"Sunday Afternoon" by Dianne Lorden

I photographed this lovely pair last summer at Catoctin Wildlife Preserve, Md. They just looked like ... well, like a comfy married couple. (I believe the one on the left may be grooming the other one.) How do perfectly comfortable, civilized folks spend a pleasant afternoon? Well, here's one way - reading the Sunday New York Times.

This is done on black Jack Richeson textured paper for Unison, and I used a variety of soft pastels. And in case you're wondering about the newspaper, I was concerned about getting the very recognizable headers correct. So, I bought a Sunday Times, tossed it about, photographed it, sized it for printing and trimmed the parts with the lettering. I then used both black and white charcoal to create an image I could transfer onto the paper. I only did this for the lettering; the rest I happily free-handed. Whew!

see my work at www.southmountainsketchbook.webs.com