New Alternatives for Children: Earth Day 04/23/2024

This Earth Day we met up with participants of the New Alternatives mentoring program to draw animals and their habitats while talking about all the ways we can help to protect them both!

This skilled group of young artists already had a strong handle on advanced techniques like lines of action, squash and stretch, perspective, shading, and more. So we put their talents to the test on drawings of sea turtles, red pandas, axolotls, orangutans, condors, and sea, land, and air habitats. It was fascinating to talk about these animals’ adaptive techniques like camoflauge and abilities to climb, dive, or fly to places out of reach in order to help them survive. But we humans can do so much too to help reduce pollution and pressure on our fellow creatures.

Thanks to Taylor, Chaquima, and Aneres for sharing your art and great ideas; to their mentors, Katie and Jennie for their warm, fun, supportive energy; to the Ink Well volunteers, Tim Savage, Joseph Scott, Elizabeth Winter, and Event Director Lisa LaBracio, for adding insights from their careers in animation and illustration.