Deirdre Kelleghan

Why I sketch astronomical objects

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“It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character. “
Camille Pissarro

When I sketch the moon, it feels like my hands move through my eyes.
My sight becomes my fingers and explores the lunar landscape.
My fingers mirror my sight and do their best to transport the images I love through pencil, pastel or conte to the page.

I often wish to touch the edges of craters, or plunge my hands deep into the lunar regolith.
Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to  to sit in Mare Imbrium and look up at Montes Appenines.
I wonder how it would feel  to set up my scope there and sketch the Earth in all her colour against the blackness of space.




The learning experience of sketching celestial objects, is without doubt the best I have ever encountered.

I am learning the sky by observing, absorbing, and sketching it.


How I go about sketching celestial objects

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