Paris Sketches - Os

The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy here at the National Museum of Natural History is one of my favorite places I've seen in Paris, and something I highly recommend seeing to anyone who goes to Paris.  It contains an incredible collection of skeletons, fossils and replicas of extant and extinct animals, and holds nearly one thousand skeletons on the first floor alone (there are three floors...).  Being a lover of science and drawing, this gallery was a dream come true for me.  But with bones filling the rooms from floor to ceiling, and people walking around very narrow walk-ways, it is pretty impossible to sit down and draw anything on a day when it's open to the public.  Therefore, for my first visit I just decided to take a bunch of pictures and draw them at home.

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I was content with just being able to see this amazing collection for free, but with unbelievable luck I actually got the opportunity to draw in there on the day it is closed to the public!  WITH actual scientific illustrators from the museum!!  The gallery is closed to the public every Tuesday, so employees at the museum often take that as their opportunity to draw for fun without having a dozen people blocking their view.  As I mentioned earlier, I've been meeting with some illustrators from the Paleontology department, and they invited me to join them every week if I want!  This past Tuesday was my first time, and it was as amazing as I thought it would be.  Some people were shooting a movie on the first floor, so for this visit we just roamed the Paleontology for an hour.  Here are my sketches!