Weekly Mind Sketch

I went on a really nice hike 2 weeks ago at the Stanford Dish (owned by Stanford University and right near the campus).  A beautiful February day - you'd hardly think it was winter, felt more like late spring.  What struck me the most about this hike was how many cows were roaming around this open space preserve right next to Stanford University, and you can walk right up to them - they seem very unaffected by humans getting "up close and personal" with them.  This was a great chance to take some nice photos of cows.  I thought the cows were extra beautiful because their coats were soft (almost like a thick coated dog or sheep).  I don't usually think of a cow as having a soft coat, or as particularly pretty or elegant.  However, these cows really were beautiful and I wanted to try and capture that in my drawing this week.  This particular picture was more intimate than the other photos I took, so I chose to capture this intimacy in the drawing....

So I wanted to draw another flower this week (guess I'm stuck on colorful things these past 2 weeks).  My daughter took a close up picture a couple weeks ago of this pink Magnolia flower, and I really liked how it turned out.  It showed everything in the flower petal - veins and all. As I drew this flower, it occurred to me how it's strange that a beautiful pink flower could bloom in February.  So I researched the Magnolia tree and found that some Magnolias are "early bloomers" starting their blooms in February while other Magnolias are "late bloomers" waiting until late spring/summer to bloom.  What I really loved about this petal was how it looked delicate yet strong. I actually felt like I needed to draw the flower with bold strokes and colors to mimic how it looked so hearty.  Also, I liked how the veins in the petal were violet just like human veins.  Maybe this is a sign we have a connection somehow to flowers.  Or maybe it signifies tha...