Deer Sketches and a Workshop

Sketches of Deer -  A doe and fawns

Tomorrow I begin a four day workshop in Traverse City with Kimberley Kelly Santini of the Painting A Dog A Day fame. The subject of the workshop is Color, and since she is an expert in that department, I’m really looking forward to it. 

Another reason I’m looking forward to this particular workshop is that Kim and I have been online friends for about ten years but have never met in person. When we first met, I did a bit of mentoring with her, and now I’m very proud to see that she has far surpassed me in her knowledge and skills and has been very successful with her Dog A Day endeavor and other art pursuits. Plus, she’s a mom to three kids with a very busy family life. I don’t know HOW she does it all!

Since last I posted, I did work on the background of that polo painting, lightening the sky and grass yet again, but the photo didn’t come out any better than my last one of it, so you’ll have to wait to see progress on that painting. 

Instead I’m sharing some sketches I did of deer a month ago. I had just encountered a doe and her twin fawns along the road to the barn, and the image was fresh in my memory. The deer on the left are done completely from memory, but it was obvious I wasn’t getting the anatomy correctly. So I dragged out my how to draw animals books and consulted with them. One had drawings of the skeleton of a deer along with a couple of photos of real deer, and they showed me where I had gone wrong. 

The deer on the right were done after consulting the books, and they turned out way better. Clearly, I have a ways to go to capture deer more accurately, but I was pleased with these drawings nevertheless. 

Okay, I must continue preparations for my workshop tomorrow and look forward to sharing with you some of the paintings I do in class next week. 

Wish me luck!