Creating in my Collage Sketch Book

You may have seen my earlier posts on creating a painted paper collage sketchbook

here and here.

In this post, I'm sharing a few photos of the process and including the reference photos I took at Phipps Conservatory.

If you're inspired, I hope you'll make drawings and paintings from my reference pics!

I've always loved this little statue, and especially delighted in the sash of dried flowers she's now decorated with.  I started with a pencil drawing on a blank page.

I added in watercolor greens to the background, with yellow-green first.  When the first wash of green dried, I mixed a dark green with phthalo blue and burnt sienna.  I added a touch of permanent blue violet to make extra dark shadows.

It was fun to make shadowy leaves and then to use the shadows to "carve" lighter green leaves (bottom right area).

With the background done, I mixed a pale violet for the shadows on the statue.  

I wanted to show that she was made of stone, so I kept the colors cool and desaturated by mixing permanent blue violet with a touch of yellow ochre.  The yellow muted the purple's brightness.

I splashed in Azo yellow, permanent rose and permanent blue violet to the sash for the dried flowers.  I added a few touches of the warm Azo yellow to the background to unify the page.

I drew these orchids in with Posca paint markers.

Here is some gorgeous foliage with striking patterns.  I used a Stabilo All pencil for the dark markings on the leaves.

Here's a yellow orchid I drew with Neocolor II watercolor crayons and the Stabilo All pencil

The bold magenta color of these begonias caught my eye.  It was fun to mix the Posca marker colors to try to recreate that shade of pink. I love how the green from the painted paper page shows through in spots & contrasts with the pink.

I love the gnarly trunk and twisted limbs of this bonsai tree.  But there was very little contrast between the tree and the background.

I used the filters function on my phone's photo editor and turned the color photo black and white, then turned up the contrast.

I used both photos as references for this drawing.

Adding in the trunk first with Neocolor II watercolor crayons, I created foliage with Posca paint markers.

I found that having these painted papers made the process of drawing so much less "scary."  I realized that fear of the blank page is a real force holding me back from creating. 

Splashing paint on paper in a messy, no-pressure way is fun in itself, AND it helps me to jump into drawing faster.  Win-win!

I hope you give this technique a try!

Happy Creating!

Holiday Illustration Workshop with La Scarlatte

I've been feeling inspired by artist Pauline Teunissen, 

who calls herself  La Scarlatte.  

You can find her on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/@LaScarlatte

and on Substack here:https://lascarlatte.substack.com/

I joined her for a Substack workshop on Thursday afternoon entitled Drawing Winter Botanicals.  We drew and illustrated holiday-themed plants like holly, mistletoe and juniper using Neocolor II crayons.  You can see a replay of the class on LaScarlatte's "Creative Coccoon" Substack.

Pauline shared these reference images from Unsplash (https://unsplash.com/), a source of free photos for creatives.

It was delightful to sketch plants in a community of other artists and to learn tips from Pauline.

As we sketched the Mistletoe, she pointed out that if we followed the natural branching pattern of a plant, we could invent our own designs to suit the composition.

It was inspiring to follow Pauline's technique for using a collection of reference photos and combining them into one composition.

If you feel inspired by these photos, I hope you'll create your own drawing!

Happy Creating!

Sketch Autumn Leaves with Me!

A recent hike in the state park turned up a wealth of colorful sassafras leaves.  I had my nature journal and a pack of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons.  I began with a pen and ink drawing, then added colors with the watercolor crayons

A bit of blending with a wet brush mixed the colors.  

Here are some photos from the hike. I hope you will to make your own colorful autumn leaf sketches.

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling: Finding Color in Winter

A cold winter morning brought colorful birds to my feeders.  I grabbed my watercolor crayons and a black pen, and felt happy to get to splash bold colors into my nature journal.

I find that in winter, my eyes hunger for hues more vibrant than the lead-gray skies and burnt umber tree branches.  As I hike, I seek out splashes of blue, green, red, orange, purple & pink.

