Nature Journal Sketches from Vacation

Leaving the arctic cold at home and flying to Florida's warmth brought opportunities to see fresh foliage and wildlife.  

I snapped lots of photos while there.  Back at home, I have enjoyed recording the experience in my nature journal.

It's been uplifting to see the bright colors and vibrancy in these Florida scenes. 

Sketching from our vacation photos gives us opportunities to relive a favorite experience and to practice making art. I hope you'll dig out some favorite photos of warmer times and make some art with them.

Happy Creating!

A Trip to the Beach

I recently escaped winter on a trip to Florida.

I took lots of photos, and sketched while I was on the beach.

When I returned home, I extended my travel experience by painting from some of my photos.

I laid out each painting with a few pencil marks, then painted the sky, with large washes first, blotting the wet paint with a paper towel to create clouds.  After the first washes dried, I added shadows to the sky and clouds.  

I worked on both of these little paintings at the same time, practicing my painting on the vertical version, and then repeating each step on the horizontal layout.

When the paint was dry in the sky, I began laying in washes for the ocean and waves, avoiding painting the white foamy areas.  When each layer was dry, I added another layer, building up colors and complexity.  I finished with layers of earthy brown beach sand.

The wet sand along the shore was darker.

After all of the paint had dried, I added some cloud reflections on the water with a white gel pen and white acrylic ink applied with a dip pen.  Above are the tools I used.

I propped up the finished paintings with a few seashells on my art table to remind me of the Florida sunshine.

I hope you'll dig out some old vacation photos and create art from them.  It's a lovely way to extend the joy of a getaway.

Happy Creating!

Florida Travel Journal

The beautiful thing about a travel journal is that it is a place to quickly record your observations and sketches.  There's no expectation that you will create finished or "perfect" artworks.  You are free to experiment.

These are some of my quick sketches and watercolor explorations from our trip to Florida.

This pencil sketch of a sea turtle will always remind me of the magical experience of watching an adult sea turtle swim along the beach with apparent ease in the heavy surf.

A loose gesture of the sea oats brings back the feeling of the wind and sun on my face.

And I can just hear the sound of seashells tinkling in my hand when I collected this gathering of shells to paint.

I was sketching the dunes backing the beach, and a man sat down right in my composition.  So I included him in the scene.

Bird observations remind me of how excited I was to witness Magnificent Frigate Birds soaring over the shoreline.

When I glance at this simple kelp drawing, I can just hear the surf pounding and feel the grit of the sand between my toes.

The salt air caused this watercolor sketch to dry with an interesting texture. The salt attracted the moisture in the paints, creating clumps of color.

I encourage you to take a sketchbook with you on your travels, even if those travels are to a local park. 

The act of making sketches cements the memories of the visit in your mind, and you'll have a hand-made memory book to revisit long after you return home.

Happy 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!

Painting a Florida Sunset

On a trip to Florida, I took lots of photos.  Part of the delight of travel is thumbing back through your photos and remembering the fun you had.  You can deepen your travel experiences by painting some of your favorite scenes.

This is the sunrise that inspired my painting.

One way to approach something as complex as this sunset scene is to create an artwork inspired by the photo rather than a photorealistic copy.

I started with an Arches cold press watercolor block, and wet the surface with a mop brush dunked in clear water. 

I loaded my brush with a mixture of  French Ultramarine Blue mixed & Phthalo Blue, and touched it to the wet paper, letting the paints bloom and spread.  This technique is called wet in wet.

I quickly added in Permanent Blue Violet with the blues. Then Permanent Rose.  I touched in Cadmium Yellow mixed with Cadmium Red to create the orange clouds, and Cadmium Yellow for the bright yellow areas near the horizon.  

I used Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre at the bottom of the scene, where the ocean clouds were.

Then I left the first layer to dry completely.

I worked in more layers of French Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue and Permanent Blue Violet up towards the top of the sky, trying to create areas of shadowed clouds behind the brighter, rosier clouds. 

I carefully softened the edges of most of the clouds, preventing the hard lines that come when the paint dries without feathering.

I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons to pop a little more contrast into some of the clouds. 

 When you're painting with color compliments right next to each other like the purple and yellow here, you have to be very careful not to let the two colors mix.  They contrast beautifully next to each other, but when they mix together, they create muddy brown.

Neocolor II crayons are opaque, and they move and blend when you touch them with a wet brush.  They gave me more control, and were ideal for my project.

I continued adding more details, more layers, and richer colors,

working my way down to the dark clouds sitting on the ocean (at the bottom of the scene)

A few more details, a few more marks with the Neocolor II watercolor crayons, and it was ready to be signed and dated.

I decided to leave out surface level details like the palm trees.  I wanted the focus to be on the sky itself.

Remember, you are the artist.  You get to pick what you want to paint and how you want to portray it!

I hope you'll look through your photos and find something that calls out to you to be painted or sketched.  

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.  All rights reserved.

Travel Journal: Florida

I escaped to Florida this winter, and took my travel journal and a small art kit along with me.

A vacation is a great time to play with your art supplies!

You can record the little details of your trip, and later you'll have a memory book to look back on.

I used a sketchbook I had taken on a previous trip to Florida.  You can see that entry here.

I began with rough sketches of the waterbirds

Each sketch you make helps you to see your subject -- here a shorebird -- better and to draw it more accurately.

We encountered Magnificent Frigatebirds on our trip.  Amazing masters of riding air currents, they remain aloft for days and months at a time.  You can see how taken I was by these massive birds -- I made a lot of sketches of them!

The dune grasses bent by the ocean breezes created lovely shapes and graceful curves.

Peering over the crest of the dune, I found a wild sunflower blooming -- in January!

The ocean carries a variety of interesting flotsam and jetsam, to the beach.  This coconut and seaweed sprig washed up on the shore.  

The first few days of our trip were overcast and windy, and you can see the gray sky in this watercolor sketch.

Sometimes, the tiniest things tell the story of the beauty of the beach.

This beach was decked with a variety of intricate seashells and driftwood. 

Are you planning any travel?  I hope you take along a journal and a few art supplies!

Happy creating! 

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.