Meet the Real Stinky!

One of my favourite buildings is the Natural History Museum. It's so very beautiful. Such lovely colours of brick and gorgeously detailed decoration, both inside and out. I love the carved fish swimming by you as you walk round and monkeys that climb up towards the ceiling!

You won't be surprised then, that I spent a whole day in the museum during our London trip. John and I looked round together all morning, but I was itching to do some drawing, so after lunch he left me to it. I sat myself on the floor and got out my sketchbook:

There was so much to go at, it was hard to choose, but one thing I had to draw, as soon as I saw him, was this hairy warthog:

What a stonker! Not quite as cute as little Stinky is he? 

And, in case you think it's just my wonky drawing, here's a photo to prove that he really did have a head that flat. He's really not a looker, is he? Though I must say, his skinny, sticky-up tail is pretty cute, don't you think?

I couldn't walk by this wonderfully gooky rhino either, with his huge funnel-ears and slightly bemused smile:

...or this funny-looking fish. Sometimes a wee bit ugly is rather appealing, isn't it?

I did go for cute too though. These delicate features were simply irresistible:

As I was sitting facing the cabinets, I couldn't see behind me. Every so often I would catch some movement out of the corner of my eye and look round to find a huddle of people standing over me, looking suddenly embarrassed to be caught in the act.

I had a long chat with one man who got very excited when he saw my waterbrush and wrote down all the details, so he could go away and get one immediately. They really are a brilliantly simple invention and make wet-sketching in museums possible.

I drew my socks off until John came to collect me at chucking-out time. He told me that he had just been sitting having tea next to Peter Gabriel in the Science Museum cafe. Oddly, we also found ourselves sitting having tea next to Simon Armitage the very next day in the British Museum (Sorry - I didn't draw him).

This is what I am sketching in the photo near the top, by the way: