Location: Pomeroy Park
Saturday, July 2nd, 2022 @ 12:30 pm
Another beautiful day in Burly, high 70s low 80s, pretty sunny and barely a cloud in the sky, although it has not rained super recently, the warmth I feel is similar to humidity rather than outright heat
Observations
Something I noticed, but did not pay attention to the first time I visited this park, is the little world that inhabits the shrubbery and mulch surrounding the park. When I adventured to the park today I started by walking the perimeter, trying to get a real grasp of the different plant and animal life. I noticed a multitude of creatures, ants interacting with caterpillars and worms, bugs and beetles, all making their tiny homes within the small plants and the shaded ground. I also noticed how certain insects inhabited certain places, while ants were basically everywhere, I observed that caterpillars all hung out on a shrub together, I watched flies zip around but always manage to get back to the same place, I almost felt like I was watching a society within this park.
Unfamiliar Species
While taking my walk around the perimeter, as I looked at the different creatures I also looked at the plant life. With it mainly being shrubs and vines, I looked for something that stood out, and I found this plant. As it looked, this plant occupied its own space, with nothing else growing around it, and it definitely stood out in the sun. The leaves are very glossy and I noticed that they all looked a little different, from the picture it is easy to tell that some were obviously eaten by either small mammals or insects, but the leaves that have for the most part been untouched are all different. Some are more bulb shaped than others, different sizes too, but they all grow from the same stem then branch off. An interesting fact that I learned about this plant is that it is native to the Old World, the Old World being Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Sketches
For me, I really liked the idea of this one flower in the park that was away from all the others, sitting under a tree in a bed of mulch. Though it is not the same as the classic “first flower after the apocalypse”, but I like that in the image I was drawing from, this was the only flower around and I was able to focus solely on it.
As I was walking around the park, I was looking up in the trees for anything that could catch my eye, and as I was almost done, I noticed a furry tail inside this snapped tree branch. Although my artistic ability does not do this animal any justice, I really wanted to focus the human impact we have on animals and where they are forced to live.
Again as I was walking around the perimeter looking for distinguishable life, I noticed a lone berry bush. I am no expert (and I definitely did not taste test) but these really looked like raspberries. Although I could not represent the beautiful color, the contrast of the bright red/pink berry against a green bushy backdrop was very satisfying.
This last scene I sketched has more of a big picture theme. I talked in my last wonder blog about the shade this park offers and I wanted to be able to articulate that here through drawing. The image in my head of this is beautiful, but I really also wanted to try to draw shade and make it distinguishable from the unshaded areas using tighter lines and criss – crossing.
Conclusion
Something that I find challenging when drawing is depth, and that is a skill I want to learn. While I am proud of these drawings, they could really be made special if I was able to add depth and a little bit of background. More importantly though, I really liked this activity, I enjoyed wandering around searching for inspiration, for something that I wanted to emulate with my own artistic ability, that was the best part of this exercise for me.