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. 

 

Watercolor Nature Sketches: Phlox

I love to sit in nature and sketch.  Sometimes, I only have time for a quick hike, so I snap photos of anything I wanted to sketch on the spot, like these wild phlox in bloom.

It's often the tiniest things in nature that draw me in.

I began this sketch with a pencil drawing, then painted in the flower petals in mixtures of permanent blue violet, Phthalo blue, & permanent rose.  I let the first wash of color dry before adding in shadows on the petals.  

I laid in the background by painting in one big wet layer, touching in darker bits and letting the color spread.

With watercolor, you control the flow of the paint by controlling the water.  Watercolor blooms and spreads within a wet area, and won't flow to dry areas of your paper unless it's very runny and dribbles.

To create the little shadowed spots behind the flowers, I let the flowers dry fully, then carefully painted the area beside the flower with clear water and touched in a dark mixture of permanent blue violet and Hooker's green. 

I worked quickly to touch in other green mixtures to give the sense of foliage on a forest floor.  By keeping the background indistinct and more abstract, the phlox flowers pop forward to catch our eye.

I finished the sketch by adding lines with a fine black pen with permanent ink.
 

Would you like to make paintings of tiny things?  

Here are a few photos to practice with!

Happy Creating!

Many Thanks to our Osher Models!

Our Osher Figure Drawing classes have wrapped up, and I feel tremendous gratitude to the models, like Robin (above), who inspired, challenged, strengthened, and uplifted us with their work.  

I see our models -- like Selena (below) -- as co-creators in the art studio. They express their creativity through their poses, bringing us inspiration and ideas.

Our models' work tells stories, and we artists participate in the stories by illustrating what we see.  Here, model Emily (below) in her flower crown, looks to me like a goddess of Spring.

And model Rikki lies on a beach in the sunshine in my mind's eye.

Many thanks to our amazing models!  I feel grateful to have gotten the opportunity to create with them. 

Watercolor Landscape

The spring landscape inspires me with its ever-changing swaths of color.

Every shade of green from chartreuse to seafoam, to deepest pine green fills the landscape.  Verdant new grass sweeps in to replace the old, dead meadow plants. 

On walks, I snap photos like this one.

Then I take them back to my studio to paint my version of the scene.  I think it's important in art, to give ourselves the freedom to create our version of reality.  When I started painting, I thought I should re-created every twig and pine needle in a scene.  

Folly!

But that lesson showed me that I am at liberty to play with any element of the scene I wish!  I have simplified this landscape, and I have used purple lavishly where it might not be evident in the photo above.  Why not?  I love purple and green together.

I began by making a simple pencil sketch.  With a kneaded eraser, I lightened the darker lines to keep the pencil marks from showing through the paint. 

I mixed different colors -- Phthalo blue with a touch of Hooker's green for the apple blossoms in the center of the scene, sap green with Winsor yellow for the yellowy greens, dioxazine purple with a touch of Phthalo blue for the distant hills and shadows, and Phthalo blue and burnt sienna for the spruces.

What would your version of this scene look like?

I hope you paint or draw it!

Happy Creating!