Nature Journal Update

Over the last few weeks, I've been getting out on hikes and finding spots to sit and sketch wintry scenes like the one above of a young sycamore tree against an evergreen down by a snowy lake.

Have you ever noticed how your fastest drawings are often the ones you like the best?

On hikes in the park with David, my body warms up while moving. When we stop for a break, I find something small or simple to sketch.  Soon enough, it's time to get back to hiking, but the little breaks give me just enough time to make a quick drawing.  I love these quick ones as they show the energy of discovery.

When it's truly cold, I sit inside by the birdfeeder and make quick sketches of the visitors. I hurriedly drew the chickadee at the top right from observing a live bird.  Frustrated when the chickadee flew away, I looked up a photo online and made a watercolor sketch at the bottom left from that reference.

Most recently, I found a tiny mud coccoon inside a hollowed out acorn -- probably the work of a mud dauber wasp in the warmer months.  I made several drawings of the cozy little bug home.

I took a photo of the coccoon acorn with some of the other empty nut hulls in the shelter where we took our mid-hike snack break.

What are you finding to draw in your nature journal? Do you prefer drawing big-picture landscapes or smaller details?  Plants? Animals? What's your favorite thing in nature to draw these days?

I hope you take some time to sketch your favorite things!

Happy Creating!

The Love of Tiny Things in Nature

I find myself drawn to the tiny things in nature like small flowers, acorns, insects, & fungi. 

I spotted these beautiful shelf fungi on a recent walk through the Widlflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park and snapped photos with my phone.

Back in the studio, I made a light pencil sketch on a piece of watercolor paper, using the photo above for a reference.  I added layers of washes.  After the first washes were dry, I added some pen and ink marks with my fountain pen

I added more watercolor details using a small round brush.  And, I used a bit of white gouache for highlights here and there.

I finished the 5"x 7" painting with a few colored pencil details.

Realizing that tiny things inspire me helps me to focus my art on the things I love.  

I enjoy hiking in the park, snapping reference photos.  The paintings I make back at home feel like a celebration of my time in nature.  They capture a memory of a place I love.

What do you love?  What inspires you? 

I hope you paint or sketch it to deepen your enjoyment of it.

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!

Sketch of a Midden

Sometimes on a hike, I don't have time to sketch as I go.  We were outrunning a windstorm when I spotted this log with remnants of a squirrel's dinner. So, I snapped a quick photo with my phone.

Back in the studio, I sketched the scene with my fountain pen, and added washes of watercolor.

Naturalists call this pile of nut shells a midden.  I've always loved that name and the knowledge that some small creature was eating a meal right on top of this log.  It makes me feel closer to my wild relations when I get insights into their everyday lives like this.

What in nature appeals to you?  What do you love to find out on a hike?  I hope you jot a note and make a sketch in your nature journal.

Happy Creating!

Gray Day Hike & Sketch

A hike down to Raccoon Lake seemed routine until a flock of Canada Geese soared overhead, bugling.  I snapped a photo to use as a reference, and then sketched the scene with a waterproof black pen.

I touched in a few washes with watercolor, glad that the temperature was in the 40's and the paint didn't freeze on the paper.

Here's the reference photo.  I zoomed in on the birds to see the details in the birds' flying postures.

It's amazing to me how wild animals can make a dull scene instantly alive and beautiful.

I hope you get a chance to sketch in nature.  It's a beautiful way to connect with our wild relations.

Happy Creating!

Stories in an Autumn Nature Journal

The beauty of a nature journal is that you can tuck it into a bag and tote it with you on a hike or picnic.  You can make sketches that tell a story, even if you don't feel that they're great drawings.

I was sketching this leaf on a hike with my husband, enjoying sitting at a picnic table under a forest of tall oak trees, when we started to notice large acorns dropping all around us.  Each nut hit with a sharp Thwack!

Concerned that the next acorn might clock us on the noggin, we resumed our hike, backtracking to an open field we had passed.  We found a bench at the edge of the field, where we sat and I sketched and jotted down the story of our hike.

The next morning, I took hot tea outside on a cool morning and watched the sun rise over the neighbor's pasture.  I made notes of the sounds I heard and sketched a small part of the sunrise scene.

I don't consider any of these drawings to be great drawings, but I love them because each one tells the story of a moment in nature. I can return to them and remember my hike with my husband, or the bold contrasts of backlit apple trees in an October sunrise.

This stillness in nature feeds my soul, and adding color and words to the experience only deepens it.

I hope you get a chance to sketch a bit of nature this week and add the words of your own story.

Happy Creating!

