Ewe & Lamb, Ottoman

6" x 8" watercolor paper, mechanical pencil, August 13, 2012

6" x 8" drawing paper, graphite pencils 4B - 6H, Au. 16, 2012

The ewe and lamb were a quick sketch from the cover of the Dharma Trading catalog, there were four lambs but I only drew the two. Animals take a lot of care, proportional and texturally, but I think I did pretty well. I got the wide open eyes expression on the lamb, and the sleepy guarded look on the ewe. I got a set of charcoal sticks, pencils and graphite pencils. "Trying to get a feel for the artists pencils 6B - 6H and the charcoal pencils, soft, medium and hard. I did not like the charcoal pencils, too soft. The harder pencils were nice, still smudged and gave me detail, but they were all very hard to sharpen. The metal sharpener that came with them was awful, but my Mary Kay one was great, a much finer cutting edge. I'm sure I will just need to get used to the softer pencils and not trying to get too much detail from them. Broad strokes, and they'll be great for rubbings." The old ottoman and the oriental rug are in my living room, maybe someday I'll do a bit of the rug in color.