Sand Castle

Today, I began my drawing practice. My mother had given me a figurine one time and it was a miniature castle made out of real sand. Somehow, the artist had gotten the sand to stick together and compact enough to create a sand sculpture out of it. I've always wanted to sketch this sand castle, and when Beth was talking about drawing yesterday, I immediately remembered it.

So today, I took out the castle, placed it about eye level a foot away from me and began to draw. Admittedly, the sand castle did not look nearly as good as the fountain I had drawn yesterday, but then I realized that a) I was drawing with a blunt-ended pencil (never good for precision in art) and that b) the sand castle was much more detailed than the fountain. I consoled myself with this as I squinted at the castle and tried drawing in its detail. Boy, did it have detail. I don't know how the original artist managed it, but as I was drawing, I noticed the cross-lattice in each tiny, pointed-arch window and I had to draw every individual brick and every individual shingle on the roof. It was incredible the amount of work that must have went into this thing. It made me appreciate art that much more, and I remembered how drawing enhanced my attention to detail, proportion, and shading. What a blast from the past. Hey, if I can combine this everyday drawing practice with my daily practice in writing, who knows? Maybe someday in the future, I WILL be able to fulfill my dream of writing and illustrating my own children's books.