The tall and the short of it!! Or.. heads and feet!
The five giraffes at our little zoo are all males, one older, one younger and three adolescents. Great fun to watch.

Photography is not my strongest talent. It is one of the minor subjects in my Learning Connexion course and the one I am most behind in in my studies. I try to go to the zoo regularly to practice photography on the animals as well as to sketch them. Its less embarrassing than to try to take photos or sketch people unaware.

Each time I visit the zoo I spend the bulk of my time at one of the enclosures-- the giraffes or the white rhinos or the spider monkeys--
The monkeys use their tails like fifth hands. So clever. But they move very quickly so are hard to sketch or photograph.

http://www.hamiltonzoo.co.nz/ 

I love the shapes. Those two above could be letter 'Y' in an ABC book.
And to the left, the younger boy with his head poking up from behind the oldest giraffe's back like a backward question mark..

Life Drawing

 This was a charcoal drawing on A2 grey sugar paper.  The blind drawing below was marker pen on white cartridge paper.

Yesterday was the last session for the year for the life drawing group that I belong to. Life drawing is a bit addictive. When I started attending several years ago I didn't even like drawing. I knew I could draw and I needed to draw regularly for my course at the Learning Connexion. But I didn't like to draw. Can't say it has become my favourite activity but, as I said, the life drawing part of it has become an important part of my art life.
These two drawings were done during the same session. The charcoal one is a considered drawing. I worked hard on the proportions and the modelling of the form. The other drawing, however, was a much quicker one -- a blind drawing where I looked closely at the model but did not look at the drawing I was making on the paper until I was finished. I do enjoy doing blind drawings. I must confess my ability to do them has never improved but some of them just look so interesting. I have used a number of these as the basis for relief or drypoint prints.