Where do I find these rich colors? Often in tiny pockets here and there. Here are some of my recent photos of nature's splashy colors tucked in the winter landscape.

Turkey Tail fungus boasts rows of indigo and vermillion.

Sunrises and sunsets will fill your eyes with color if only for moments.

On the rare sunny days, notice how blue the shadows are on snowy ground.

Even dead wildflowers still hold warm tones, even if they're muted.

Moss always seems incredibly green to my winter-weary eyes, but finding this fern growing out of a hole in a cherry tree lifted my spirits on a January hike.

I couldn't believe that these tiny mushrooms were still upright and not withered by the cold when I found them on January 12th.

As colorful as these scenes are, the birds at my feeder bring a special vitality.

A female Downy Woodpecker.

A Tufted Titmouse.

I hope you will take inspiration from one of these nature scenes and create art from them!

Happy Creating!

A Nature Hike Revisited

When I made the first rough sketch of this lake scene (below) the weather was warm and lovely. I had only brought a waterproof black pen and my nature journal on the hike.

I wanted to include more color and details, so I took a photo with my phone and planned to finish the page later.

This latest cold snap, had me thinking of that sunny warm day and how I wanted to finish my sketch.  

Cozily tucked in my studio listening to music, I added color to the scene using 

Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons.

Just looking at the blue sky and puffy white clouds in the photo felt uplifting on a gray day with wind-driven snow flying through the air. Adding color with the crayons worked its usual magic, and I dropped into that relaxed, timeless state of art-making.

I invite you to make artwork using this photo as a reference.  Find the most interesting part of the scene to you, and let that be your focal point. I hope you'll use your favorite media to create your version of this scene. 

Happy Creating! 

Travel Journal Practice

I'm preparing for a vacation in England, and have been Googling little towns south of London.  

A photo of this mill in Winchester caught my eye, and I sketched it in colored pencils, and added Neocolor II watercolor crayons to bump up the color in a few places.

Below is the first layer of the drawing, using Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils.

I have been selecting the art supplies I want to take with me on my journey, and I realize that my tiny Winsor & Newton watercolor palette at 2.5"x 5"x .5" packs a lot of color into a small box.

As much as I love my Neocolor II crayons, they take up more space and complicate my kit. When I compare them with what my watercolors can do, I love the transparency and vibrancy of my Winsor & Newton watercolors.  I'm going to leave the watercolor crayons at home.

Whether you are traveling the globe or armchair traveling, I hope you'll take the time to make a travel journal. It's a wonderful way to document the journeys of your life, to slow down & enjoy the moment.  All while building your drawing skills.

Happy journaling!

Art Journaling 101 with Amy Maricle

 

I am taking an online course from artist and art therapist Amy Maricle of Mindful Art Studio. 

Art Journaling 101 walks you through ways to jump right into creating, beginning with defusing the inner critic by writing out what our critic says to us and making a drawing of it.  

I call mine the Hobgoblin, and I imagine it to be a cranky, snide gargoyle.

Afterwards, we turned our attention to embracing our Muse.

Through the course, I've been eager to watch each short video and create more pages because the process is so easy.  

It's inspiring to have an instructor outline a technique, then invite you to make your own variations.

Amy demonstrates a variety of techniques for creating backgrounds as well as ways to fill the backgrounds with drawings and writing.

We created backgrounds in watercolor, 

both splashy and smooth.

Instead of facing a blank white page, now there's an inviting field of color on my art journal pages.

Amy demonstrated a technique using 2 colors of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons with gesso. I incorporated a layer of music sheeting for more texture.

She shared a simple technique for filling a page with acrylics.

Which provided the ideal surface to write a quote.

I recommend taking this inexpensive course because it inspires you to jump into creating right away.  

Sometimes, the hardest part of art making is getting started and deciding what to do.

I created all of these pages in a span of one afternoon. I tucked the activities into an otherwise busy day, and felt uplifted by the process.

Here's a link to the class: Art Journaling 101.

Happy Creating!