Nature Journaling in the Spring

Now is a great time to sit outside with your nature journal and take stock of spring's progress -- or fall's progress if you're in the Southern Hemisphere.

Where I live, the Goldfinches are part way through their molt into canary-colored plumage.

The Spearmint that grows at my kitchen door stoop has sprung to life.

And the Purple Dead Nettle growing along the rocks in my raised garden beds has begun to bloom, a welcome sight.

Sitting in nature sketching never fails to slow me down and relax me.  

I hope you get time to sit outdoors in the sunshine with your nature journal and check nature's progress.

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved  

Watercolor Spring Flowers

I've been teaching Watercolor Spring Flowers at the Community College of Beaver County, and we have had so much fun in class, that I come home inspired to paint more. 

I brought in Erin O'Toole's book Create Your Own Artist's Journal to class last week to share with my students.

I was drawn to this painting in Erin's book.

After class, I painted my own version of it, enjoying using a variety of colors and splashing them in wet-in-wet.

During our last class, one of my students suggested painting bookmarks with flower designs.  Here are a few that I painted the next morning while drinking tea in my studio.

I started by sketching with a white crayon on white watercolor paper.  The white Crayola resists the watercolor paint, keeping the spots where you add it white.

I wet the paper, and touched in loose wet-in-wet splashes of color.

After that had dried, I added more detail in the foxglove flowers, leaves, & stems.

I finished by splattering on some white gouache.

A bit of ribbon added the finishing touch!

I have enjoyed giving these bookmarks away.

Starting small with bookmarks, and taking inspiration from another artist are great ways to get started with Watercolors.  If you're in the Northern Hemisphere like me, it's uplifting to see beautiful blooms and colors this time of year, even if they're painted on paper.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved

The Power of Doodling

Those of us who like to doodle to pass the time often downplay this good habit, probably because we were chastised as kids for "not paying attention."

Research suggests that doodling actually helps to lock memories in place.  Whatever you were listening to while you created that little artwork stays with you better than if you hadn't been drawing. Here's a Harvard Health article about research into the benefits of doodling.

But that's not the power of doodles that I'm talking about today.  

When you follow that sparkly idea to create something you're curious about, you build your drawing skills, but you also develop creative ideas that can grow.

Here's a sketch I made of a friend's crow photo. You can find the photo on my blog here.

That sketch became a drawing, which I transferred to a rubber block. I carved it to create a stamp.

I've enjoyed making stationary by stamping vintage office papers with this stamp.

I photocopied one of these pieces of stationary, enlarging it to 200% so I could transfer it to a recent painting.  The little sketch of my friend's crow photo became the focal point of a larger painting.

I reversed the image by making a transparency of it and copying the flipped transparency.  When you transfer an image this way, you "print" a reversed image.

Now I've ordered greeting cards from that large painting, and I can't wait to receive them in the mail. That's the power of doodling.  It's a way to experiment and play, and a pathway to larger artworks.

Please doodle! 

Experiment with designs and ideas. 

Play with little sketches.  

Allow them to grow & roam to become larger ideas.  

That's how creativity works!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.  All rights reserved.

Taking on My Hobgoblin Update: Painting Large

In this blog post, I shared the story of my inner critic's fear that painting large was "dangerous."

After writing about the subject in my daily journal, and then creating in my art journal, I plunged in and made this 24" x 30" painting.  

I am delighted to report that painting large is in some ways easier than painting small.  It allows freedom of motion as you paint, making sweeping motions more natural.

I started with this fiery orange-red underpainting to employ the power of color contrasts.

Orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel.  When you place them side-by-side, they create a vivid contrast that attracts the viewer's eye and creates a dynamic energy.

The beautiful thing about acrylic paint is that it dries quickly, so you can add layers on top of each other fairly quickly without mixing the two layers of paint.

I explained how I made this crow stamp in this post.

After making an enlarged copy of one of the prints, I transferred the photocopy to the painting using matte medium.

I applied a generous coat of matte medium to the face of the copy, stuck it down to the painting where I wanted it, and then pressed it firmly in place.  As I scraped excess goo out from between the two layers, I was careful not to get any matte medium on the back side of the copy.  That's important.

The next step is to let the matte medium dry.  When it's fully dry, spritz the paper with water and peel back the paper to reveal the image (in reverse).

You'll have to rub the last fibers of paper off of the image, and some parts of the image may come up with the paper if there was an air bubble in that spot.

I touched up a few spots on my crow with black paint.

Mixing matte medium with the acrylic paint allowed me to paint smooth, flowing letters and swirls.

The black & white contrasts appealed to my artist's eye.

As I painted, I tried to listen to the tiny voice of my intuition.  Of course, I had antsy moments in the creative process, wondering if it would all work out.  

We have a saying at my house, "Excite = Life."  If you're getting excited/nervous from time-to-time, then you are living your life fully and not shying from challenges. 

