Sketching in Yellowstone

When we are in Yellowstone all too often when the action is happening I’m photographing.  No time to sketch. I draw later from my photographs.  

Other times nothing much is happening and I look around for something to sketch.  So much of my best ‘on location’ sketching has no story.  Today’s post will be a series of these sketches ... and will give me a little time to finish up the art and photos for what is to come.  Soon I’ll start a three part series on Broken Toe, a sandhill crane we have watched in Yellowstone for several years.  

Two sandhill cranes at Blacktail Ponds.  We always look carefully at each crane we see at Blacktail Ponds, hoping we’ll see Pegleg again.  Pegleg is a crane who has just one foot -- two legs, but missing one foot.  We first became aware of her in 1997 and last saw her spring of 2011.  We didn’t see her this spring.

I like sketching bison! They are big and often close to the road and often moving slowly.

In some areas of Yellowstone’s northern range virtually every tree that has succeeded in growing out in the open, succeeded because one or more boulders offered just a litter more protections than the open sagebrush.

More bison

I was waiting, hoping pikas would make an appearance amongst this tumble of rocks.  Friends reported they had seen them here and we have in years past.  No pika for me on this day, but it was just warm enough to sit outside and sketch.

I look forward to every full moon.  I went to bed before it rose on the night of the full moon, May 6;  but I got up early enough on the 8th to watch it slip behind Sepulcher Mountain when it set.

Getting up early on another morning was rewarded by an encounter with two white-tailed jackrabbits.

We often see marmots in this classic pose, watching their world.  He can slip into the rocks in a moment when danger appears.  

Way off in the distance this red-tailed hawk had a nest.  When he perched in this nearby snag I worked on this sketch, sketching him with binoculars.