Drawing some ducks... and turtles..

Every so often, I spend some time at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, AZ.

The Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, Arizona, is the best place to see adorable Cottontail rabbits doing their thing....

It is also a beautiful place to see waterfowl. Especially during the fall, when it is migration season.

Usually you can see mallard ducks, coots, cormorants, snowy egrets, black-necked stilts, blue herons, black-crowned night herons, and killdeers. Over the last year, I have also seen American avocets, ring-necked ducks, ruddy ducks, pintail ducks, sandpipers, yellowlegs, great egrets, Canada geese, dowitchers, shovelers, and green herons. Over the last year, I have also learned the names of these birds. (I may be dating a bird artist..)

Even though I have apparently become a bird watcher this past year, that was not the goal of this weekend's adventure to the Riparian preserve. Instead, my intention was to sit down and do quick colored pencil drawings of these lovely little models.

And I soon realized... that the only waterfowl that sits still long enough to draw
is a mallard duck pretending to sleep.

So like any other artist frustrated with the model.. I turned to a new muse...

And went on to doodle other non-moving subjects....

Because that's how the girlfriend of a bird artist spends her afternoon -- drawing everything and anything that doesn't move. While he makes beautiful sketches and drawings of birds...