Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Pronghorn Antelope and the Creative Process

"Pronghorn"
pen
small leather sketchbook
Originally, I was going to draw a horse.  A Morgan horse, to be precise.  As I was idly scrolling through my Google image search results, I saw some baby goats standing on top of a reclining equine.  I thought to myself, "Perhaps I should continue in the vein of broadening my horizons, and draw something other than equus caballus."  "Goat" was summarily entered into the search bar, but nothing captured my eye.  Somehow my mind leapt to gazelle, and from gazelle to antelope.  I'm planning on going to the American Southwest early this summer, so I thought of pronghorn antelope.

According to Wikipedia, pronghorn are not antelope at all, but the last surviving species of the North American Antilocapridae.  Their closest living relatives include giraffes and okapi.  They were almost hunted to extinction, but collaboration between the National Audubon Society, the Boone and Crockett Hunting Club, and President Hoover helped establish a large enough game refuge which put the population on the road to recovery.  Some subspecies remain on the endangered species list, however.

I spent a little over an hour on this little sketch, working only in pen.  His nose should be a little smaller, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied with his proportions. I will count myself very lucky if I get to see one of these guys in the wild! 

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