Original Animal Drawing, “Rays”, ink on paper, 8 x 12”, 2021

Sketching animals from life is always thrilling, but drawing sea life specifically is like seeing visions of dreams, of a world we really are never built to observe as aquariums let us do.  These drawings of stingrays were made at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, one of my favorite places to let my hair down and draw animals.  I chose to work in ballpoint pen for the challenge of not being able to erase - to keep the lifework flowing and free, just like the movements of the rays themselves, always in motion.  Some of these rays were drawn at one moment, and others, the more detailed rays, were likely drawn from multiple rays going through similar movements.  I like to work up many views of the same or similar animals all on the same page (in this case, a sketchbook page), so as to be able to capitalize on the reality that when an animal does something and moves on, it is very likely it will do it again, or another one of the same species will.

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