Wildlife Drawing Class - Drawing in the Rainforest!

Wildlife Drawing Class - Drawing in the Rainforest!

This week I tried something totally out of my comfort zone and went to my very first wildlife drawing class with my lovely pal Natelle! 

We had actually booked our tickets way at the start of the year so I was actually quite excited to be finally going. Sometimes having something to look forward to makes it less terrifying!

The class is hosted by a company who specialise in bringing the animals to Londoners to draw which I thought was really interesting! I kind of wish I had known about them before! The best part of the night was that 50% of our ticket price went towards Sea Life Trust who are currently building the first open water sanctuary for beluga whales - how amazing is that?! 

Pacu fish - a relative of piranhas

It was after hours at the aquarium so we had the entire place to ourselves but we were focused on the rainforest section which included the piranhas, snapping turtle and was right next to the shark tank (where we spent about half the time!). 

There was lots of love for the dwarf crocodiles! I managed to get a quick sketch of this guy whilst it was a bit quiet

After a brief introduction to the evening we were invited to grab whatever materials we needed (I had already bought my sketchbook and tools with me) and a book light and we were let loose to wander the rainforest section (though I stayed well clear of the spiders because I didn't want to give myself nightmares). 


I made a new pal in Betty the guitarfish who kept swimming up the tank right where I was sat trying to draw her. She's such a beautiful specimen. Guitarfish are a type of ray but also fit in that gap between rays and sharks in the evolutionary tree.

And we learnt that some of the tiny betta fish actually swim through the filtration system between tanks - Finding Dory style - to end up in tanks where they shouldn't be! Hilariously there was a giant group of them in the piranha tank - I hope those poor fishes got out before feeding time! 

My freshwater angelfish sketch from the class

We had such a great time sketching and chatting and seeing all the fish in the nice quiet setting of the evening. The sharks in particular were super active and kept coming up to check if we were drawing their good side! I'd definitely recommend the London Aquarium anyways - it's such a fab experience and is one of the largest collections in Europe plus they do such incredible research and conservation work. And I can't wait to get to another wildlife drawing class and get to spend another two hours with some amazing animals!