Patience of the Caterpillar

Well, the doodle that resulted from an accidental situation in which I had to sit and wait for someone with nothing else but my sketchbook with me (LOL, I know....horrible, right? ), is finally finished!! This pic is actually an illustration of a drabble I created - but I'm not sure if it will ever get finished - in which little Shifu is getting flustered with being little and Koto (his dad, my OC) finds an opportunity to explain the familiar dilemma to his son. We grow milkweed around our house to hatch and raise monarch caterpillars; I guess that was the inspiration.

And just to satisfy your curiosity....

~*~

Koto gently curled his paws around the caterpillar, encouraging it to slink into his palm. As the captain sat himself down in the grass, his son wandered over to peer at the virescent bug settled in his father’s hands. The caterpillar lifted his forebody up and waved his head around.

“What’s he doing?” Shifu inquired.

“Trying to figure out where he is, probably,” Koto smiled. “He’s gathered that we’re not stems and leaves that he can nibble on.” He looked up to point out the leaves that he had found the caterpillar on. “See?”

Shifu looked up at the leaves, which were full of holes from the little critter’s voracious appetite thus far. He seemed stunned. “He ate all of that?” he cocked an ear. “He looks way too small to have eaten all of that.”

His father spared a hand to endearingly poke his son on the nose. “You and I are the last ones to talk about being too small to accomplish big things, son.” He and the cub glanced back down at the subject critter. “From the day this caterpillar’s been born, his strongest instinct has been to eat as much as he can. He’s spent a great deal of his life at this stage already. He knows, though, that in order for him to be able to transform and grow wings, he needs to explore his surroundings and feed on every leaf that comes before him. He also knows that there will come a time when he will need to rest from exploring and feeding and simply be still.” The captain allowed the caterpillar to crawl from one hand to the other as he spoke.

“Every master and warrior that has ever been great has had to be like this caterpillar at a time, Shifu. We all just need to allow ourselves time to learn whatever we can take in, have patience, and trust that we will flourish when the time is right.”

~*~

So I totally went crazy around the net finding tutorials and foliage brushes. Not the best background, I know, but it's a start, right? I also didn't realize that I was supposed to fix Koto's head until I was in the process of coloring..... Oh well.