A visit to the zoo

I love visitng the zoo here in Zürich, it's so beautiful, and now they've added a new enclosure - Australia, with the koalas as main attraction.

The emus and wallabies are free to roam and mingle with the visitors. The wallabies were a bit shy, though, and prefared to keep their distance. The emus, on the other hand, were very interested in investigating...

The elephants enjoyed some quality family time.

The Masoala hall is always a special place to visit. You never quite know what you're going to see. It's something different every time. But there's always something to see. And this little mouse lemur was just the sweetest little creature!

Mouse Lemur from Nordljus on Vimeo.

That plant must be especially delicious, because on our way back, we saw this little fellow. Usually, they just sit motionless upside down on tree trunks.

Gecko from Nordljus on Vimeo.

One of the animals you pretty much always see, is the chameleon. This time, we saw four different ones. What characters they are. And their colours, patterns and textures are just amazing.

The end of another wonderful day at the zoo, and one last glimpse back in the later afternoon light, before the zoo shut it's gate, and the animals got some well deserved peace and quiet.

More penguins, and some thoughts about art journaling

Sketching those penguins just made me happy, so I painted some more, this time in my art journal, with acrylics.

It doesn't look finished yet, but I'm not quite sure yet what's missing. Maybe some journaling? I must admit that, very often, I find the adding-of-words part of art journaling really difficult. After all, that’s why I paint, because I find it easier to express myself in images than in writing. But that's what art journaling is about, right? Keeping a diary that combines the visual element with some added words, instead of just writing. The journal part is an essential part of it, it’s what makes it an art journal. Or is it? Actually, what is art journaling, exactly?

I only heard the term "art journaling", and learned about it, about two or three years ago. Before that, I just kept a sketchbook, in which I mainly made little versions of the paintings that we did at a painting class, with notes about the techniques, paints, colours, inspiration etc. It didn't have a name. It just was a book most of us in class kept. Then I learned about art journaling. And that’s how I conceived the whole art journaling thing, that it was all about pouring your soul onto the painted pages, in words.

After two or three years of art journaling, and always feeling that somehow, I did it wrong, because of lack of words, I decided to look a bit deeper into the matter of art journaling, to find out more about what it is, how it’s done, how others do it, and what they think what it is.

Definition of "art diary" from Wikipedia:

An art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including Mixed media elements such as collages. Such books will frequently contain rough workings, in cartoon form, of ideas later to appear in finished works, as well as acting as a normal diary, by allowing the artist to record their day-to-day activities and emotions.

 Definition of "art journal" by Marion Boddy-Evans on About.com

An art journal is a journal or diary that has a strong visual element to it, an expression of your artistic creativity and imagination, not filled only with words like a traditional journal. It's a journal for using your art to express your memories, dreams, and thoughts. How you create the images, and what type of imagery you make, is entirely a matter of personal choice. There are no rules. You can paint or draw, use pen and ink, photos, collage, doodle, stickers... anything and everything.

There’s an added element in both of these definitions to my perception of art journaling (although still including the journaling bit), the element of it serving as a collection of ideas for reference for later paintings. The same idea also appears in wikiHow's "How to Use an Art Journal", which suggests to use your journal for trying out new techniques, and making notes about the experiments (point 4), and also to chart your supplies (point 3) in it.

So what is an art journal? Well, there really are no rules. It's entirely up to you, it’s your playground, to do whatever you want to in it, whatever suits you. And if you don't want to add your thourhgs and emotions in the form of meaningful words to your pages, that's totally fine too. It doesn’t even have to be a journal, and you don’t even have to call it an art journal. As long as you have that special place to play, that’s fine, whatever form it takes, whatever it contains. For me, my art journals are more about trying out new techniques, and ideas, creating references. They are the place where I can uninhibitedly try out ideas for a painting, which I don’t yet want to paint straight on a canvas. It’s a record of my creativity, or to just do 'something', when I don't have the time and energy to paint a 'proper' painting. It’s my playground.

Treat it like a real diary if you want, or simply use it to collect your works and practice. The whole point is that the journal is for you, by you, and its contents are completely up to you. (wikiHow "How to Use an Art Journal")

Unfortunately, I still don't quite know how to finish off my penguin page...

Zoo animals sketches: Birds

I bought this little sketchbook earlier this summer in an art shop in London. It's a handy square 14x14c, (5.5x5.5") journal with 128 pages and the rounded edges I love. I was a bit sceptical, because the pages, though heavyweight drawing paper, seemed a bit thin for watercolours. But as it said on the cover that it "accepts light watercolour washes without buckling", I thought I'd give it a try.

And I'm really pleased with it. It actually takes a lot more than just a l"light" watercolour wash, with only very little buckling, and most of all no bleeding through at all, which is something I had problems with with another sketchbook. So this little sketchbook is going to be my "zoo animals series" sketchbook, and here are some bird sketches done after the photos I took during my visit to the zoo.

The King Penguins. There just such fun to sketch.

The funny Shoebill, they have these amazing blue eyes, which somehow don't really look like birds' eyes.

The Green-Winged Macaw. I must say that I'm very grateful to the zoo that they have these, and not the Scarlet Macas, with their yellow wing feathers, as I really don't like yellow, but love green!

There's still lots of room in my sketchbook for more zoo animals, and there's lots more to come. I certainly took enough photos to keep me busy.

A day at the zoo: Birds

I haven't been to the zoo for 10 years, so the week before last, I decided that it was time again. And thanks to my lovely work colleague, I even got a free ticket. A lot has changed in the past 10 years, and a lot is still changing. Zoo Zurich is working on improving the habitat for its animals, its aims is not anymore to display as many and as exotic animals as possible, but to contribute to the preservation of animals, especially those that are in danger of being extinct. It only keeps animals for which it can provide an appropriate living, which is why the polar bears and chimpanzees were sold to zoos that could provide that better. Many new enclosures have been built, and many more are being built and planned to improve condition, and animals are not kept as individuals species in separate enclosures, but mixed together, as they would in their natural habitat. The new enclosures are much bigger, recreating specific areas of the animals' natural habitat, and each new enclosure is linked with a conservation project. The zoo's aim is to mediate and educate, according to their motto "They who know animals, preserve animals".

Apart from my camera, I had also taken a little sketchbook, pencils, pencils, and even a little box of watercolour, in yet another attempt to do some on-site sketching. As with all other former attemps, I failed miserably. Well, this time, it really was just too hot, and there weren't (m)any convenient places to sit down and sketch. Also, it was quite busy (I was just one week too early - it was the last week of the school holiday...) So I just took pictures, which I'm now using as reference for sketches. Because I took so many pictures (almost 350), I've decided to turn them into a little series. All the animals are just so beautiful, funny, fascinating, amazing, it would be a pity to cram them all into one single blog post. I randomly start with some birds, simply because I wanted to start with sketching the penguins. They were the first animals I saw when I went there, and they just fascinated me endlessly. I went back there before I left, because they're just too sweet.

The majestic King Penguins

The funny and amazing Shoebill. They're huge, they get up to 110-150 cm tall, and have been described as "statue-like", as they stand motionless for ages. Certainly very handy for taking photos.

The gorgeously colourful Green-Winged Macaw. I just happened to pass by a zoo keeper giving a talk about macaws and feeding him (or her) nuts, which again provided a perfect opportunity to take photos of this wonderful creature.