I played around with different designs underneath the crow, but didn't like the first attempt.  I removed the black squiggles with a paper towel wetted with rubbing alcohol, and tried again.

For touch-ups, I put a dab of acrylic paint and a blob of matte medium on an old membership card.  I mixed the two to make a smoother paint.  

Matte medium also slows the drying time of acrylic paint.  I used it after the painting was finished and dried as a clear top coat to protect the painting.

Old credit cards are useful for spreading paint onto a canvas using the broad side.  You can use the corners to scratch back into the paint while it's wet to make texture.

I finished, of course, by signing my name with a Posca paint pen.  

Always sign your work!  

Then place it where you can admire it

I hope you find ways to talk back to your inner critic.  It's incredibly empowering, and you end up with rich artwork!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.  All rights reserved.

Pencil Sketches

Between teaching Drawing in the Museum for Osher at CMU, and Pencil Drawing for CCBC, I've been spending a lot of quality time with just a pencil and a sketchbook.

You can express a lot with a simple pencil -- light & shadow, shape & texture -- all in the way you make your marks and how heavily you lay down the graphite.

These first 4 drawings are from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh -- from the Hall of North American Wildlife, Polar World, and the last two are from the Hall of Botany.

The best approach is to pick something that really attracts your eye, and then make a game of exploring different ways of drawing it.  Being experimental is key to relaxing and making discoveries.

One day after class, David & I ate at the museum cafe. I sketched these two people quickly.

The first fellow was outside waiting for a bus and looking at his phone, and the woman below was dining in the cafe.

The cat below was drawn from a photo one of my Pencil Drawing students brought in, and we both tried turning our sketchbooks and the photo upside down.  It was a really useful trick to help us see the shapes in this foreshortened view of her old friend.

Remember, it doesn't take much.  Grab a pencil and some paper, and start sketching whatever catches your eye.  If you do this regularly, you will make great discoveries and build your drawing skills with every sketch.

Happy Sketching!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

 

Nature Journal: Returning Songbirds

My birdfeeder has given me a look into the movements of the songbirds in my neighborhood.  This Common Grackle showed up recently in a flock of migrating blackbirds.  The group refueled on the sunflower seed feast laid out for them.

The grackle that caught my eye moved around on the ground quickly, so I found a photo online at Cornell University's All About Birds to use as a reference.  Here's a link to their page about Common Grackles.

I began this journal page with the observations on the left side, then a light graphite pencil sketch of the grackle. I erased extra pencil lines, and layered in Prismacolor colored pencils on top of the graphite sketch.

If you try this approach, make sure to keep the graphite pencil sketch light so that you don't create any grooves in the paper.  Grooves can prevent the soft colored pencils from getting down into the channel cut by the pencil.  

Also, if you're using lighter colors, the colored pencils may pick up the gray graphite and mute your colors.  I find keeping the sketch light or rolling a kneaded eraser over the graphite sketch to pick up excess graphite helps to prevent this problem.  

Spring is a fantastic time to start a nature journal.  Grab any small sketchbook and your favorite drawing tools, and take them on a walk with you.  Or simply set them up by a window where you can watch what's going on outside.

I hope you find some signs of spring this week!

Pencil Drawing: Sumo Orange Sketch

I often find that the simplest of things can make a wonderful subject for drawing.  

We've been enjoying these sweet, juicy Sumo oranges this winter. One morning at the breakfast table, I sketched this trio with a 4B pencil in my sketchbook.

What are you eating for breakfast these days?  Would it be fun to sketch?  What items around you catch your eye and call out to be sketched?

I hope you'll have a play with making simple sketches.  It will build your drawing skills & help you observe the world around you better.  I find that drawing relaxes me, slowing life down a bit and helping me be in the moment. 

Happy creating!

Cardboard & Paint Postcard

Do you have a cardboard box & some craft paint?  Here's a simple creative project.

I ripped a cardboard shipping box lid into the rough size of a postcard, and tore part of the outer surface of the cardboard off to reveal the corrugations.  

The next step was to paint it with Cadmium Red Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint.  You can scrape the paint over the cardboard with an old credit card and then scratch back into the wet paint to get interesting textures.

  

Once the yellow-orange layer was dry, I added Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue splotches and scraped them over the underlying texture with an old credit card.  If you use color complements -- or colors opposite of each other on the color wheel -- you'll get gorgeous contrasts.  Bold & eye-catching!

You might choose alternating layers of red & green or yellow & purple paints. Just make sure that the first layer is dry before you start applying the next layer, or your colors will get muddy & murky.

A final touch of gold paint added sparkle.  Glitter would be good, too!

I glued on collage bits, including hieroglyphics I copied onto tracing paper from this sarcophagus in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

 

Painting the back side of the card with white gesso makes it easier to write a message, add a stamp and an address.  You can glue on collage bits, too.

Imagine how it would feel to receive an adventurous, hand-made postcard in your mail.  That's how your recipient will feel when they receive your creation.

 

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.