhibit soon. Anyway, I haven't given enough love to the Museum of Science on this blog and it's time to start.

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Ain't It Cool News (of all websites) ran a fantastic interview with Berkeley Breathed over this past weekend and it gives terrific insight into the changing landscape of newspaper comics and the kinds of things an illustrator might have to put up with. (And it reminds me how much I want the complete "Bloom County" books too.)

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ANNOUNCEMENT: The Pink Dinosaur Sketchbook and the two custom Fairy Tails are up for auction on Ebay!