Early Spring Nature Journaling

I recently loaded up a knapsack with some colored pencils and my nature journal and hiked to a local waterfall to sketch.  

There's nothing like sitting outside and drawing the beauty of nature.

  I enjoy drawing from reference photos, but prefer observing the details in nature in person as I sketch.  I can react to the parts of the scene that really inspire me.

After an hour sitting on a rock on a chilly afternoon, I decided to snap a photo and finish the last details in my studio.

When I got back to my studio, I noticed my sketch needed more contrast.

Sometimes it's hard to discern the areas that are darker or brighter when you're looking at a color photo.  

I converted my reference photo to black-and-white to make the values more obvious.

I added a bit more contrast between the water and the rocks around it.

I noticed I had made the waterfall too broad, so I narrowed it down a bit and added more bright values with a white Posca paint pen.

Here's the final page spread in my nature journal.

The beauty of drawing outdoors is that you get to be still and calm in nature, hearing the thundering of a waterfall or the music of songbirds as you create.  

Time stills as you observe the beauty of nature around you.  

When you're done, you have a sketch that will remind you of your experience every time you flip to that page.

I hope you find a quiet spot in nature where you can relax and sketch.

Happy Creating!

Late October Nature Walk

What a beautiful day for a walk in the park!  David and I hiked down a familiar trail. As usual this time of year, I was drawn to fallen leaves, to finding one with beautiful color, & interesting details.

I didn't have the time to create a longer, more finished drawing, so I decided to simply sketch the hickory leaf with a black colored pencil. How satisfying to map out the stem and follow the curves and toothed edges of each leaflet.  

I especially love the nibbled parts and the bug holes. They give the drawing a sense of reality and individuality.  These broken bits are a record of the leaf's growing season and tell its story. 

The trail was gorgeous on this windy day -- I soaked in the last flush of autumn color as we head into November.

Here's a sycamore leaf for you to draw if you like, complete with bug-chewed holes and other interesting spots!

You can also take a walk wherever you are and collect a few small natural items to draw. Find a park bench or other comfortable spot to sit down and really look at your items.  As you sketch, you can look at the details that tell its life story.

Happy Creating!

Planner Pages: Summer Blooms!

After taking a watercolor botanical class with Wendy Solganik of Willa Wanders (https://www.willawanders.com/), I felt inspired to decorate my weekly planner with roses, hearts and swirls.

It doesn't take much to add color & beauty to a dull weekly planner!  It's also a great way to give yourself room to doodle.  I find it's a low stress place to create because no one sees it but me most of the time.

What are some low-stress ways you add art-making to your life? I invite you to make a list of ideas and start trying them.

Happy Creating!

A Mixed Media Face with the Unexpected Gypsy

As one of the Patreons of the British artist Wendy Robinson, The Unexpected Gypsy, we get monthly videos showing us how Wendy creates her art step-by-step.

They're instructive and inspiring, and feel like a cozy visit with The Unexpected Gypsy herself.  You can find out more about The Unexpected Gypsy's Patreon, follow this link:

patreon.com/theunexpectedgypsy

I created this face by following along with Wendy's latest video.  She started the process with a loose watercolor sketch.

We added in skin tones and shadows.

Deepened some of the shadows,

and layered on more skin tones.

We let our faces dry, and began adding Prismacolor colored pencils to define the features.

Having the control of a sharpened colored pencil allowed me to fix problems I had with the tip of this imaginary woman's nose.

The Prismacolors were easy to blend.

Creating rich, layered colors, like the complexities of the lips.

Taking your time with a project like this allows you to relax into the process.

And when you're done, you've expressed a part of yourself.  You can give your person a name, and ask them if they have any messages to share with you.

I hope you give this process a try!

Happy creating!

Copyright 2024 Betsy Bangley.  All rights reserved.

More Burnishing with Colored Pencils

Artists often work in a series, coming up with an idea, then tinkering with different versions of the idea.  This allows them to experiment freely without concern for making any one iteration "perfect" or even "pretty."

My burnishing practice led me to experiment a bit more.  I wanted to reduce the heaviness of the heart outline and explore breaking the boundary of the inner heart and the outer space with squiggly lines.

I used a larger, sturdier piece of paper this time -- tan, 184 pound, mixed media paper.

Here's the progression of the project from start to finish.

After laying in a variety of pinks, magenta, crimson, scarlet and a dash of lavender within the heart, I began burnishing, pressing down hard on the colored pencil and creating a rich area of color. 

Above is burnishing with a magenta pencil.  Each step mixes the colors and tips the balance in the favor of the last color layered on.