A Watercolor Sketch Expedition on Independence Day Weekend

Saturday morning over the holiday weekend, I stuffed a knapsack full of watercolor supplies, and trekked down a favorite path.

I found a cluster of Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) blooming along the trail, and set up my folding chair & opened my watercolor notebook to start a watercolor sketch.  

Realizing that I had forgotten to bring a cup to wash my brushes out in, I picked up a fallen leaf from a Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata), and used that instead. 

It worked!  I set to work simply sketching the gorgeous crimson blooms and plants, & playing with the variations of color I noticed on the sun-splashed leaves.

It felt so relaxing to sit & paint, immersed in the sounds of nature. Chipmunks chirped & skittered across the path nearby. Wood Thrushes and Black-Capped Chickadees sang from deep in the woods. And the breeze tousled the treetops.  

I was surprised when suddenly I heard a whirring sound and looked up to see a female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird dodging rapidly among the Bee Balm blossoms.  

I watched, knowing that the view would last only a moment & tried to absorb as many details about the little bird that I could.  I painted her quickly.

I hiked back to my truck and returned home for lunch.  

Later that day, I took my art backpack out to the fence along my neighbor's cow pasture to paint.

And I created the watercolor sketch below.  I used a white Prismacolor colored pencil to add highlights to the trees along the horizon, and used Inktense watercolor pencils to create the details of the fence and grasses.

And I finished up my Watercolor Sketch Expedition with the view below of a hilltop field below our home.

I hope this summer affords you the freedom to get outdoors with your art supplies and create in nature!

Spring Nature Journal Update

One of the lovely things about keeping a nature journal is that you get to track the progress of trees leafing out, wildflowers blooming, and migratory birds returning and nesting.  

If you look closely at the drawing below, you can see a Canada Goose sitting on her nest.  

Spring has been busy, and I haven't journaled as much as I usually do.  But I take opportunities when they arise. David & I paddled the Raccoon Creek State Park lake in a canoe recently, and I took my journal aboard.  Quick gestures were all I could capture, but that helped to free me up to observe & draw.

Back on the trail a few days later, the familiar faces of Mayapples on the forest floor charmed me.

I find that in making simple sketches of Mayflowers and Canada Geese, I pause, connect with Creation, and feel calm.  I always come away more grateful and relaxed.

I hope you get the opportunity to sit and feel the healing power of nature in this way.  The world is bursting with new life!

The November Woods

I've been inspired by artist Cathy Johnson, who teaches me to simplify what I see in nature when I sketch.  She also suggests taking a minimalist art kit into nature. Rather than haul my whole box of 48 Prismacolor colored pencils along with my nature journal and Micron pens, I looked at the day and the land around me, and grabbed 5 pencils to tuck in my coat pocket.  Indigo, sepia, dark brown, burnt sienna, and Tuscan red were all I needed to add color to my Micron pen drawings.

When we got to the backpacking shelters at the midpoint of our hike, I pulled out my journal and captured a sense of the day.  It felt freeing to simplify my color pallet, and to draw the forest rather than every individual tree.  It's a drawing, not a photograph, I remind myself! 

A Fall Hike & Paint Day

 Last week I found a few quiet hours to slip out to the woods, explore a new trail in Raccoon Creek State Park, and splash some Autumn color into my nature journal.  What a restorative experience!

Pen & Ink Nature Sketches

I've been playing with Micron pens and an ink brush in my nature journal, following the contours of the lush late summer vegetation. Beauty in abundance waits to be captured outside. 

Whenever you draw, you connect with the energy of your subject.  Right now, we could all use more of the peace that nature offers.

A Stormy Start to a New Journal

Starting a new nature journal can feel like starting a journey of infinite possibilities, but also can feel like a perfect, blank book that you don't want to make the first mistake in.  Thursday afternoon, David and I went out on a hike and I took a brand new nature journal with me. About 2 miles in, we found ourselves slogging through a summer rain shower.  By the time we made it back to the Adirondack shelters in the park, we were soaked to the bone, and my brand new nature journal was no longer crisp and fresh, but soggy-edged and mud-splashed.  Somehow, this felt like the best of both worlds -- still open to infinite possibilities, but also not so precious that I couldn't make mistakes.  A great start.

Finished 3 Fabulous Feathers!

I couldn't be more delighted with my new Schmincke watercolors.  Here's the finished study of a Crow feather, an Owl (?) feather and a Downy Woodpecker feather.  Of course, the real feathers that I found out on hikes and around my farm weren't purple and blue, but I decided to take a colorist's approach to the black, earth-toned and black-and-white, feathers, respectively.