Hiking and Sketching, Part 2 - Plants and Critters

Charcoal Pencil

These are a few more sketches from the two 6" x 8" sketchbooks mentioned in last weeks post. From it's appearance the sketch shown above could be a picture of a juniper tree or cliff rose, but it's a Gambel oak. Another time I went back to the same spot and did a plein air painting of that sprawling tree.

Next is a sketch of a little cottonwood sapling. 

Graphite Pencil

Below is another line drawing, this time of a willow branch, and some unidentified leaves in the upper right of the paper.

Graphite Pencil

This page from one of the sketchbooks is kind of a three-fer. It has a line drawing of some leaves, and also a bunny and cliff face; animal, vegetable, and mineral.

Top, Right, Graphite Pencil
Lower Left, Charcoal Pencil

I'm fascinated by the lines leaves have, but sometimes I'll add a little shading. These are leaves of a box elder tree.

Graphite Pencil

The following page from the sketchbooks has a couple silhouetted trees. The one on the left is a cliff rose. On the right is a sketch of a fir or spruce tree.

Charcoal Pencil
(Except Duck, which is Graphite Pencil)

At the top of the previous sketchbook page is a quick line drawing of a duck. As you can imagine, sketching animals is a little more challenging than trees and bushes. Trees and bushes don't move around very much. Not only can animals move around - a lot, they can disappear. Often all I can get is a quick gesture sketch of whatever critter I want to draw. The ducks in the sketch shown below were at a local city park I visited. They came up to me quite eagerly, but wandered away when I began sketching instead of throwing bread crumbs to them. Before they left, I got as many quick gesture sketches as I could.

Graphite Pencil

One day down by the lake, I got close enough to a few Sandhill Cranes to get these studies. The day had early springlike weather, and was quite pleasant, except maybe for the little spiders which kept crawling on me.

Graphite Pencil

The snail shell in the next image was found along a bicycle path by the lake. The cows were sketched at a different time in the same meadow I had seen the sandhills in.

Charcoal Pencil
(Except Snail Shell, Graphite)

On another day near the lake, I came across a small group of magpies and made these studies of them.

Graphite Pencil

Small garter snakes will sometimes risk their life to sun on the paved bicycle trail. I make a point of chasing the snakes I find off of the trail before a cyclist runs them over. Except this one. This Garter snake sat still long enough for me to make this sketch of him. Afterwards I shoo'ed him off the trail, too.

Graphite Pencil