Saturday, June 6, 2009

Yesterday was a TERRIFIC day for nature sketching!

Wild babies 1

My friend and veterinarian, Pete Rucker, is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who works with the Missouri Department of Conservation--he's also federally licensed, and I often get to sketch and photograph his charges. LOTS of them have ended up in my books and articles!

Last week Pete called to tell me he had baby skunks I might like to sketch, and yesterday was the first day I had time to get out there. What a bonanza! You can click on the images to see the notes I put on them, on Flickr...

Wild babies 2

While there to sketch the baby skunks, I also got to do quick sketches of a baby raccoon, a little mink, and a nighthawk. It's a great time to put gesture sketching and memory sketching techniques into practice...

Lots of good sketching opportunities, much more than I had bargained for! I stayed for hours...unfortunately I forgot (AGAIN!) that you don't shoot videos with a vertical format...siiiigh...so here is the other one, a tiny, tiny movie of a tiny raccoon getting his afternoon feeding...(Pete is a real hero in my eyes!)

And no, I have no idea what he said...too short!


6 comments:

  1. These drawings are wonderful! What a great opportunity!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Carol, I had a great time...always a challenge, because they just move constantly!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are all so cute! We have been having quite a problem with rabid skunks here in Wichita County, Texas... it is good to see a group of healthy ones. I like seeing the full pages of sketches too.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oooh, sorry about the rabid ones! And yes, these were just fine...cute little guys, trying hard to act grownup...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh man. Baby skunks are my favourite. What a fantastic treat. Really lovely sketches.

    ReplyDelete
  6. How very lucky you are to be able to observe these animals up close. They look like they are a lovely lot.

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.