Welcome, Summer!

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, and I celebrated with a painting of a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Pterourus glaucus) on Blue Spire Larkspur from my garden.

I started with a pencil sketch, then began adding in the black markings on the butterfly with an India ink brush pen.

I sketched in the Larkspur in waterproof ink.

Then I began painting the scene, starting with the butterfly first, and moving on to the Larkspur.

I found that I would have been better off painting the yellow of the butterfly first, then adding the black markings in India ink.  The yellows I used: Winsor Lemon and Azo yellow showed on the black ink, so I had to dab those areas with a paper towel while they were wet.

I began adding in greens and shadows made from the purple I was using -- Permanent Blue Violet mixed with Phthalo blue -- and cool Hooker's Green.  I love the dark, shadowy colors that result.

If you mix violet with a yellowy green like Sap Green, you get a muddier shadow color.  But cool greens and cool violets create a luscious, dark, purple-indigo shadow color.

I love the bits on the top left where the cool greens, violet and dark indigo interact.

Butterflies are fiddly little things to paint and draw.  They have so many details, and those details are mirrored in their symmetrical wings.  I remind myself that my goal is to celebrate what I see in nature with my art.  It's okay not to get everything perfectly accurate.  That's what field guides and photographs are for!

If you love butterflies, I hope you'll use these reference photos of the Tiger Swallowtail to make art!

Happy Creating!

Creating in My Art Journal Step-by-Step

I find it helpful to see another artist's process step-by-step, so I thought you might also.  Here's the beginning of an art journal page-- a blank, clean space in my board book.

I was thinking of a visit to the summer camp where I worked in my youth as I pulled out a collection of collage papers from my basket.

When I have extra watercolor paint at the end of a painting session, I often splash washes of color on scrap paper and stick it in my collage basket.

I laid out some papers and spread some Yes! paste down with an old cruise card.

With the base glued down, I worked out what I wanted for the next layer.

After I glued it down, using a glue stick and Tombow Mono Aqua glue, I decided I wanted a little sparkle.  I drew with the pen tip of the Aqua glue, and then dusted the page with some vintage gold leaf dust.

I let the glue dry.

After the glue dried, I dusted off the excess gold powder and felt that the spread needed a bit of contrast.  I rubbed ink pads --black and vintage photo color -- along the edges of the pages.

I felt the page spread still needed something... so I added a few hearts and the word Camp.

When I'm art journaling, playing with little embellishments like the hearts, the glittery gold dust and the stamp pads deepens the process.  It's all play, and there's no wrong answer.  If I decide I don't like some element, I can paint or collage over it.

When you create in an art journal, I hope you give yourself this same latitude.  Create freely, on a whim.  Don't wait for perfection -- it never arrives!  Listen for that quiet, little nudge from your intuition and have fun!

Happy Creating!

Upcycling a Board Book into an Art Journal

I got the idea to upcycle an old board book into an art journal from this YouTube video by Ceri Griffiths. 

https://youtu.be/XijpQxrfh_8?si=7RH4uvZHCJKXcnuS

Ceri walks you through the process of removing the printed surface of the book to create a blank board book to journal on.

Inspired by Ceri, I thrifted a board book at my favorite Goodwill store and prepared it for art journaling.  Then I dug through my painted papers and other collage scraps, pulling out bits that appealed to my artist's eye.  I didn't use them all, but followed my Intuition, that tiny voice within, and started gluing down papers, adding text, drawings, tissue paper, whatever!

  The brown "calligraphy" below on the left is from a Wanderlust 2024 class with artist Eugénie Bilotte.  You can find Wanderlust - a year of classes in art journaling -- at Everything Art (https://www.everything-art.com/). 

The fern on the right is a gelli print on a book page.

I love black print on earth-toned papers -- from tea bags to old book pages and cardboard.  On some page spreads, I simply created a background of collaged papers.  I can add more later as the inspiration strikes.

Other pages came together with a focal point and a theme, like this bluebird & nest page about the revitalization & nurturing I receive from time spent in nature.

My favorite page of the entire book so far is this one, reminding me to follow my Intuition (rather than my inner critic, the Hobgoblin).  I mingled collage, hand-cut stamps, gold acrylic ink and ink pens.

