Trotters and more pig sketches …

I do like to understand how things work and as, in the name of cooking research, Chris has been making “Trotter Gear” (see over on Salute the Pig) I was able to make some sketches of a pigs foot.

Pigs really walk on their tip toes and only two of them.There is something unsettling about the two “spare” toes at the back  with their elegant nails. They look rather like thumbs.

 

Trotters..

And then a few more sketches from Franklins lovely pigs.
Some all-sorts..

and the pretty Berkshires..

In The Woods. Some Useful Sketches

The ancient oaks in Savages Spinney are just beginning to lose their leaves and they are looking magnificent. Their turning leaves are gleaming copper in the low sun, their long black branches twisting and snaking away from their massive trunks.

I often think about these branches. Their gestures are those of reaching out, of continually seeking something that lies away from their centre. They grow out and out until gravity defeats them, leaving rips, cracks and fissures.  Sometimes contorted dead branches remain silhouetted against the sky, sinister in their way.
But the Tree itself carries on despite these catastrophes.
I have to admit to having tree envy.

               

Oaks in Savages Spinney: A3 Ink sketches

Oaks fascinate me, they did in Florida. A little Live Oak leaf was my first Leaf of the Day back in 2008.
So when I walked up through the Spinney it seemed time to return to the woods for some drawing and sketches. They will be useful. Definitely some prints, maybe a book.

Don’t think you are escaping pigs though.. there are more to come. And of course they like acorns :)

Kitty & Kitty

Inspired by Gill’s girls. :)

Love these black pigs ….

Sketch Book : More of Franklins pigs…

It’s November…it’s Pig Month!

And it’s back to the sketching and the blog.

Leaving the academic world( probably briefly) regular sketching is back on the agenda. But I do like a purpose and this month it is pigs, pigs, glorious pigs.

In connection with Chris’ excellent “Salute the Pig” Blog I am going to be working on a series of pig prints and need to brush up on my sketching and get to know pigs a bit better. So on Saturday we went down to Franklins, our favourite farm/shop for their Open Day.

Their pigs are a delight, ranging from super cute little piglets to a magnificent Saddleback Boar. Loosely penned, very busy, very funny and very happy. Particularly because of the steady supply of apples which were coming their way. Yes we eat pork, yes we know they are going to be killed, we are not starry eyed about it. But if we eat meat from animals which have had happy lives we do feel a bit better about it all.

 
Franklin’s Pigs. Sat 29th Oct

So to get started, some Franklins pigs.

Little snuggling Saddlebacks

Love those ears!!

I also decided to collect the older pig drawings together in a Tumblr page here:  Pig and Pencil …yeah! Go pigs!

Other stuff: Medlars
It wont be all pigs. I am doing some observed drawings ( nice just to sit and simply draw something) and have set my Easton Group a monthly theme to work to during the winter break. Last month was “Harvest”

I drew some medlars. The fruit with some delightfully rude names. It’s a very Anglo Saxon sort of fruit.

Curious things… I am bletting them ( hmmm) in order to make some medlar jelly. I wonder if pigs like medlars. More of these odd little things to come, their history is interesting.