I've begun a new concertina nature journal made out of 300 lb cold press Stonehenge watercolor paper.
On a cold afternoon in late November, David took his camera bag and I grabbed my mini nature journaling kit, and we popped out to the state park for some creative time. Being out in the 20-degree weather forced me to draw quickly and finish my art back in the warmth of my studio.
Above is the reference photo I used to help me flesh out my drawing, and below is my mini watercolor kit.
I started with a wet-in-wet wash of ultramarine blue for the sky, then added in tree shapes with ultramarine blue mixed with burnt umber. Yellow ochre created the general rock color. You can see where my impatience in not waiting to let the sky dry before I worked in the trees caused some of the colors to bloom into each other. I decided to leave it that way and not scrub out the "mistake."
I added some roots with a light gray Caran D'Ache Neocolor II crayon. I like the way those crayons work right over top of darker values, and you can move the pigment with water if you like.
A final wash of burnt umber and ultramarine blue mixed to make a chocolate brown bark color to darken the main tree trunk. I used a very dark mixture of the two to create the grooves in the bark.
Working small and quickly creates a magic of its own, allowing you to focus in on one small portion of the larger scene.
I hope you give mini journals a try!
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