Fieldwork Friday: Some museum sketches

I grew up in the Denver area, so there are long lists of people to see and errands to run and venues to visit whenever I make the long trip out of our little valley to The Big City, as I did this past week.  But I'm a small town girl these days, and find my energy sapped pretty quickly by the need to drive everywhere and contend with crowds and traffic and oblivious SUV-wielding Whole Foods princesses with cell phones permanently attached to their craniums.

Hm. Judging by the previous snark it appears I'm not fully recovered from this week's experience.

But no fear. I ALWAYS find a way to go either to the zoo or the natural history museum (in Denver these are conveniently located next to each other) to draw... even if it's just for an hour or two. Although I haven't lived in the Denver metro area for 14 years I still maintain memberships to both institutions so popping in and out is no big deal.

This trip I managed two visits to the museum. The first resulted in many pages of lousy drawings, the second fared a little better.

A page of bones: Stegosaurus leg, unspecified "duckbilled" dino limb,
and a fossil turtle skull because it was 10 minutes to closing time and I
wanted to squeeze in "just one more".

Herons. Black-crowned night-heron and great blue.

Geez. I can't believe I had the entire museum to choose from and
I drew seabirds. Brown noddy and Heerman's gull.

I had a birthday while I was in the city, and I have to say that the thing I least like about advancing middle-age is the compromises it has placed on my eyesight. Museum halls and displays are softly lit to protect collections, but DANGIT it's hard to see both my subject and my drawings. The drawings are sometimes a surprise when I finally get them in daylight.

But I'm home again in my little town and back to printing this weekend... Whew! Gotta finish the last of those seabirds!