Penguin Walk, Edinburgh Zoo

It is Boxing Day, so I'm posting a couple of my favourite drawings - this year had been the first year (Thanks to Victoria Evans's 28 Drawings Later project) that I have got really into using a sketchbook, drawing in ink and using watercolours, especially outside of the life class.

The penguins are from a day in the zoo (can't remember ever being to a zoo before. It is quite a depressing place - and sells a awful amount of alcohol in the cafe) Drawing animals is a nice change for me, so expect more penguins/flamingos/tigers etc to appear over the next few months at the Etsy shop.

Bones are also very satisfying to draw - especially when spot lit as they tend to be in museums these days. So much room for exaggerating claws and teeth! This ceratosaur drawing has been given to my nephew - all kids go through a dinosaur phase, don't they? - and has been a favourite, I'm sure, of generations of Glasgow kids.

After all, drawing should be fun at least some of the time, shouldn't it?

The Smile

Two openings tonight - the first at Art Exposure, where this painting will be on show, along with 4 little 10x10cm paintings - I had taken them down to the gallery as possibles for the next show, but she liked them so much she decided to show them as they are - sans frames!

Over at Virginia Galleries is the opening for their #Man exhibition - I have a little life drawing and an urban landscape in the show - and I was the only one who did put in a cityscape! A few of my life drawings are upstairs in Luke and Jacks, which is "For Love, Life, Sex, Romance & Celebration". So don't go to either the shop or the gallery if you are easily offended.

So tonight is going to be a long, talky night, to which you are all welcome to come along - I'll be at Art exposure first, sometime after 6, then probably on up to Virginia Street. Then home for a rest, before starting a few new paintings tomorrow!