I love whales. Growing up in the 80s, I was a member of the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society as well as Greenpeace, and remember the latter organistaon’s Rainbow Warrior confronting whaling ships and feeling heartbroken about the fate of these magnificent, intelligent animals.
Now their contribution to carbon capture and ocean health is coming to the fore, I sincerely hope our slowly-recovering whale population is more valued in the future; I will have witnessed a change for the better in my lifetime.
Anyway, this session with Wild Life Drawing was a led by Jennie, the founder of this excellent resource, and natural history cameraman and Tom Mustill. Tom is also an ambassador for the World Cetacean Alliance, and has written a book: “How to Speak Whale“.
I have only attended livestream events with Wild Life Drawing so far, so this one was a little different, being a fascinating discussion on all things humpback while we drew from a selection of fabulous reference images. Jennie is an excellent host, and asked the questions on the chat, and Tom was a mine of information about the biology and ecology of these mammals.
I’ve never properly drawn whales, so it was a pleasure to sit back and listen to the conversation while sketching from the photos. I used my Fabriano sketchbook and Blackwing Pearl, with coloured pencils. I really want to do some more drawings using gouache as that black-blue-grey of the whale’s body is one of my favourite hues.
Apologies for the poor quality photos! Now to pick my next class: I am very tempted by the Seal Pups livestream in mid-December…
