It is entirely possible that I jumped the gun looking for Autumn in August, but when you live in the land of perpetual summer you tend to look for anything that suggests the temperatures (or humidity) are going to drop sometime before January!

The colorful specimen above was waiting patiently on our driveway as I walked to the mailbox back in August. Yes, August. Waaaaaaaaay too early I know, but a girl has to have hope!
My next leaf sketch was over a month later and while the beetles do come around every fall to munch on the Air Potato vines, this wasn't so much an Autumn post as it was a, "isn't that an interesting texture!"

The leaf changed drastically over the few days I had it in the house. It curled up and the color shifted (it basically left) in about three days time. It was a fun experiment and served to keep my mind occupied so I quit worrying about other things out of my control.

I have caught and released several more fine leaf specimens as I haven't been making time to sketch these last few weeks. Between classes and prepping for Jekyll Island, it's been a bit nutty around here!

There are also several fall "projects" calling my name that I'd really love to try...if I can find the time! Maybe between 3 and 4...AM!

What are you working on? An fall sketching going on in your sketchbook?

My husband is really good at getting rid of stuff—things I don't think I could ever get rid of! In a recent purge, he decided to trash an old notebook/sketchbook. I picked it up and thumbed through and came across the image below:

From Chris' sketchbook, 1998

The page tells the tall tale of a turkey that wasn't too keen on becoming dinner and how he hid behind a tree in relative safety after spotting the mighty hunter behind the blind. Chris named him, "Pokey Pete" as the bird was too smart to going blindly trotting by the funny looking blind.

The page above was Chris' way of passing a long and otherwise boring day waiting for Pete to stick his head around the tree. I always get a kick out of the extra "tidbits" he adds to his pages, both in a real and figurative sense (see the woodpecker's dribbles on his head as an example). And doesn't the turkey look confused?! It somehow makes it all the more real.

After a long, frustrating and turkey-less day, the mighty hunter set up in a new location the next day and was able to bring home a bird. Was it Pete? No way to know, but I like to think he was a little too smart for that!


See you next week!

Laure