Sketching with friends ~ Freedom Park

Ink and watercolor pencil sketches from the boardwalk.

Even though it's July, I wanted to catch up and share a sketching trip to Freedom Park in July with friends. The springtime blooms faded, summer flowers were filling up the nooks of bright green foliage.  This is along the wetlands side of the park, all seen from the boardwalk.

On the opposite page I made notes, and all the memories flooded back...

Butterflies fluttering: flashes of white peacock, the orange and yellow of sulphurs, a gulf fritillary with its silvery underside splotches and orange and brown topside, Florida whites shining in the sun.
Birds seen and heard: cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, a hawk (red shoulder?) patrolling low and calling to another hidden in the trees.
Blooming: creamy ivory pond apple, bright yellow and orange cannas, glowing violet pickerel weed and an unknown heathery-looking plant, dusty pink camphorweed, clear yellow hypericum and primrose willow, small pointy lavender alligator flag flowers.
More color:  the captivating red/bronze/pink blush on the pristine green of young red maple leaves, the clear deep red-brown tannin-stained flow of lazy water, the fleeting sparkle and flash of light and color from vivid red and blue dragonflies, the slower leap of bright yellow adult lubber grasshoppers.
Heard in the background: an opera of occasional bird call underscored with the drone of cicadas, with a background of road traffic murmuring through the gaps.

It was becoming a hot and drowsy day...time for lunch with friends at a nearby cafe!

The above sketch is done with:
6 x 9 inch Aquabee Super Deluxe sketch pad
Watercolor pencils: Mondeluz 12 pencil set
Micron Pigma 01 black ink pen