The beauty of creating in an art journal is that you can use any medium you have, from pencils and ballpoint pens to bits of paper from your daily life, to stencils, stamps, paints ... anything!  

And if you find you don't like something you put down, you can paint or collage over it, shaping the page in a new direction.  Just listen to that quiet little voice -- your Intuition-- and follow what it says.  

I find my Intuition never leads me astray.

Happy Creating! 

Sketching at Nature Camp

When I was in high school and college, I worked at an educational summer camp called Nature Camp.  I recently visited this favorite place to teach watercolor workshops.  

I had a wonderful time catching up with old friends and sitting beside the creek that runs through camp, soaking in the peace of nature while sketching.

Here's a 1-minute video of one of my favorite spots in camp.

And here's a demonstration painting of a piece of birch bark that I made during one of the workshops.  I started with a pencil sketch (HB), then lightened up my pencil marks and began with a wash of yellow ochre mixed with burnt sienna.  I touched in a charcoal gray mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. Then I let it all dry.

I finished the sketch with some details: a shadow made from ultramarine and burnt umber, the horizontal marks (lenticels) and the darkened edges. 

Here's a photo of the bark if you'd like to make a sketch or painting of it yourself.

Happy Creating!

Mornings with a House Wren

Every morning, this Northern House Wren sings the loveliest burbling song in my garden.  His ebullient music drifts in through the open windows and lifts my heart.  I took the photo below the other morning to use as a reference so I could add him to my spring nature journal.

I started with a light pencil sketch, then layed in the browns & grays of his plumage, touching in some ultramarine blue for darker shadows.  I mixed burnt sienna, burnt umber and ultramarine blue to create the grays. Warm azo yellow created the bold yellow of his beak, and I used yellow ochre, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue in the stick he's clinging to.

Next, I painted the entire background area with clean water, being careful to work around the wren and his stick.  Then, I touched in mixtures of Hooker's green dark, sap green, ultramarine blue, and azo yellow.

I finished the sketch with my black fountain pen -- adding a few lines and the wren's eye, and used some Prismacolor colored pencils on the stick and a white gel pen to create the spots in the wren's plumage.

When I'm painting animals or other fleeting subjects, I like to work from a reference photo.  It allows me to luxuriate some time on the details.

Somehow, this little guy looks like he's yelling!  I think I got his posture a little off -- a reminder to me to keep stepping back early in the sketching process.

What is going on around you in nature?  I hope you get to take some time to record your observations in a nature journal!

Happy Creating!

Figure Drawing at Breakfast

Sometimes in the morning news, a photo will catch my eye, like that of professional basketball player, Alysha Clark, above.  All I need is a pencil and my sketchbook as I sip tea and draw. It's a wonderful way to practice.

You can also find figure drawing reference photos online on several sites like Line-of-Action.com   

I like to think of drawing as being like a sport -- the more you do it, the better you become.  And, you have to stay in practice or you lose your conditioning.

Even drawing your own hand is good practice.

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Nature Journal: Violets

I love Johnny Jump-Up Violets and the way they create a carpet of violet and green in the lawn in early spring.  I've always wanted to take a photo that captures the parade of blossoms, and finally managed it this spring.

Of course I wanted to paint the scene in my new concertina watercolor journal.  I started with a pencil sketch. Then I painted in the various violets -- the closer ones I painted in detail, and as the violets grew farther away, I painted them as flower shapes, and finally as blobs.

When the flowers were dry, I painted around the many violets in shades of green, and created a shadow color by mixing permanent blue violet with Hooker's green.

I created the concertina sketchbook by cutting a 6" x 20" strip from a sheet of 300 pound Stonehenge watercolor paper, then scoring the paper every 5" with a bone folding tool and folding in a zig-zag folding pattern.

Blick sells sheets of 300# Stonehenge Aqua watercolor paper for $12.  The sheets are 22" x 30" so you can make 3 of these accordion-fold journals for $12.  That's reasonable for journals, and the paper is absolutely lovely to work on.

You can paint on both sides of watercolor paper, so when I fill up one side, I'll flip it and paint on the other side, creating a folded record of my spring in nature.

You may recognize the cover of this sketchbook from an earlier post about painting phlox.

I love this little watercolor sketchbook!  It's pocket-sized, and the 300 pound paper is a dream to work on.