venturing into the wild sketches

Twenty four seven, my dining table is covered in sketching supplies! When on a whim I feel the urge to lay some shades, everything is readily available.  When a thought pops up, I can quickly and roughly put it down on paper (before it just as quickly pops out of my mind).  The water colour painting supplies sit at the far end of the table, with hopes I will reach that far some day soon.  

For what ever reason, my mind has been wandering a little deeper to the wild side!  That is why I called this blog post "venturing into the wild". These are my two latest sketching projects.    

This one is done with india ink on a sheet of 7" x 10", 98 lb,  mixed media paper.  The entire sketch was done in pencil first, then the pencil marks were made lighter by rolling a kneaded eraser over top of them.  Four different nib sizes of india ink pens were used to sketch over top of the pencil markings.  I am working at maintaining a continuous motion with a steady hand when laying the ink.  This is what I say about this sketch:   

We are in their home when we set up our home away from home!  Be respectful!  Be aware!

This project took on a life of its own!  My intentions were to just sketch a wolf howling at the moon with some kind of camping scene within the body of the wolf. When I let my thoughts go off into a wild place, this is where they went!  This sketch was completed with Faber Castell coloured pencils on 9" by 12", 100 lb, Strathmore bristol smooth surface paper.  This is what I say about this project:

 My favourite kind of maps are those that lead me to wild places!