How to Draw a Woodchuck

Susan Bronsak has been a loyal friend, follower and contributer to this Summer Sketching Series for several years now. Her watercolor, sketching and journaling work is inspiring. Once again, thank you so much Susan!

Check out Susan's work and her great woodchuck post here! 

How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck?

This week, I have been obsessed with woodchucks! Our little resident Chuckie, turned out to be a Chuckita and she now has six roly-poly little ones! I got some photos this past weekend and I am in the process of learning how to do video with my new Nikon D7000 camera! I hope to video them in the next day or two, because after reading about them in my nature books, it seems they don't stick around long after they are a couple of months old. Which of course, is a good thing, seeing as how having seven groundhogs living here in SandyLand may be a bit overwhelming!

Hey, what's up Woodchuck?

This one's a mommy's boy (or girl) and sticks to her like glue.

They are curious

and endearing!

I went online and searched for lessons on drawing groundhogs and found a wonderful site; Exploring Nature Educational Resource. These drawings were done using Sheri Amsel's step by step woodchuck drawing as reference.

I contacted Sheri and she was gracious enough to give me permission to use her material here on this blog. She wrote; "Your animals are beautiful and full of motion – something with which I struggle. I was trained as a biomedical illustrator, so draw animals in much more static poses."

Sheri has quite an extensive list of how to draw mammals and birds on her site. She also has a section on keeping a journal and lots of other educational materials! 

I'd be interested to know if any of you decide to draw a woodchuck from Sheri's and / or my step by step approach. I'd like to see your results and / or just hear your comments! Which approach seemed easier to follow? Which one worked better for you?

As always, your feedback is very important to me.

"If nobody ever offers an opinion or takes the slightest interest in one's production, one loses not only all pleasure in them, but all power of judging their value." ~ Fanny Mendelssohn Hense