SKETCHBOOK: "Polar Bears at the ZOO"

This is "Day Three" of my weekend of sketching!  It's been like a "stay-cation"...wonderful weather all three days.  This morning I had the misfortune of seeing myself walk by a mirror after getting out of bed.  I thought, "You look like a big ol' polar bear."  DING!  There was the silver lining...that was a perfect catalyst for going to sketch at the zoo today!

I had not really taken a lot of time to enjoy the fairly new polar bear exhibit on my last couple of visits.  The sketch above was my first of the day.  The bear was pacing back and forth, so I had to catch bits of him each time he walked in the direction you see in my drawing.

Below, that bear was pacing in a different area..up to the window, then back to the far corner.  I had just started drawing the bear on a return trip, when it decided to go take a swim.  Dang.  So I figured I'd just keep drawing all the rock structures.

I went inside the building where they have bleachers to watch the bear swimming laps around the pool. Wouldn't you know it...just as I'm about to sketch him as he swam by...he decides to go inside the enclosure where the caves are in the back.  Double Dang.  So I just drew the water view. Eventually he came out for a brief appearance in the far distance.  I put him in the scene...on the left of the center window.  That's the thing about trying to draw animals at the zoo.  They move.

I had not really ventured into the KIDS area in a long time...they have changed a ton of stuff since I was there last.  In a couple of weeks, I hope to take Courtney and my grandson, Jackson, back to the zoo.  This was sort of like a scouting trip.  I could not believe this GIANT TREE for kids to climb up into!!  It was so cool...I would love to see photos of the process of building that thing (I think it was made of concrete).  Below is a photo of it from a different view from where I was sketching.

Guess the weekend is about done now.  It was great to have some quality time with the ol' sketchbook!