sketches

This sketch is the sixty-seventh in a 365-day challenge to draw a picture a day, every day, for a year…

Day sixty-seven: D. Y. Cameron was a Scottish artist who painted and made etched prints of landscapes in his native country. My drawing here was inspired by a picture of Ben Ledi by Cameron in pencil, conte crayon, and watercolor, made c. 1911. I used charcoal for my version of Ben Ledi, and blended it heavily to create a similar, if not identical effect for the water. The mountain is in Perthshire, Scotland, and is well known through Sir Walter Scott’s poem “Lady of the Lake.”

‘Twere long to tell what steeds gave o’er,
As swept the hunt through Cambusmore;
What reins were tightened in despair,
When rose Benledi’s ridge in air;
Who flagged upon Bochastle’s heath,
Who shunned to stem the flooded Teith,—
For twice that day, from shore to shore,
The gallant stag swam stoutly o’er.
Few were the stragglers, following far,
That reached the lake of Vennachar;
And when the Brigg of Turk was won,
The headmost horseman rode alone.