Exotic Avians - LIVE!

Close up footage of extraorinarily beautiful exotic birds including macaws, cockatoo AND the practically perfect in every way, Prince the Toucan - what more could you ask for?! Oh yeah...it's LIVE!!

Please note the time a day change for this one because we are fitting in with a NY time zone and one very busy bird Mumma! We really couldn't be more excited to be bringing the extraordinary birds of @parrotsrus to your screens. Louann their person, has such an special, wonderful relationship with her birds, it is so incredible to see. We will be zooming to you from their NY home to get close up footage of these colourful & charismatic characters - it's going to be a treat and a half!

As always, when we're working with live animal models, we have to expect the unexpected and work around what the animals are happy with, not the other way round - we only want happy models here at HSA! It makes for some super exciting and always entertaining drawing footage though, and that's why we LOVE it so!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IMPORTANT TO KNOW

WE ASK YOU TO PLEASE JOIN ONTO ZOOM TEN MINUTES BEFORE THE START OF THE EVENT TO GIVE TIME TO HAVE EVERYONE SETTLED BEFORE WE START, THANK YOU.

Although these sessions are essentially UNGUIDED, our tutor Holly will often suggest exercises - these can be completely ignored or you can join in to give yourself a creative stretch!  There's often a lot of chatting to the owners/handlers during the live sessions - it's usually completely fascinating and often very funny; however if you'd rather not listen to any of the talking you can put Holly on mute and follow along whilst listening to music/the radio.

It's good to be aware: these sessions are filmed at the whim of the internet Gods, the owner of the animals and the animals themselves - we believe forewarned is forearmed!  They are designed to replicate the exercise of going out into a field/on safari/at the zoo and trying to draw animals from life (which can be an adventure in itself!) - the benefit being that we will have a much better vantage point because we can bring the camera in so much closer.

The idea is that we all rid ourselves of comfort zones and draw as spontaneously as possible. Having had to adapt in a very peculiar set of circumstances, we’ve found a way of drawing online that works. Often it’s more about the aspect of drawing with other creatives and the ‘discomfort’ of having to draw fast that attracts people - though the camera angle may not be perfect, the internet connection a bit iffy or the animals a bit feisty - it can be a very liberating, exciting experience!

(If this sounds all a bit too far out for you, may we recommend looking our for the recorded sessions instead? These are edited to specific timings, often with footage shot by professional photographers and often include stills to give us all more time to get a more accurate drawing down).

What to bring: as these aren't tutored sessions, you can draw with whatever takes your fancy!  We do strongly suggest bringing LOTS OF PAPER - although there will most certainly be longer sections of footage/stills later on in the session, the warm up sections can be very quick and a LOT of them!  You'll want to be able to move quickly, it's a fun packed, fast paced activity - sadly we just can't make those animals stay still for too long!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

IF YOU HAVE TO MISS A SESSION:

Due to an extremely small admin team, the time it takes up and the financial difficulty it causes the HSA, we are unable to offer refunds or replacements for orders made in error or a changed mind. Please make sure you check the date BEFORE placing the order.

We are unable to offer refunds or replacements for forgotten/missed sessions which are the responsibility of the purchaser.

In the extremely rare case where a refund is issued there will be a service charge taken for our time and the payment/booking charges we have incurred.

If it's our fault:

If you're unable to attend the session through a mishap/error on our part, we will make sure you are provided with a link to the recording (if one is made) that will be uploaded to our website after the session has run - or a voucher to attend any forthcoming sessions of the same type - alternatively we will issue a refund - please let us know if that's the case.

The income from the events is used to pay for our brilliant tutors, models & photographers, the rent on our studio and of course to pay the salaries of the hard working folk behind the scenes who put all our workshops and events on.