The Hogs Were Last

The Junior Livestock Auctions are always a full day affair at the Huron Community Fair. Today's event started at 10 am with feeder cattle auctioned first, then a break for lunch, then the milk auction, the steers, the lambs, and finally, the hogs. The last hog was auctioned at 6:40 pm.

My husband Ed is the buyer in our family. I go to the auction to support the youth who have worked hard raising and feeding their prize animals. The profit from the sale of the animals often is added to a college fund or goes for other necessities in a youngster's life. These kids know that their dedication and discipline pays off. It's good for them to be around adults who care about them and their projects.

Still, the auction was getting long for me today. I had some art supplies with me. I've learned from my travels to keep the art kit small and tucked away. So, out came a pen and a few watercolor pencils and the trusty waterbrush.

This pig, sketched on the auction list handout, at least looks like a pig! I'm not the best at seeing the animal shapes yet. I have to learn the lines and I do that by sketching and sketching, again and again.

So here's today's iconic Junior Livestock hog. Truth be told, this pig is an amalgamation of several hogs that came into the auction ring over the ten minutes or so that it took me to get these lines on paper. My pig is quite stocky; the show animals were long and lean.

Now, before you judge this art too harshly, remember that the hogs were last. My pen and my brain were tired after a long, but successful 2013 Junior Livestock Auction.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler