The Winter Nature Journal: Icicles!

After 6 months of drought in our area, abundant rain and snow have created a new landscape.  The creeks run musically, and massive icicles formed in the Frankfort Mineral Springs area of Raccoon Creek State Park.

David & I hiked to the falls, he with his cameras and me with my nature journal. 

Though the trail to the falls was treacherous with wet ice and packed snow, the warm air and sunshine felt like spring.

 

I sat in the snow on top of my heavy winter gloves, and felt like an early naturalist illustrating a new land. I sketched with a brown ink fountain pen and added watercolor washes.

I've always felt that Nature puts on a perpetual show, and the price of a "ticket" is simply taking the time and effort to get outside and be still for a moment. 

Lately, the sun feels stronger and brighter each day; the world feels more inviting.  I think keeping a nature journal helps me to see these things.  It wasn't long ago that I watched outside for a little vole to peek out of its hole under the birdfeeders just outside my studio window.  I could count on it to show up about 4:50 PM as the sun set.

After watching this vole several nights in a row, I would think of the little creature every day just before 5 PM. No matter where I was, I knew the creature was hungrily scavenging seeds.

I haven't seen this critter in weeks now.  We've both changed our routines.  Just the other evening, I tidied up some garden beds in the relative warmth until the daylight ebbed.

These are the sorts of tiny adventures that keeping a nature journal can lead you on.

What's going on outside where you live right now?  What in nature's detailed show would you like to witness?  I hope you take the time to sit and enjoy the show, and make a few notes in a sketchbook.

Happy Creating!

Drawing in the Museum: Discovery Basecamp

We spent our final class in an area designed for children and classes -- Discovery Basecamp. The area provided plentiful seats and taxidermied birds and mammals in lightweight plexiglass boxes.

In short, the perfect environment for drawing natural history specimens up close.

And surprisingly few toddlers and preschoolers rambled through while we were sketching.

Near Discovery Basecamp we explored an exhibit entitled The Art of the Diorama.  That's where I fell in love with this Northern Raven and drew its portrait.

During the cold, gray days of winter, a museum is a wonderful place to sit and sketch.  And to stretch your legs.  The walk between exhibits, to different floors, etc. is both beautiful and healthful.  I enjoyed having room to roam without slipping on ice!

Happy Creating!

Armchair Traveling

Several years ago, David and I flew to England to board the Queen Mary 2 for a Transatlantic Crossing.  You can find that story here:

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2023/08/embarking-on-transatlantic-crossing.html

We had a day to walk around the port city of Southampton, England before boarding our ocean liner, and I snapped lots of photos.

It's a delight to go back to those photos and paint from them.  We saw this little cart of herbs near the historic town walls (built in the 14th century!).

I began with a pencil sketch, then added watercolor washes and finished with some line work in India ink with my Lamy Safari fountain pen.  Towards the very end of painting this scene, my Intuition suggested that I add a bit of purple to the shadows around the cart.  The mint plants had lavender flowers, and using a touch of the same lavender tied the scene together.

Do you have old vacation photos that you'd like to revisit?  Sketches of beautiful scenes can be uplifting on wintry, gray February days.

Happy Creating!

Adding Bright Colors to Black and White Drawings

I'm teaching a class called "Drawing in the Museum" for Osher at Carnegie Mellon University.  We meet in the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History in Pittsburgh.

We've been drawing with graphite pencils on white paper. 

But the winter has been gray, and I wanted to jazz up our drawings a bit.

 I created a stack of colorful papers and brought black and white Prismacolor colored pencils.

We still drew with only black and white, but the brightly painted papers added another layer of pattern, color and interest.

Here is Anita, one of my students, and her drawing of some crystals from the Hall of Minerals. The painted paper allowed her to show white crystals well, including the direction of the grain within them.

Below is a photo I took of two types of Quartz crystals in the Hall of Minerals...

...and my own drawing.

Fossils from Lyme Regis, England.

Fig leaves from my potted fig tree.

I painted a variety of colors and designs on Canson 140# watercolor paper with Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors.  

I let the first side dry, then flipped it and painted the other side.

It was uplifting just to paint with highly saturated, colorful paints.

One of my students said that the papers looked like Northern Lights!

After the paint was dry, I folded each sheet in half to make a 9" X 12" booklet for my students to draw on.

This is a great way to make sketching more of a game. 

 You can also paint splotches of color on sketchbook pages and let them dry.  When you take the sketchbook out, the colorful pathces help to reduce the fear of the blank page -- because it's not blank anymore.  

All you need is a black and a white colored pencil.

Happy Creating! 

Draw Your Breakfast Challenge

 

In my Beginner's Pencil Drawing Class at CCBC, I assigned homework to keep us all drawing during the week.  This week, we have drawn our breakfasts.

Because I don't like to wait to eat until I've finished drawing my breakfast, I snapped photos each morning, and drew from the reference photos.

This project made picking out breakfast more fun!  The bagel was my favorite breakfast to draw, but these cherries were fun, too!

And the iron skillet full of sausage and eggs is a classic.

What do you like to eat every morning?  Try drawing it at the breakfast table.  

You'll be surprised how good it feels to start your day with drawing.  

Most breakfast foods are mushy (oatmeal), blobby (scrambled eggs) or formed into simple shapes like berries, fruits, eggs and sausages.  It's a great way to be creative and feel accomplished before you leave the breakfast table.  And much better for your digestion than doom scrolling!

Happy Creating!

Weekly Planner: Valentine's Hearts

I love hearts as an art theme. Easy to create, and open to many variations.  And the heart represents kindness, love, and caring.

For this page spread, I used watercolors in permanent blue violet and pyrrol red with India ink in a Lamy fountain pen.

I know we've just past Valentine' Day, so maybe you're done with hearts.

What if you chose a shape -- stars, ovals, circles, whatever -- then selected 2-3 colors you like, and added a certain line style.  Here, I've used swirls, spirals and wavy lines.  You could select short lines, blues and squares.  Try selecting your own "formula" for a weekly planner page.

You can trust your intuition -- that tiny voice within you-- to invent clever and exciting new combinations of shapes, colors and marks.

Happy Creating!

Celebrate Your Artwork!

When we create, we might hear the voice of the inner critic telling us all of the things we are doing "wrong."  Sometimes creating is fun and easy, other times, we push against that critical voice all the way.

But the good news is that if you keep drawing, painting, & creating, you will eventually make art that you like.  Even if in the moment all you hear is that negative -- and incorrect -- voice, when you set your artwork aside and wait a day, you will see it with fresh eyes.

I invite you to give your artwork a day of rest, and then prop it up where you'll see it when you pass by.  I use this bookshelf as a gallery.  

My cat uses it as a napping place, so I put out a blanket for him.  Cats are my coworkers in the studio!

As I painted this orange,  all I could hear was my inner critic, the voice I call my Hobgoblin.  I knew that if I pushed on, I could at least learn something in the process.  I did it for the experience of painting, not to create a "pretty" picture.

After I took a break from looking at the little painting, I propped it on my bookshelf gallery. I could see the way that the shadows created dimension, and the way the feathery backruns created a texture I liked.  I am at peace with this little orange, and grateful for the experience of painting it. Overall, I like this painting and am proud to prove the hobgoblin wrong!

Give your art a break, and then please celebrate it by setting it up where you can see it.  As you look at it, think about what you like, what you'd change if you made another version of it, and what you learned in the process.  These questions can help navigate around the inner critic's blanket statements.

And please don't believe that inner critic!  They are notoriously wrong!

If you struggle with an inner critic as artists throughout time have, I recommend reading Shut Your Monkey! by Danny Gregory, about how to stop listening to your inner critic so you can keep creating art.

Remember: no one else in all of history has created the art that you can or sees the world as you do. Your art is valuable and unique.

I hope you push past any hobgoblins you might have and

Keep Creating!

DIY Travel Postcards

We just returned from a winter escape to Florida, where we spent our days on a lovely, natural beach. 

I carried in my art kit a few pieces of 140# watercolor paper cut into 4" x 6" pieces to make postcards with.

On the beach, I found beautiful shells to set up in the sand, and then sketched them in watercolor, adding waterproof ink lines with a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen when the paint was dry.

You can also draw the scene in pen first, then add watercolor washes when the ink is dry.  Either way works well.

If you're feeling the fear of the blank page, working on a separate sheet of paper can help loosen your hand up.  If the painting doesn't work out, you can recycle the paper and try again on a fresh sheet.  And if it does work, you'll have a postcard to send to someone!

I clipped the papers onto my travel journal, and used a water brush pen to paint.

You can see that the salty sea air caused unusual feathering in the backruns in the water & sand.  Salt attracts water, drawing the paint pigments with it and creating feathery clumps of color.  I love that the sea air collaborated with me in my art-making!

I enjoyed trying to express the incredible shades of blue and turquoise in the sky and water.

 Because postcards are so small, I could make a series of them quickly.

Back at the hotel, I laid them out in the sunshine.

I hope you'll make drawings and paintings from the photos below.

Happy Creating!

Valentines Postcards

Do you have a stash of interesting papers with colors and images you love?  Would you like to make art with them?  A collage postcard is a quick way to dip your toe into the sea of collage creativity.

Collect a small assortment of papers you like with similar colors.

On a piece of cardstock, begin laying them out, moving the pieces around.

When they start to look interesting -- not perfect!-- glue them down, remembering that you can always paint over, collage over or draw over any parts you like.

Use whatever glue you have on hand --glue sticks, Yes! paste, acrylic matte medium, even Elmer's school glue. An old credit card can help you smooth down bubbly papers after gluing. 

Step back occasionally, and let your intuition (that soft, wee voice within) offer suggestions.

I used Yes! Paste to glue my papers down, then added marks with colored pencils and Posca paint pens.  Use what you have on hand.

If you're concerned about the loose edges of papers getting damaged as they go through the mail system, you can always tuck your creation into an envelope.

Happy Creating!

An Army of Valentines!

This year, I sent out a small fleet of Valentine's cards.  I was inspired by a collection of commercial pop-up cards I saw in the grocery store. I researched how to make box cards, and created a prototype based on the beauty of bare tree limbs branching.

I sketched the first card, and cut out the spaces between branches with an X-Acto knife.

I painted the branches with watercolors.  When the paint had dried, I painted the interior of the card a mix of Permanent Rose, Alizarin Crimson, and Pyrrol Red.

Once I had one card complete, I traced more copies, then cut & painted them as I had done for the first.

Then, I used double-stick tape to close up each box.  You can see the overlap in the photo below on the bottom right of the picture.

The end result was a collection of Valentines, each with their own quirks, but all quite similar.

What would you like to create a series of?

Happy Creating!