Saturday, April 19, 2014

Snakes in the Art Class

Patrick O'Brien invited live snakes, iguanas, and hissing cockroaches into his classroom at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art). 

His digital students sketched them from life, gathering inspiration for an assignment to create a poster for the reptile house at the zoo.


The animals came from The Drawing Zoo, a company in the Baltimore area that specializes in bringing exotic animals into schools for drawing. The animals move, but not too much, and they don't mind the attention. They're experienced with people and completely non-aggressive. 

The team from the Drawing Zoo has experience in both art and animal handling, and their subjects are well cared for. They say that "snakes, spiders, lizards, frogs etc. make great models because they are easy to transport, handle and care for, both inside and outside of the classroom." 
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All the photos are by Patrick O'Brien

5 comments:

Janet Oliver said...

I wouldn't have any trouble drawing the snakes, but the cockroaches - nope! Still, what a fabulous idea.

Salty Pumpkin Studio said...

Great post. Ditto on the roaches.

Every time I see an iguana, I think he or she has something to say. Cats swear, dogs sing, horses laugh, and iguanas just want to speak.

SE said...

My mother lived in the basement of a university art teacher during the 70's. One day the teacher heard screaming down stairs, so he stepped down into the basement to see mother and her room mate standing on top of furniture, and a tarantula nested on the floor. (By the way, this is Utah; no one knows how a tarantula showed up.) The teacher scooped up the hairy spider in a jar... and took it to his classes the following day.
For the next few days, mother tried her best to stay away from other art students.

Jennifer Rose said...

would love to find something like that here, would be great drawing practice

Christian Slade said...

I love this! Drawing animals from life is one of my favorite acivities. Thanks for building such a wonderful blog.