Another one of my hobbies . . .

Over the years I have tried lots of different hobbies. Hunting, fishing, archery, golf, gun dog training, taxidermy, working on cars, playing the fiddle, gardening, bull riding . . . . just to name a few. Some of those I still enjoy today while others I got too frustrated with, or they just became too derned expensive (or were life threatening), and I either gave them up or just lost interest. One hobby that I have always really enjoyed is drawing. When I was in junior high and high school I was always drawing pictures of baseball players or of classic cars. If I found a really neat picture in a magazine I would try to copy it onto paper with pencil. Back then I had a whole lot more time to devote to that hobby than I do now. My job, family and other hobbies take up the majority of my time, and it seems like I never can find a peaceful minute to just sit and draw. But, it is something I think I want to try to make time for. I was inspired to post this after reading my friend Keelie's blog, who happens to be an art teacher.

I like to draw with just a plain ol' pencil, but my favorite type of artistic medium is the colored pencil. They have such vibrant color and can really make the image you are drawing jump off the page. I tried to resurrect this hobby a little over a year ago when I purchased a really nice 48-pencil set of Prismacolor colored pencils, which aren't cheap. My problem is I can't seem to complete the pictures I start. I usually get sidetracked along the way. Having two children in the house under the age of 5 can do that to you. I am also really bad about starting a new picture before finishing the current one I am working on. I have three sketch pads that each contain unfinished pictures. I draw really slow, so finishing a picture could take several days or weeks even if I worked on it in my spare time every day.

Over the last several years, my fascination with the outdoors has led me to try my hand at wildlife scenes. Here is one I actually found time to complete a few years ago - I noticed the date I put on it was 2003, which is pre-parenthood.

Here is the reference pic, which I think I found in the Texas Parks & Wildlife Outdoor Annual . . .


. . . and here is the finished product.


Here is one of my most recent unfinished sketches. I found a neat picture of a mallard duck and thought I would try to copy it onto paper with colored pencil.
Here is the reference photo . . .

. . . and here is what I have so far.

I am ashamed to say that I haven't touched this one in about a year. My goal is to finish this picture before I start a new one. Hopefully I can periodically post updates to show you my progress.