Unveiling #33: “My Lakeside Friend”

After doing three watercolors in eleven days, my watercolors and I took a vacation from each other this week. As soon as I finished those paintings, I headed up to our cabin (with my sketchbook and pencils) for a week of R & R. While there, my mom and I were eating outside when this duck came up onto our deck and stayed right by me. While he was no doubt looking for a handout, he was quite personal and courageous if you ask me. His 49 friends stayed down by the water as he modeled for me for a photoshoot…he was so close! He followed me around and was talking away to me. I know, I know…he wanted food, and I’m an animal lover. Haha! I keep saying “he”, but it was a ‘teenager’ and their markings are not fully developed yet, so you can’t tell the males from the females quite yet.

This drawing ended up being far more challenging than I ever dreamt due to the perspective. No matter what I did, he looked like a platypus and not a duck! Once I got the drawing correct, the shading was a lot of fun! And if you zoom in you will see that the pencil work is a lot looser than it appears from a distance. That is another challenge for me as I am used to drawing very fine and ‘exact’ lines with smooth shading. I want to develop the ability to do more rough sketches and allow the beauty of graphite to shine through, just like I am trying to allow the beauty of watercolors to shine through more. I look at sketches and I love their freedom and raw-quality, yet sketching is a form of art that I never did. Drawing, yes. Sketching, no. Drawing you can make ‘perfect’, sketching requires freedom…freedom that I am continuing to pursue. If you missed my post which explains this year-long challenge, please read You’re Invited To The Unveilings.