Back from a month-long road trip (and blog catch-up)!

I knew I've neglected this blog but I didn't realize how badly!  I apologize to myself and my followers.  Since I last posted, I did indeed complete Brenda Swenson's 75-Day Sketch Challenge (yay!) and she kindly sent me my Artistic License.  It was such a beneficial experience, I can't tell you how much more confident I feel about drawing now (and more forgiving of my results than before!).

Though I still continued to draw and sketch after the Challenge, I didn't do it quite as much.  My focus shifted a bit again towards photography as I got a new compact camera to replace my damaged one, and I created a new photography blog to talk about my photography doings.  I also went on a fun backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon (where I did indeed do some sketching) and decided to write a trip report about it on another new blog I created.

I recently got back from a great month-long road trip through Utah and Wyoming where we camped every night (in various campgrounds or BLM land), did lots of rock climbing, and also took in the sights.  I fortunately had lots of spare time to photograph and sketch!  I took my compact watercolor sketch kit and made it a point to do at least one sketch from each camp sight.

The first page was while at my mother-in-law's home in Flagstaff, drawing from images from a nature calendar she had.  After visiting with her awhile, we commenced our road trip and our first stop was in Zion NP, where I did this sketch from our camp site.

We moved on towards Maple Canyon in Utah (southeast of Provo) via Yuba Lake SP.  The water of this lake was so green in the bright sun!  Maple Canyon, where we spent 4 days rock climbing, has high cliffs made up of a conglomerate of rounded river stones, pretty bizarre to see and to climb.  From there we proceeded towards Ten Sleep, Wyoming via Scofield SP in Utah, where our campsite was bordered by lovely aspen trees, my favorite type of tree.

On our way to Ten Sleep we also camped at Dinosaur NM in the northeast corner of Utah, right by the Green River.  I had a chance to sketch the river the next morning.  Once in Ten Sleep we stayed 8 nights and that afforded me lots of free time to sketch.  Fortunately, it was around the peak time for wildflowers around our campsite and I enjoyed sketching and photographing them.  Our campsite was right along Ten Sleep Creek, and I took the opportunity to sketch my view of the creek from the picnic table.

After leaving Ten Sleep we went to Yellowstone NP, where surprisingly we were so busy touring the sites and trying to spot critters that I didn't have any time to sketch.  I did a lot of photography though!  After 3 days in Yellowstone we started heading back south to spend some time in one of our favorite places, Moab, Utah.  We did a little rock climbing there (not very much since it was so hot!) and enjoyed the sights in Canyonlands, Arches, and along the Colorado River.  I was able to get several sketches in during this portion of the trip.

I came home with a revitalized enthusiasm for sketching!