Sketching from a Canoe

Out on the lake in Raccoon Creek State Park, David and I enjoyed a quiet afternoon paddle.  The autumn colors were warm and rich.  We hadn't gone far before I saw a pumpkin-colored tree to sketch in my nature journal.

A white-barked tree next to the dark-trunked maple created a beautiful set of contrasts.  You can see the pair of trees in the distance on the right side of the photo above.

 Floating, lost in the process of recording the beauty I saw put me in a tranquil mood.  Whenever I draw a tree, I connect with that tree's beauty and energy.   Like a meditation, following the lines in the branches with my pencil slows me down and makes me feel peaceful.  It's one of my favorite anti-anxiety practices.  

Doesn't matter how the final drawing turns out, the process of making it is good self-care for me.  Maybe it's good for you, too?  

Find something in nature you are fascinated with.  Then let your eyes lavish attention on the parts you love while your pencil slowly follows along.  

You can take glimpses at your paper to help your marks line up in the right places, but keep your eyes mostly on what you're drawing.  Remember, it's the process not the drawing that's important for this activity.  

This technique will slow you down and connect you with nature.  And delightfully, it connects your eye and hand, building your drawing skills.  I invite you to give it a try!

Happy Creating! 

Inkcap Mushroom

Inside this hollow tree, I spotted the most charming inkcap mushroom.  Can you see it?

 

Here's a close-up.

I couldn't resist painting both the tree trunk and the little mushroom in my concertina nature journal (original blog post on that journal here).  

Here's the process on painting the mushroom, starting with a pencil sketch.

Next, I started laying in washes.

I worked in the background first, using burnt Sienna, raw umber, burnt umber and burnt umber mixed with ultramarine blue.  The yellow is Winsor lemon mixed with raw umber.

After laying in the background, I used a mix of ultramarine blue and burnt umber to make light gray. It was fun to make wiggly brush strokes for the shaggy texture of the mushroom cap.

Here's a look at the palette I was using. 

I touched up some details in the mushroom and darkened the background on the right with a wash of burnt umber and ultramarine blue.

I toned down the yellow leaf on the bottom left with a wash of burnt Sienna and raw umber to keep it from distracting from the focal point of the mushroom.

Finally, I added a bit of writing.  Here's the finished page in my concertina sketchbook.

If you feel inspired by these reference photos, I hope you will draw or paint your own version!

Happy Creating!

A Tiny Autumn Landscape

Out on a hike recently, I snapped this photo of a favorite woodland stream. 

Just the sort of scene that captures the beauty of Autumn, I decided it fit right into my new watercolor nature journal. 

The page spread began with a simple pencil sketch, then a wet-in-wet ultramarine blue sky, and the reflection of the sky in the water.

Azo yellow formed the midground of golden beech leaves, and I touched in burnt Sienna and ultramarine blue while the paint was wet for the oak leaves and shadowy hills in the background.

I slowly added more detail, leaving the two white sycamore trees & their reflections for last.

A few final details along the shoreline and the woodland tree trunks, and it was done.

I love the way that a small watercolor painting helps the artist to simplify the scene and captures the day.

Wishing you Happy Creating!

Starting a New Autumn Nature Journal

I made a new concertina sketchbook out of 300# Stonehenge watercolor paper and set of hiking on a gorgeous autumn day.  It wasn't long before I found this lovely scene.

A quick pencil sketch was the start.

A few washes of color -- Azo yellow, Burnt Sienna, a Phthalo blue sky -- expressed the gist of the scene.  I discovered that mixing Azo yellow and permanent rose creates a gorgeous vermilion color, perfect for maple foliage.

Burnt Sienna mixed with French ultramarine blue made a cool gray for the oak tree trunk and limbs.

Working from general to specific, larger blocks of color to leaf and twig shapes, the scene takes shape.  Always let each watercolor wash dry before adding another layer, or it will simply diffuse into the wet paint.

Finally, a few touches with an ink pen, and the cover is finished.

I like the way looking up from below the oak tree's roots gives the feeling of being a small creature in nature.   That's a theme I'm interested in exploring -- being tiny in nature.  I find it comforting.

What catches your eye outdoors right now?

What would you like to draw or paint? 

What if you kept a list tucked within easy reach so that when you get the time for a quick sketch, you know what to focus on?

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling: Autumn Leaf Study in Gouache

An autumn walk can turn up a wealth of colorful fallen leaves.  I find myself returning from each hike with a handful of beauty.  This particular maple leaf, with its red, green and yellow splotches seemed the perfect subject for a gouache painting.

Gouache is much like watercolor, but it's opaque, so you can paint contrasting colors over one another, and light colors over darker ones.

I began this painting with an ink sketch of the leaf in my nature journal. I chose tubes of colors to match and began painting the larger swaths of red, painting them in. As I painted, I noticed the nuanced darker and lighter red areas, and added them. (Paints used = Quinacridone Rose, Quinacridone Red and Alizarin Crimson.)

Finally, I got down to all the detailed veins, spots and blobs of different colors. (Chrome Yellow Hue, Sap Green, & Burnt Umber. The shadow colors used were Ultramarine Blue & Alizarin Crimson.)

I love details! The places an insect chewed the leaf, the spots where the green contrasts brightly against the red, and the lovely little veins that show through catch my attention and delight me.

Here's the final leaf painting.  I especially love working from life -- the leaf -- rather than a photograph of the leaf.  There's something compelling about nature in the present moment.  Though I take loads of photos, I'm far more likely to sketch and paint actual natural treasures in front of me.

What do you love to look at?  Have you ever sketched it? You could record the details about your favorite things that make them special to you with a simple sketch -- or two, or more!

Happy Creating!

