The roots of this roadside beech tree reminded me of a wild boar – I could see its head and one giant piggy trotter. I haven’t deliberately enphasised either feature, not least because the tree is a beautiful sight in itself, with the large, sinuous branch to the left curving up like the muscular neck of a herbivorous dinosaur (I’m thinking diplodocus or brontosaurus), set against the sundappled screen of leaves.

This is another scene from Nuthanger Down, part of The North Wessex Downs. This AONB (area of outstanding natural beauty) is apparently also referred to as “the Chalkenwolds”, which I thought was both amusing and apt, although it doesn’t seem to be widely used.

The drawing was made with a single fountain pen (a Jinhao, fitted with a Noodler’s Ahab flexible nib) filled with Noodler’s bulletproof black ink. The lighter tones of the leaves were achieved by adding water to the pen’s ink reservoir when it was nearly empty. There is also a small amount of White added at the very end to show where the light breaks through the screen of leaves.