Trodden Path

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

~William Shakespeare~

Trodden Path    Kathryn Hansen   (c) 29014  9x14

Trodden Path wasn't an easy piece to draw, there were lots of challenges in it for me as I was trying to get it done quickly (because it's a commission) which just added to my frustration. A woman named Mary M, from my FB business page told me to just slow down, so I did, and I actually enjoyed the next few challenges I faced with it...so many thanks to Mary...sometimes stating the obvious to me really works!!

Set a spell, take your shoes off

and meet the Clampetts and their feathered friends!!

My newest drawing in progress. 

I've been wanting to draw this trio for some time now, basically since I got back from Kenya 4 years ago, so I guess it's finally their time! I changed things up a bit, added a few oxpeckers and egrets to the scene for interest. 

As some of you may know I was fascinated by all the birds perched on the mammals there, so I tend to always add them to my work.

Oxpeckers can be invasive birds to elephants, but they also reduce the amount of lice, ticks, and other parasites living on elephants' skin and hair. Egrets also eat parasites on the elephants backs but mostly they eat insects that are stirred up from the dust and grass as elephants stroll thru the towering grasses. 

I am hoping to get through all the wrinkles, folds and grasses in this piece in a timely manner...elephants always seem to take me a bit longer to draw...shooting for the end of this week! 

So y'all come back now, y'hear!

a baby titan

 after a very early and lengthy morning of checking into our hotel in Nairobi, we jumped back into our white vans and headed off to the elephant orphanage. 

standing behind a roped off red clay area, mint green robed care takers placed baby bottles the size of which you've never seen before every few foot along the rope.

materializing from behind some vegetation to our left, approximately 20 baby elephants came charging down the path to get their bottles of delicious creamy milk. the crowd was entertained by these tiny pachyderms greedily feeding from the bottles held firmly by their care takers until the last drop was polished off! then the antics started...tug o' war with trunks, goosing, a few fights and a lively game of soccer ensued. i can't tell you how awestruck and overjoyed i was! never had i seen a sight like this before!

so this new drawing in progress is of one of these sweeter than honey baby elephants, who i came to love more than any other animal on our adventurous safari in kenya. funny, i really thought the cats would be my favorites!