I wanted to connect the interior of the heart with the outer space with these energy lines.  Eventually, I added active lines to the interior of the heart, too.

White colored pencil added over the layers of magenta, crimson, scarlet and pink brightened these areas to create a highlight, and made the heart more round and plump.

Burnishing with a white pencil blends the colors below as it lightens them.

If I continue with this series, I would like to experiment with making the interior swirls and swoops more pronounced.

I hope you take time to experiment with burnishing.  Just playing around can lead to more ideas for projects, and pretty soon you're on your way to creating 

Kale by Sunset Light

One recent evening, after a day of talking with lots of people, I was "peopled out." Needing a reset, I sat at my art worktable and gazed out the window to my vegetable garden.  

A curly kale plant caught the late day light, and I reached for my gouache paints to express the beauty of the sun glowing through the kale leaves.

I made a very rough pencil sketch of leaf positions, and started painting.

Gouache dries so quickly, I could paint the main leaves, then add details over top, like veins & highlights.

The colors I used were: Cadmium Yellow Pale, Hansa Yellow, Phthalo Blue, Pyrrol Red, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre, & Zinc White.

I painted on Saunders Waterford watercolor paper (cream, NOT surface, 140#) from St. Cuthberts Mill

I find the high contrast light to dark areas please my artist's eye. Little details like this are good to know about yourself.  What are your favorite things to paint or draw?  Do you have favorite lighting or colors?  

Next time you're waiting in line or taking a walk, look around and see what catches your eye.  Practicing seeing like this sets you up to be ready to sketch or paint because you know what you enjoy.

I hope you find time this week for some creative self care.  Give yourself the gift of time tucked away to yourself, playing with your art supplies.  

Happy Creating!

Cloud Study

After painting the lake from a canoe (See my post: Nature Journaling from a Canoe), I was taken by the way I could paint fluffy summer clouds decking a brilliant blue sky, and so I made this study using white gouache and phthalo blue watercolor paints.

I sat on my front porch and watched the sky, painting the clouds I saw floating by.  Of course, the clouds were constantly moving and changing, so I let the clouds morph on the paper, too. 

Making studies is a wonderful way to explore a part of the landscape, to practice your painting or drawing skills, and to simply relax.  There's no pressure to make a "pretty" picture, because you  know you're just making a study.  You're not creating a composition, just exploring and playing.

What catches your eye today?  Your cat's ear, a zinnia bloom, a fresh apple in a bowl on the kitchen counter -- make a study of it!  

Studies and sketches are a great way to warm up and get your creativity flowing.

Happy creating!

Travel Journal Art Kit

Here's the final collection of supplies I chose to travel to England with:

• A Stillman & Birn Mixed Media Sketchbook

• A Winsor & Newton Travel Watercolor kit (Lemon Yellow Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red Hue, Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue, Viridian, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Chinese White).  I use this tiny kit a lot at home!  It packs a wide variety of colors into a small box.  You can see the array of colors I mixed in "Discover New Possibilities with Color Swatching!"



• An Altoids Tin Palette with Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Permanent Blue Violet & Permanent Rose.  It's tricky to mix a rich, vibrant violet, and I love the rosy color of Permanent Rose. Also, I found I was using so much Lemon Yellow Hue that I emptied the well and had to refill it.  Since I had the extra space, I added Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue as a back-up.
• Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils, 36 colors
• A selection of Derwent Inktense Colored Pencils for added pop.
• A Faber-Castell Pencil Sharpener.
• A Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser
• A gum eraser
• Binder clips for clipping book pages open,
• A small sponge, a rag and a piece of paper towel for blotting.
• A Water cup for rinsing brushes,
• A Water spray bottle to wet paint palettes,
• Several fine point waterproof black pens: Faber-Castell Pitt pens, Winsor & Newton, and one by Bic.
• A mechanical pencil (Bic Velocity #2, 0.9),
• A Conte a Paris 2B graphite pencil,
• A Pentel India Ink Brush Pen with refill, &
• Sakura Water Brush Pens in 3 sizes.

I fit the little items into a small makeup case I found at my local Goodwill Thrift Store for a dollar, and stuffed it all into my carry-on backpack, ready for adventure!

It was thrilling testing out supplies, planning and preparing for this voyage.  And I find that having a small kit of materials makes it easier to create, even when I'm at home.  It prevents overwhelm in searching for the "perfect" material, as there is no such thing as perfect in real life and art.

What is your minimum kit of supplies?  Even if you don't have plans for a getaway, why not put together a grab-&-go kit that you can stuff in a backpack or purse for mini sketch expeditions?!

I hope you make an Adventure Kit & put it to use this week!