I forgot to do a sketch last week. Oops.
I used to be pretty good at freehand-drawing people back in my nekkid faerie days. But I’ve let myself get so reliant on reference images, these days I struggle to draw the human form without them. So one of my new art goals is to remember how to draw people completely from imagination.
My first attempt is kind of a scribble. Baby steps.
This week’s sketch is inspired by a scene I came across recently in a meadow. Something about the quality of the light and the way the deer blended so harmoniously into the grass made it all look like a watercolor. I’ve stepped outside my usual style a bit trying to capture the sense of peace and beauty.
I don’t think I’d ever seen a prairie dog in the wild before we moved to Colorado. They’re all over this area, you can see their little towns in undeveloped suburban fields and see them scampering next to roads. The kids and I took a drive through the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge and parked on the side of the road to watch the lively little guys go about their prairie dog town business.
Back in May, the kids and I took an exploratory road trip to Colorado, in order to make a final decision about whether to move here and to decide which front-range city we preferred. While we were in Denver, up near Genesee Park, we saw a majestic herd of elk walking alongside the highway. A bit farther on, I stopped to let a big graceful doe amble across the road. I was enchanted by the idea of living in a city where elk wander freely amongst the humans.
Alas, I haven’t seen a single elk in the week and a half since we moved here. I suspect it was the Covid shutdown that had emboldened them to roam so near the city.
The part of my brain that does art wasn’t here for it last week. We finally made the move from Texas to Colorado, and in the few moments of rest I got during all of that, my brain just wanted to zone out on a bubble-popping app. So no sketch last week.
I just now remembered that I hadn’t drawn anything this week either. So here is a quick sketch of some Aspen leaves.
Colorado is beautiful, even in the sweltering dog days of August with the smoky haze of wildfires blurring the mountains. We are glad to be here.
