Hi, I'm Liane Tancock and I am an illustrator living and working in Bristol, UK.
I have always loved animals and birds, my illustrations revolve around them. One of the most important things I do is sketch live animals. Every week I go to my local zoo and sketch. I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now and I have seen my work get stronger and I have grown in confidence.
However with Covid everything changed and I had to adapt.
Sketching animals at the zoo has been the most important part of my practice that has pushed and developed my work. It was so important that I did not want lose it. I had always sketched from live cams but now with the changes in our lives I had to turn to them as a replacement for the zoos which were now closed. Sketching from live cams gives me the opportunity to draw and see animals that I may never see in the flesh, in places of the world, where, in reality I may never go.
I can sketch any time of the day or night...while wearing pyjamas.
Sketching live animals is unpredictable, but that’s the joy. You need to let go and not aim for perfection. I’m not aiming for polished finished pieces, instead I aim for a sense of character. I start knowing that some sketches will work and some will fail but that’s ok. I try and draw the gesture, the action and the feeling of it. If the animal is stretching, where in the body is it stretching? Where it is placing its weight?
At first the thought of sketching an animal that could move at any second was frightening, kind of like drawing without a safety net. But the more you do it the easier it becomes. That’s what makes drawing from moving animals so important, it’s not a static photograph, it’s a 3 dimensional animal moving in a space.
There are so many benefits of this type of sketching. You increase your visual library, sketching live animals gives you a better connection and understanding of the birds and animals, and your drawing and observational skills will improve. There are so many stories and characters that appear watching the live cams. These wild places you can watch on the cams can be your window into new worlds and new challenges.
I try and keep the materials I use simple, just a sketchbook and biro, fineliner or a black pencil. I occasionally go back and add colour, but it’s always the work I’ve done with the line that’s most important to me. It doesn’t matter if it’s done on the back of an envelope, it’s the act of doing it that’s important.
I urge you all to give it a go, find the stories and characters happening on these cams.
Grab a biro and a bit of paper and let go and play.
Here is a link to Explore, a wonderful site with live cams across the world.
I was born in Bristol, UK and have a BA (HONS) fine art degree from UWIC, Cardiff. I can most often be found in my own world, where Bears sail pedalos and Wolverines shout at Butterflies. It’s just to the right of one hundred acre wood but 5 miles short of Narnia. See you all there.
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