Bluebird Nature Journal Update: Autumn Colors

Here's a glimpse of my day off to hike the woods and sketch.  I traveled in my EV Bluebird to Raccoon Creek State Park, where I added another entry into my Bluebird Nature Journal.  You can read the backstory to this journal in this post: 

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2024/11/turning-my-art-into-stickers.html

Above is the accordion fold journal, now halfway filled, and below is the scene I painted.

You can see that I intensified the colors a bit in my painting.  Remember that as an artist, you are not a camera! You may omit parts of the scene, simplify it, or even change the colors as you choose. Let your intuition guide you.

I started with a quick pencil sketch, then splashed in the overcast sky and the colorful foliage around the cabin.  When that dried a bit, I painted the little cabin using a mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.  Touching in a bit of sap green to the roof expressed the moss. 

I used the same blue-brown mixture to paint in the tree trunks.  You can add more burnt sienna to make the mixture more brown, or use more ultramarine to get a steely blue-gray.  It's a very useful combination!

You can create your own journals by cutting a large sheet of paper into long horizontal segments, then folding them to make the page size you like. Large pieces of 140# watercolor paper work well for this. 

I used a 12" x 18" sheet of 140# Canson XL watercolor paper to make the Bluebird Nature Journal, cutting it in half lengthwise to make two elongated strips.  I folded each strip in half, then into quarters and glued two ends of the accordion folded strips together to make it extra long. I made covers out of blue mat board and glued them to each end.

I hope you give this journal-making technique a try and fill it with your creative explorations!

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling: A Morning Hike

Recently, I took a morning walk in the park before the heat of the summer day.  

After about a mile, I found this fascinating tree,

with fungi growing inside several cracks in the trunk.

I perched on a nearby mossy log and started sketching.

I have a special nature journal I keep in my electric car, Bluebird. I've always dreamed of traveling around in my electric car and having art explorations:  I plug in my car, and while she's charging up, I go make art.

You can read about my art & electric car connection in this post: https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2024/11/turning-my-art-into-stickers.html

What are your art dreams?  I hope they come true for you!

Happy Creating!

Bluebird Art

I have dreamed for years of driving an electric vehicle and using the car's recharging time to make art. 

Here's a page from my nature journal with a sketch of the scene out my front windshield during a charge-up.  The afternoon was cold, and we'd just come back from a hike.  My car kept us warm as it charged, and I spent the time blissfully sketching.

Happy Creating!

Bluebird Art Hike Day

I took advantage of a lovely day out in my EV Bluebird, and hiked the state park with my mini art kit.

I sat down on a log and laid in a pencil sketch.  Before I could layer on permanent ink, I noticed a tick crawling up my leg.  Yikes! I brushed the tick away and snapped a photo of the scene in front of me so I could finish my art at home. 

Back in my studio, I added ink with a Lamy Safari fountain pen, then began adding a in washes of color.

Mixing phthalo blue and burnt sienna created the evergreen foliage, ultramarine blue for the sky, and a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna or burnt umber made the greys in the trees.  Burnt sienna and yellow ochre filled the forest floor with leaves, and sap green and yellow ochre created a moss color.

The crooked little sapling caught my eye from the moment I sat outside in the park, so I saved that tree for last and treated it lightly.

Comparing the photo to the painting, you'll see plenty of "artistic license" being used.

Remember that as the artist, you get to decide what to include in your artworks, and you can emphasize angles as I did with the little sapling here.  

You can make choices based on what you'd like to see in the composition and leave out trees or other elements as you choose.

I enjoyed keeping one light colored tree that caught my eye while I was sketching.  There are some things a photograph can't convey.  I'm glad I made a pencil sketch first to capture that fresh feeling you get from creating art from life.

Happy Creating!