Lions, tigers and Bears, Oh my

I hope everyone out there in cyber space had a safe and fun 4th of July weekend.  I had to work on a few projects but I was able to enjoy time with my family and had plenty of Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Beer while I worked.  On Monday I took my grandson to the zoo,  his first time. He just turned 1 about a month ago, so I knew he was at an age where he could enjoy what he was looking at.  It was also a good opportunity for me to get some sketching done of live models for a change, instead of my usual sketching from picture reference.  This was a great learning experience for me, I did not try to make the sketches look pretty by any means.  I spend about a few seconds per sketch, just trying to capture quick gestures as the animals moved around.  I got to fill up a ton of pages of my moleskine journal sketchbook (my favorite sketchbook for outdoor sketching of live subjects with a ball point pen).  As I quickly sketched my subjects ,I could not help but humble myself and reflect on the beauty of GOD's creation.  The Lord is truly the greatest concept artist of all time, in my book.  So many variations of all the different species, it really is breath taking.  Here are a few pics ( I am not the best photographer ) of some of my models and some gesture drawings from my sketchbook, and last but not least, a pic of the artist at work.