The high-bush cranberry patch I discovered last year is still around this summer, though it is getting crowded out by other vegetation, and also the leaves look a bit wrinkled from the dry first-half of our summer. If I had the time and permission, it would be nice to cut back some of the thorn-bushes and other vegetation pushing up against this cranberry patch.
It has been difficult to get out to the Tanana during the lunchbreaks. A week or two ago it was raining a lot, and then after that we had some problems at work which made it difficult to break away during the lunch break. But yesterday I devoted my lunch break to sketching a high-bush cranberry leaf. They look kind of like maple leaves, though not all of the leaves have three prongs like this. Here is the sketch based off one leaf that I plucked off the plant and took back to my SUV:
Sketch of High Bush Cranberry Leaf
I wanted to try shading this as well but ran out of time. When I came back to the sketch book a few hours later, the leaf had already shriveled up, so I didn't want to base my shading on that.
Sketching is very interesting and educational. But, as I mentioned before, it is a sacrifice as one sketch uses up the entire lunch break, meaning I don't have time to just walk about and enjoy the summer weather and scenery. We have a very long winter season here in Fairbanks, so that is a big deal for me.
This work © 2024 by Christopher Howard is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