Autumn Nature Journal: Painting Leaves

This is the time of year I find myself stopping in my tracks on my daily walks to pick up an acorn or an especially gorgeous leaf.  I can't help myself!

Back in my studio, I choose a treasure or two to sketch.  This particular day, I found a lovely Cottonwood leaf and an acorn. Painting the crimson colors around the yellow veins in the leaf was tricky.  It became a sort of meditation, and all else left my mind.

 I used a new set of watercolors, a Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolour sketcher's set.  I wanted to get aquainted with mixing these colors before I use them in an upcoming watercolor class I'm teaching.

I added a shadow to the leaf, a few comments in the margins about little details I noticed, and the page is done.

I love painting and sketching little bits of nature, and delight in the way they can tell the story of a season as well as a larger scene.

Autumn Nature Journal

I traveled recently to a wedding, and had a few hours of time before the ceremony. I took my nature journal for a stroll around the hotel grounds.  

The hotel was bordered by an undeveloped meadow with old orchard trees, creating space for an impressive array of native wildflowers -- from familiar goldenrods and white clover to Virginia Mountain Mint, an icy, peppermint-scented plant that makes me feel as though I've been swept away to the Arctic wilderness when I smell it.

Here's the list of plants I found:

wild strawberries

coneflowers( Rudbeckia)

Dogwood red osier?

Goldenrod

St. John's wort

Wild dogbane

Shaggy mane mushroom

Queen Anne's Lace

Mountain mint

Horse Gentian (honeysuckle family)

White clover

Cottonwood

Pear trees

crabapple trees

apple trees

Liatris?

Thistle

Wild grape

Privet

Red oak

New england aster

Willow

I sketched as I went, and found a windblown cottonwood twig with golden leaves to take back to our hotel room and draw.

There's nothing so grounding to me as drawing plants. I notice as many details as I can and sketch them in.  The dance between using two or three different shades of yellow colored pencils to create the hues to match the cottonwood leaves feels a little like a workout.  When it's done, there's a quiet satisfaction that rises up.

Now when I look back, I see little reminders of our time away from home.  I feel grateful to the wildflowers, trees, and geese for making me feel connected to nature. 

Nature Journal: The First Colors of Autumn

The Autumn colors have begun to come in. I spent an hour with a grand old Sugar Maple tree recently, recording the sights and sounds of the season in my nature journal.

I'm reading Kristin Link's new book, Discover the Art of Field Sketching.  Kristin has inspired me to sit with my nature journal and record what I see, hear, & smell in the moment as I make sketches.  It's a simple & grounding process that brings a page alive when you read it later.

 

I hope you get a chance soon to capture the present moment in your nature journal!

A Morning Hike with my Nature Journal

On a recent hike in Raccoon Creek State Park, I stopped to sketch a favorite sycamore tree.  The autumn light filtering through the forest caught on the white bark of the sycamore, setting it apart from the dark, shadowy hillside beyond.

Just 15 minutes of sketching deepened my experience of walking in the woods.

The day before, I had been helping David to photograph our friend Joe's artwork.  Looking at my drawing, I can see the inspiration Joe's work imparted.  I admire the way he captures the life in a tree, and the way he sets off a subject by sketching in the shadows behind it.  

Without being conscious of my decisions, I was drawn to sketch the shapes the sycamore tree  highlighted by the dark shadows behind it.

I now realize that I had what Julia Cameron calls an Artist's Date on the day I helped with David's photography project.  And, Joe's artwork directly inspired and improved my artwork.

Anytime we take ourselves out to see something that fascinates us, to see another person's artwork, or to experience beauty in some way, the encounter affects our creativity.  We may feel inspired.  We might create in a new way, or even take on new subjects.  I find that it's always worth the effort of fitting an artist's date into my life.

What artwork or beauty would you like to see?  I hope you put it on your schedule and have an artist's date of your own!

Drawing My Favorite Things

I have two Black Cherry trees on my hill that I love to look at and draw in any season.  Sometimes, when I go out with my nature journal, I try to find "something new and interesting" to draw, as if drawing old favorites is bad or wrong.  My Hobgoblin (inner critic) shouts that these favorite subjects are unimportant, and overdrawn.

Yet, often artists develop their craft by working in a series, taking one subject and drawing it in different seasons, in different light, with different materials, etc.

I recently read some wisdom from artist Louise Fletcher, who reminded me that the things we love are important to our art, even though other people might not appreciate them and so we feel they are unimportant too.  

We often downplay the beloved subjects our muse is just begging us to draw or paint. For me, it's scraggly weeds, little treasures like acorns and leaves, and these two Black Cherry trees.

Emboldened by Louise Fletcher, I sat in the grass Saturday and let myself revel in the beauty of these tree friends.

I used only a black colored pencil, studying the wriggly branches and the light and shadow in the scene.  A flock of starlings swooped through, so I included them in the drawing to express this season of flying leaves and migrating birds.

Simply sketching a favorite scene like this one brings me joy. As I draw, I observe closely the way the tree limbs twist and branch, the way the leaves flutter on the wind, and the shapes and shadows of the brush around the trunks.

 What do you love that you may have overlooked as being unimportant?  I hope your favorite subjects get to be the center of your creativity!

Nature Journal Update: Colored Pencil Drawings

Here's a flip-through of some recent nature journal pages, from hikes in the woods (above) to sitting at the breakfast table (below).

What we draw we connect with. How could I be anxious when I am connecting with my sweet, snoozing cat?

Nature journals are great for recording discoveries -- like the page above remarking on my discovery of a place on Hawk's Hill that reminds me of a favorite place I used to sketch years ago.

I hope you take the time to make some sketches and written observations in your nature journal!

Happy Creating!