Woods: Lovely, Dappled, Dripping

Phil and I hiked all morning on the Mountains to the Sea trail.  It was early enough that the trees were still dripping from last night's showers and this morning's fog.  Sunlight was breaking through, and things were quietly scurrying in the underbrush.  The occasional pilliated swooped across the path barking its cry.  One of the first things I found was a small pair of dessicated Indian pipes next to a gnawed-on russola mushroom and a baby pine tree.  A bit farther along the trail was a dry-constructed stone bench.  And then a great surprise: a terrapin parked in the middle of the path!  I drew it several times, got really close.  It held perfectly still, a far better model than Jesse ever dreamed of being.

Here's the third and most- finished drawing of the terrapin.  I added the color after we got home.  When I finally stepped around the terrapin and started back up the trail, Phil pointed out his best find of the morning-- an enormous caterpillar holding onto a grape leaf stem and chewing on the leaf.  It was chocolate brown with excellent eye-like spots in black and white, the whole thing as long as my index finger and about as big around, perfectly smooth.

We found many wild orchids, and so I drew a couple of those; and when we got to the overlook, we sat for a while looking over the whole valley below.  I didn't have time to draw the entire thing so did a texture strip instead, starting at the clouds above the highest mountain peak and ending at some middle ground trees.