Tag Archives: Edinburgh Zoo

Dinosaurs are back at the Zoo, and bigger than ever

This Easter sees the release of some impressive prehistoric beasts at Edinburgh Zoo, and I was asked to take a sneak peek.

Who doesn’t love a dinosaur? Well the sketcher clan loves anything to do with them and we have been on many a fossil dig before, and seen many dinosaur bones over the years but they still hold such wonder and intrigue.

Even more so when you can touch and see them up close, realise their scale and imagine being opposite such creatures when they were alive.

I love the big ones, like the Brachiosaurus above, towering above the food trailers below. But I also sketched a couple of squabbling Parasaurolophus, headbutting eat other – which maybe reminded me of my kids!

The dinosaurs are included in a general Zoo admission ticket and you can find more details at the Edinburgh Zoo website.

Giant Lanterns light up Edinburgh Zoo

Zoo Giant Lanterns 2018Edinburgh Zoo is currently lit by an installation of over 450 dazzling giant lanterns.

Each night during the winter Edinburgh Zoo has been transforming from a world class animal attraction destination into a world of light and wonder as the Giant Lanterns of China illuminate a mile long trail of life size animal lanterns and performing artists.

As the animals are tucked up inside visitors walk around the circular route seeing some fantastic creations including those I have sketched above. On our night the rain fell but that made for some fantastic reflections on a cold January night. There are food outlets along the route offering warming snacks and drinks, we all enjoyed some yummy hot chocolate as we walked around.

Zoo Giant Lanterns Panda

The Sketcher twins were amazed by all the lanterns, it felt like we were in the show, surrounded by colour. The craft that has gone into creating these beautiful structures was inspiring and I reccomend you see this wonderful show before it ends on the 25th February.

Because of the rain (and the frozen fingers!), I took photographs on the night and then created the montage sketch at home, with ink  and watercolour paint. 

The Giant Lanterns on the Edinburgh Zoo website

Zoo Giant Lanterns Walkway

Edinburgh Zoo has a new exhibit

Dinosaur_EdinburghZooFrom the 3rd April to 1st November 2015 a number of animatronic dinosaurs will be visiting the city zoo.

On a recent visit to Edinburgh Zoo what I first thought to be a crane towering above a fence in the distance turned out to be this beautiful dinosaur.

 

For a number of weeks the highest part of the 82 acre site has been kept under wraps, as a number of animatronic dinosaurs have move in.

 

Dinosaurs became extinct around 65 million years ago, and these man made replicas have been brought to Edinburgh as part of ‘Dinosaurs Return!’ highlighting the plight of animals around the world close to extinction.

 

Dinosaurs Return! opens to the public on April 3rd. But if you are at the zoo before then keep your eyes peeled, you may get an early glimpse.

 

Edinburgh Zoo website

Trip to the Zoo

The sketcher family were at the Zoo yesterday, a lovely sunny day and the twins first visit to Edinburgh’s famous animal attraction. Believe it or not they actually slept through the stars of the show – the (not so) Giant Pandas Tian Tian, the female and Yang Guang, the male. They were lovely and looked so cuddly. And although sleepy and not up to much, our guide was very animated and full of facts for us to tell the children later.

The kids did see plenty of other amazing animals – the meerkats were popular, but favourite by far were the monkeys and chimpanzees, both James and Zoe were up at the glass chatting away to them.

We’ll definitely be back soon. For more information on the zoo, click HERE.

The sketch is in pencil, I’ve included a close up of Tian Tian so you can see some of the pencil strokes more clearly.