Weekend Sketching at Old Shawnee Town

First, let me apologize for my lack of recent posts. I’ve been so focused on getting book 5 done that I pretty much let my blog languish. The good news is that book 5 is going to the editor this week, so yeah!

So as part of my relaxing and doing things other than finishing up a manuscript, I decided to pick up a pencil and do some sketching (Sherri has been a big motivation in that).I used to draw all the time and Sherri and I actually got to know each other in an art class. It has been something I’ve missed sketching and I plan to do more as well as branch out into things I have not done before. Things like markers, watercolors, and digital media. Okay, the maps are digital, but I mean digital figure drawing.  I will have to see how easily I can adapt to sketching on the computer.

Anyway, because it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend (odd for the middle of winter in Kansas) we went out, plopped our butts on the ground, and spent about an hour drawing. The attached image is not a masterpiece, but it is the first thing I’ve really drawn in 15 years, so it will take a little while to get back into the process and it was not the easiest perspective to start off with.  The biggest challenge was that we were sitting on the ground and looking up, but from our angle, the roof over the porch was not visible either from the top or the bottom, just directly at the side.  I am glad I had an eraser for the number of times I had to tweak the angles.

Since I’ve scanned it in, I was thinking to try my hand at doing some digital coloring. If it comes out reasonably, I’ll share it.