Sleepy deer

June 21, 2016

A collection of deer drawn from life in Bushy Park. Most of these were done in the Easter holiday/ May half term.

The park deer are very tame so I find I can sit near-ish, and as long as I keep fairly still, they will happily linger or even wonder closer and come and suss me out. There’s no need to ‘stalk’ them. They’re best in the late afternoon, when the shadows are stronger for drawing, and the deer themselves have eaten plenty. They are fed by the park, but after a day’s munching grass on top of that they get very sleepy and will spend the afternoon dozing in the sun. The bigger their antlers, the more interesting and even amusing this is to watch, as they have to position their heads or prop themselves sup so that they can rest their heads under the weight of the antlers. Or they turn and lean them against their back – sometimes twitching and accidentally prodding themselves awake again. The antlers are heavy – so often as the deer sit and start to fall asleep you can watch their heads dipping and coming up again as they try to stay awake -much as you nod off in a chair on in the back of a car.