This was a lovely session, and I bought a ticket for my daughter as an early Christmas present too so she could sign in from up north. The Saturday morning time meant my mum could join in too.
After introductions from Laura, and a quick masterclass in how to draw baby seals, we met our models, based at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.
The pups were named after actors: Maggie Smith, Anna, Andre and Meryl Streep. They were in hospital for various reasons but all were this year’s youngsters and getting ready for release after their stint in the sanctuary. They spend on average two and a half months in the hospital and have to be able to feed themselves effectively and be strong enough to cope with the vagaries of the Cornish coastline.
Seals have complex joints and body shapes, and the adaptations are apparent when they are out of water and moving around. Their legs and front flippers are well defined, and they have little tails which again, are quite mobile. Grey seals can be really quite dark, and the males tend to be less spotty than the females. Their coats look completely different when wet; lying on the damp floor of their enclosure means they have a two-tone look. They were lovely to draw. Clockwise from top left, I used pencil; coloured pencil and graphite tablet; a brush pen/coloured pencil; and pencil again.
Seals, like all marine wildlife, are struggling with plastic pollution (both entanglement and possible hormone disruption from BPA), lack of food, and increasingly, disturbance. Seals need time to rest and digest their food, and if they are approached while hauled up on rocks or the beach, won’t get the nutrition from their food, and will expend unnecessary energy if they have to move out of the way. It’s the same with birds on fields or the shoreline, especially in winter where the feeding hours are much reduced, and if they have to keep flying off en masse it has a measurable impact on their health and welfare.
As usual with these sessions, it was a delightful way to draw some new animals and raise valuable funds.
