The 2016 Art Safaris were held at Africa on Foot in the Klaserie Private Nature Reserve, on the edge of Kruger National Park in South Africa. Its a lovely rustic camp with a friendly feel, and great rangers who normally spend a lot of their time leading walking safaris. But on these safaris they had artists instead of photographers, and they pulled out all the stops to get us some fantastic sketching opportunities.
On the 1st day, we arrive at Africa on Foot around lunchtime, so after we've settled in I give a demonstration of my wildlife sketching techniques and we talk about which materials to take out on our afternoon game drive.  

I use a lot of simple shapes to start my sketches, like the circles shown below for the body and shoulders of the elephant. Although there are many materials suitable for sketching wildlife from life, an HB pencil and sketching paper are the perfect choice to start with.

After my demonstration, we climb aboard the game viewing vehicle and set off on our game drive...  

The bush was extremely dry this year, due to a drought affecting southern Africa. As we drive, we search for animals, keeping our paper and pencils handy. The great thing about going on safari is that you never know what you might see. Or sketch...   

Its great when we find lions because they are often fairly stationary during the day.

Elephants are also great to watch... 

photo by Nigel Nicholls

And sketch...

During the 1st safari, we had an amazing sighting of an elephant herd handling the bones of a dead elephant, touching them carefully with their trunks and feet (video to follow once I've had time to edit it!).

photo by Nigel Nicholls

After a couple of hours of driving and sketching, we stop for hot chocolate and rusks.
Then we continue on our game drive. Before you ask - the image below is not a previously unknown species of dwarf kudu, its just the strange perspective that makes her look small. We were sitting above her on a dam wall but she is actually about 5 feet tall at the shoulder!
But this character below, really is a dwarf - a dwarf mongoose to be precise. He (or she) was too fast to sketch, but was worth watching as he (or she) popped up in various burrow entrances.
Back at camp, after a delicious breakfast, we check the morning's sketches, looking closely at the anatomy of the animals.    

We also use watercolor during the workshops. Here I am demonstrating how I add watercolor to a pencil sketch.

We work for a couple of hours (although nothing on this safari is compulsory) and after a break and then lunch, we set off for our afternoon game drive and some more sketching. 

 

photo by Nigel Nicholls

We often experience a beautiful sunset.

As the sun sets we stop for evening sundowners. On this particular evening we were discussing the Southern Cross as it appeared in the evening sky.
We head back to camp for drinks around the campfire, lively conversations, lots of laughter and another wonderful evening meal.