Winter Nature Journal: A Deer Friend

Last autumn, we noticed a particularly friendly young deer who was unafraid of us.  As I hiked our farm, I'd often encounter this guy.  When the other deer ran off, he lingered. I always kept my distance, but was charmed by his curiosity.

Hunger brought him up close to the house to eat where other critters didn't dare, giving me good photo opportunities.

This winter, he's been visiting my birdfeeding station and dining on sunflower seeds, so I decided to include him in my nature journal.

Here's the reference photo I used for my drawing.

I started with a graphite pencil sketch, then inked in the lines and added color with my Derwent Drawing Pencils.  I touched in some spots --his ears & around his eyes -- with a Posca paint marker that I wanted to be bold white.

 

I hope you'll use these reference photos to make drawings and paintings.

Happy Creating!

Turning a Bad Photo into Good Art

The image above is not a good photo.  The lighting is dull, and there's too much clutter distracting your eye from the beauty of the creek snaking through the hilly woodland. 

Yet, photos like this one still have an artistic purpose.  They make good reference photos for art, especially when it's too cold to sit outside and draw in person!

I started with a sketch of the main elements in the scene, and began adding in areas of color.

The photo was taken just before 6" of snow fell, so I wanted to get the white-gray appearance of the sky. 

I turned the pencil on its side to create a soft, uniform area of color for the snow clouds.

With the sky and the icy creek laid in, I began adding detail to the woods - the weeds & grasses on the forest floor, the distant trees, and the details in the tree trunk on the left.

I stepped back to study the composition, and felt it needed more vitality on the right hand side.

I added in the wobbly tree on the right, and am happy with the sketch. 

As the artist, you get to decide what you include in a drawing.  You can edit out the parts you don't like and add in bits you prefer. Choosing to draw the parts of a scene that inspire and excite you is more fun, and creates a better drawing.

Happy Creating!

Choosing the Right Colors

I bought myself a new set of Derwent Drawing Pencils.  The natural colors and high quality are what drew me to them (and the fact they were on sale).  I've been looking for more colors from nature.  I always seem to reach for colors that aren't in my box of pencils.

The day they arrived, I got out white and tan paper and swatched the set, noting in my mind where I had seen each color out in nature: the earthy red of the blueberry twigs, the olive green of winter grass, and the sage green of lichens on fallen branches.  Everywhere I walked, I saw the colors of these pencils repeated in nature.

Overall, these colors are more muted than most of my colored pencils. 

Here's a close up photo of blueberry twigs, a lovely match for the autumn red pencil.

And here's my sketch of the twig and some opossum tracks in the snow.

Opossum tracks always charm me with the little thumb sticking out at an odd angle.

I stopped by my neighbor's house, and got to meet her charming horse, Axle.

The earth tones --woodland, chocolate, apricot & ruby earth-- mixed with white and black expressed the wintry scene and beautiful Axle.

When I can't find the exact right match for a color in my kit, I look for two or more pencils that come close and mix them by coloring one over the other(s).  

Repeat this process until you get the color you're looking for. I mixed Prismacolors in poppy red, Tuscan red, Crimson red & white to try to match Derwent's autumn red (the color at the very bottom). 

When you feel like you want to create but don't have the energy or time for a full drawing, swatching the colors you see is a great exercise.  Simply pick a couple of colors you see around you or in a photo, and try to replicate them with your colored pencils.  

A perfect match is not the goal! 

Exploring is.  

Experimenting with colors will move you ahead in your observational drawing skills.  You will begin to notice nuances in the colors you see around you.

Happy Creating!