Last week, Amy asked us to put our images on display using the theme ‘On Display.” You can view her challenge post here. As there is no photo challenge theme this week due to the holidays, I’ve elected to submit a holiday version of “On display” for my usual Thursday Photo Challenge post. For two years in a row, we visited the Phoenix Zoo where every year they feature Zoolights, a holiday display that shines at night and draws big crowds.For this challenge, I am going to focus specifically on the wire-frame models created and placed on display for everyone to view. Being only able to guess from the outside views, these animals appear to be created with a wire-frame skeleton and lights placed in the interior of the frame. Then a translucent skin is applied to the frame. The artist then highlights muscle tone, skeletal shaping and other natural under-structure to bring the animals to a proper shape.

The artist then adds appropriate coloration to the skin to give a great artistic impression of the animal representation.  The okapi are the only living relatives of the giraffe. They have markings on the legs similar to zebras but have a more solid color body.

This tiger was my favorite animal on display that evening. The facial features are what make this animal seem “alive” to me, but the muscular shoulder structure and strong detail in the haunches add to the realistic depiction of this beautiful animal.

The artwork on these baboon displays demonstrates that coloration isn’t limited to brown tone. Don’t expect to see live animal viewing available during these night openings, but you can see the live reindeer they feature especially lit for evening viewing. Camel rides were also available on the night we visited. The Zoolights display is open to the public nightly at the Phoenix Zoo from 5:30 PM to 10:30 PM through January 19. For more images captured at the 2018 Zoolights presentation, look here.

John Steiner