Relaxing and Drawing Gorilla​s

Relaxing and Drawing Gorilla​s

I’d been waiting some time for the chance to go to the Woodland Park Zoo on a weekday at a relatively quiet time to test a theory at the Gorillas’ enclosure. I’d been looking forward to drawing the new Silverback, Kwame. He’s been drawing quite a crowd so it was hard to find a good spot draw him. To make matters worse, after he slammed the glass in my general direction during one of his displays, it occurred to me that large males staring down at him just might be one of his button issues.

So I figured that from here on in I would draw sitting down to look small and not look I was invading his space. The problem every time I went there for the last couple of weeks it was standing room only. When I got there, there still weren’t many places to sit.

But I was patient and a spot at the far end of the enclosure and waited. After a while, it paid off. Kwame came over and sat right next to me, and when he did desply his dmanance, it had nothing to do with me.

Later, baby Yola (actually, she just turned three, so she’s a tot.) came to see what I was doing. I left after everybody started their siesta.

It wasn’t a complete success. It wasn’t that good a spot and unless they were sitting right next to me, they had their back turned to me. To make matters worse, everyone were so active I barely had the chance to block out the basics. Still, the principle is sound!