Fall is in full swing in Alabama, and that means the cotton is ready or has already been harvested. It is very strange to me to see cotton fields in well built-up areas, but it is cool to see all the perfect white in a field of brown twigs. Cotton isn’t what one would call pretty, but it does have a certain appeal.

A few weeks back, MrE and I were driving home from visiting his mom when I remarked that I wanted to draw cotton one day. We immediately pulled into the supermarket parking lot, went to the cotton field and stole a twig of Alabama’s finest cotton balls. The reason, of course, cotton is not the state flower is it is a cash crop, has a messy history involved in slavery, and it is not very pretty.

This plant is just plain bizarre.

I decided to make a sketch of this twig in my Moleskine.

Poor cotton. You are so ugly

I also took a little image to illustrate the size this tiny sketchbook actually is:

I do have big hands, it has to be said.