I'm not a fan of non-habitat zoos, but the Berlin Zoo is one of the best of its kind I've been to. On the day my daughter and I visited it, we were charmed by the monkeys and the hippos. Here, I think you'll see why: 
I used to run in every city I traveled to. Now I go to art supply stores. Ah well. For everything there's a season.
Here's my stash from a couple of such stores in Berlin. I had a yen (no pun intended) for the yellow-topped brush pen that looks like a Pentel color brush pen after reading about it on Rolf Schroeter's blog. The pen is from Yamashina, a Japanese bookstore there. The other goodies are from Philographos. I was so excited to find J. Herbin brush pens that are filled with brown or black ink cartridges. The nibs looked (and are) supple and fine. The ink, I discovered later, is water-soluble, so that's not great for my purposes. I guess it's back to filling Kuretake water brush pens with acrylic ink for me. I'd seen Hahnemülhe sketchbooks mentioned online. In my eternal sketch for the perfect sketchbook, I grabbed one.. we shall see how near to perfection it approaches!
Last, a view to the east, sketched from the rooftop terrace of the Reichstag:
Gorgeous gorgeous animals. Love the POSE of the monkeys and also the setting of the hippos. I've got a grey brush pen that I bought in Japan.
Posted by: Wendy | March 21, 2011 at 07:37 PM
Monkeys! Hippos! The city view is quite nice, but still . . . monkeys! hippos!
Posted by: marly youmans | March 21, 2011 at 09:56 AM
Isn't it wonderful that our daughters now take US to the zoo! :) I'd call this a perfect post, Laura. I adore your hippos and your monkey. Gorgeous sketch of Berlin and Art Supplies to feast my acquisitive little eyes on.
Posted by: robyn | March 20, 2011 at 06:02 AM
I'm not a fan of zoos, and not a fan of animal paintings or sketches, but i like yours, and particularly the hippos!! They look so relaxed, so ... free!
Posted by: Cathy | March 19, 2011 at 03:44 PM
These are fabulous sketches.
Posted by: Sue Pownall | March 16, 2011 at 04:00 PM
I love these sketches - I like the animals, but also the background too. And I always enjoy reading about your art supplies :0D
Posted by: Sandra | March 16, 2011 at 02:28 PM