Up Close and Personal With Cows

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.  I also wanted to capture how its tan colored coat almost seemed to glow or pop against the green field.  I saw browns, tans, yellow ochre, rust and grey all blended throughout this particular cow.  I wished I could have touched it to see how it felt, as all the cows here seemed so tame, but I didn't want to bother them grazing and resting in their quiet surroundings.

 Hope to draw something exciting next week, have a great one!