This week it was surprisingly warm and sunny, and I used this opportunity to draw in exhibits that are very exposed. On Monday I went to the reindeer exhibit, and unfortunately it was laying down and I could not see the body well, but luckily it was staying still. I did feel bad for the reindeer, because it was a very hot day, and the animal was visibly and aggressively panting. I forgot to take a picture of the animal in that position, but I have a picture on file from a day before spring break when I stopped by that exhibit, and the reindeer was up and about. With the reindeer sketch, I just wanted practice capturing the shape of an ungulate, because the shapes are hard for me to see and they often look unreal. I was pleased with the outcome of this one though, and I finished quickly, so I decided to play with a picture of a doe deer that I took last week when I found a doe and buck deer in the zoo parking lot. This was not intended to be a realistic drawing, and it is definitely a stylized sketch, dependant on lines for form. However I like the way it looks, and decided to include it. Wednesday I wanted to stick with the ungulate theme, and camped out at the musk ox exhibit. For the first half-hour, I sat in the exhibit but could not see the musk ox, and then it briefly appeared on the far left of the enclosure. Over the proceeding 20 minutes, the oomingmak loomed in and out of view, and eventually made its way up the hill and stayed in sight, and in one position long enough for me to roughly sketch it. For maybe 10 minutes, it worked its way slowly to the left again, summited the hill, and lumbered out of sight. This was a very rough sketch, and was also only intended to help me capture the shape of an ungulate, though I do with I'd had more time to fill out the form. Something else interesting to note, in examining the reindeer photo from a few weeks prior, and the drawing I did on Monday, one should notice that the antlers have already begun their yearly growth. This was really cool to see, a reminder of the impressive cycle that animals with antlers go through every year, and yet again through this study I am reminded of the astonishing resiliance of animals and how amazing the nature of their existence is.