My Artistic Sabbatical Just Got A Bit Nutty

Today's sketching efforts turned out to be a little bit nutty.  Or should I say that my focus subject today was a couple of nut loving rodents.  As I mentioned in my previous blog post,  we have spent the past week camping high on a mountain in the Humboldt National Forest camping just about 5 miles outside of Ely, Nevada to escape the hecticness of Las Vegas and more importantly the extreme heat.  While it was warm, 90+ for a few hours in the afternoon each day it is nothing compared to the 115 degrees that is often the norm back home.  It is hard to be stay inspired when you're sweating buckets of bullets.  

It has been a glorious week of peace and solitude.  I'm calling it my artistic sabbatical.  My list of creative goals is pretty hefty, and even if I don't get them all accomplished, I feel that this time is going to be well spent.  

Practicing Feathers

Today I decided to practice drawing fur.  I have for my inspiration a very cute book I purchased a year or so ago by Jane Seabrook called "Furry Logic".  It's the cutest little book and her illustrations are amazing.  I love her treatment of fur and feathers.  So I'm trying to improve my own drawing techniques while looking at her lovely pictures.  I worked on feathers the other day so today it was fur.

I especially wanted to draw a grey squirrel because I was treated to a visit yesterday by a particularly large guy that decided to run through our camp.  One thing missing from this past week has been wildlife.  Oh there have been plenty of bugs in the week.  I have had my fill of that type of wildlife.  There was one little hummingbird that would whiz by occasionally but not much else.  I had really hoped to see an elk or at least a deer but that wasn't to be.  Yesterday morning, while drinking my coffee I was treated to a sighting of a grey squirrel.  I was thrilled because it has been actually several years since I have seen a squirrel. 

So here are my two sketches. I'm pretty happy at how they turned out.  I of course need a lot more practice before I'm in the league with Ms. Seabrook.   One sketch done in honor of our camp visitor is treated in a realistic style and the other is closer to the style in the "Furry Logic" and is more animated and fun.  Both started out to be just little studies but I feel that when I get home they may wind up being matted and make an appearance on my Etsy store. Of course I will use my scanner and not these blurry cell phone photos.

You can checkout more of my work on my Website or my Etsy Store.