Drawing Animals in Graves Park

Our latest SketchCrawl was last Saturday. This time we decided to have a crack at drawing animals (yes, we were indeed very brave souls!).

The weather was so lovely, I was pleased we decided to make a slightly earlier start of 9.30. Even that early, it was a bit too hot to stand out of the shade for any length of time. Luckily the various pens and cages cast pools of shadow.

We started in an area with various chickens and cockerals. the cocks were crowing really loudly, as if in competition. One got very sniffy about being sketched and marched unside every time someone tried, but I captured these three.

There were also cute fluffy and furry things like bunnies...

...and guinea pigs, some with silly haircuts:

There were also sheds for the creatures with babies, including the cutest lop-eared goats. All the time I was trying to draw the baby lop-ears, this bearded goat on the left kept butting in:

There were beautiful Welsh sheep too, called Kerry Hill sheep, with dark eye-spots, like pandas:

The 2nd half of the morning was spent in an outer area, where there were larger animals, including some big, bristly pigs. This one was slowly and methodically working his way along the front of his enclosure, hoovering the floor, so I had to walk slowly with him as I drew: 

Unfortunately most of the pigs stayed in the cool of their huts, so I finished off with some donkeys before our lunch break, or they might have been mules:

Because animals tend to move, we mostly did quick sketches, so I managed loads in the time. Which means this is already a ridiculously long post and we've only got as far as lunch! So, I am going to save the afternoon for next time. I thought drawing animals all day would be too tiring so, after our picnic, we moved further into the park and tackled ponds and trees, but that, as they say, is another story...