Bluebird Nature Journal Update: Autumn Colors

Here's a glimpse of my day off to hike the woods and sketch.  I traveled in my EV Bluebird to Raccoon Creek State Park, where I added another entry into my Bluebird Nature Journal.  You can read the backstory to this journal in this post: 

https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/2024/11/turning-my-art-into-stickers.html

Above is the accordion fold journal, now halfway filled, and below is the scene I painted.

You can see that I intensified the colors a bit in my painting.  Remember that as an artist, you are not a camera! You may omit parts of the scene, simplify it, or even change the colors as you choose. Let your intuition guide you.

I started with a quick pencil sketch, then splashed in the overcast sky and the colorful foliage around the cabin.  When that dried a bit, I painted the little cabin using a mixture of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.  Touching in a bit of sap green to the roof expressed the moss. 

I used the same blue-brown mixture to paint in the tree trunks.  You can add more burnt sienna to make the mixture more brown, or use more ultramarine to get a steely blue-gray.  It's a very useful combination!

You can create your own journals by cutting a large sheet of paper into long horizontal segments, then folding them to make the page size you like. Large pieces of 140# watercolor paper work well for this. 

I used a 12" x 18" sheet of 140# Canson XL watercolor paper to make the Bluebird Nature Journal, cutting it in half lengthwise to make two elongated strips.  I folded each strip in half, then into quarters and glued two ends of the accordion folded strips together to make it extra long. I made covers out of blue mat board and glued them to each end.

I hope you give this journal-making technique a try and fill it with your creative explorations!

Happy Creating!

British Isles Tour: The Coast of Northern Ireland

As we sailed from Cobh, Ireland to Liverpool, England, I was inspired by the shoreline that passed by just outside the ship.  I made a very quick pencil sketch in my landscape-oriented watercolor journal, and snapped a murky photo with my cell phone to help me remember the colors in the shoreline.  Later, I finished the sketch with watercolors.

As we traveled north along the coast of Northern Ireland, we passed Mews Lighthouse near Bangor.  I sketched quickly with a pencil, and wrote notes on the colors I saw.  

Later, I added pen lines with a Faber Castell black waterproof marker, and finished the sketch with watercolors.

In the moment, as I sketched the shoreline, it felt impossible to capture the moving scene. Later, looking at the simple landscapes, I love how fresh & alive the pages look to me.  Imperfect art is full of life!

Here's a photo David took of the lighthouse from a slightly different angle.  You can use it to make your own painting of Mews Lighthouse.

Happy Creating! 

Scaling up a Small Sketch

On an evening walk, I snapped this cell phone photo and used it as a reference photo for this mini nature journal spread.

 The scene was so beautiful, and the process of sketching was so fun that I made a larger painting of it, benefitting from my practice with the smaller sketch.

I went through the same process as with the smaller sketch, drawing the scene in pencil first...

...then inking over the pencil lines with waterproof ink.  Once the ink was dry, I erased the pencil with a gum eraser.

Because the painting was larger than the mini journal sketch, I could delve into more detail in the beautifully wobbly tree limbs and the fascinating wildflowers.

I began painting the sky and the distant hills.

I knew from the sketch that I had to be careful to let the first washes dry, and to be precise when laying in the yellows and oranges of the sunset.  If I mixed the sunset orange-yellows into the blue of the sky, I'd end up with muddy browns and greens.  That's not what I wanted!

I laid in rich, warm sunset colors. I used the photo for inspiration, and followed my intuition.

I got lost in the process, and forgot to take photos of the finishing steps, but followed the same process as in the mini journal page.  I just had more space to explore the textures of the field, the tool shed, and the old fenceline.  

I encourage you to look through old sketches and journal pages to find something you'd like to develop into a larger painting.  You could ask yourself these questions:

What do I like the most about the sketch?

What would I do differently in a larger artwork?

What are the trouble spots that I will need to take care with?

What's my favorite part of the process?

Would I like to use a different medium (pastel rather than watercolor, ink instead of pencil, etc.)?

Would I like to make a series of artworks from this sketch, changing one feature each time?

When I used to farm, I noticed that planting the first row of anything took the longest.  Once I had established a process, I fell into a rhythm of working, making subsequent rows easier.  The same principle works in making a series of artworks.

This process has reminded me how much I love to exaggerate nature's colors, and how pleasing to my eye complimentary color schemes are.  The orange sunset against the deep blue hills draws my eye in, and I enjoy the dance of the wiggly tree limbs just left of center.

I hope you give this process a try and discover what you most enjoy about painting and sketching.

Happy Creating!

Working Small to Make Discoveries

When you're drawing or painting the landscape, the vast amount of details can overwhelm a person.  Working small forces you to simplify, and can help you make discoveries about values and composition.

This little painting was done on a postcard 3.5" x 6".

I took a reference photo with my cell phone towards sunset one evening on a walk.  The buttery light of sunset peeking through the rain clouds caught my eye.

I began with a pencil sketch, and added waterproof ink with my Lamy fountain pen.

After erasing the pencil marks, this is the pen and ink sketch.

I began painting the sky, using a white wax crayon as a resist where the sun poked through the clouds.   Azo yellow mixed with yellow ochre created the buttery yellow sky light.  Ultramarine blue with a touch of burnt umber created a lovely cloud color and worked well in the distant hills.

A light wash of yellow ochre for the field grasses and yellow ochre & burnt sienna for the weeds echoed the warm yellow around the sun.

The dark green of the background spruces & pines were mixed with burnt sienna & phthalo blue.

I could have simplified this scene further, but I'm happy with the end result.

I lightened the scene and pumped up the value contrasts a bit compared to the photo, and if I were to paint it again, I might lighten the value of the distant hills a bit to see what effect that had.

After painting the scene in miniature, you can always take what you've learned and create a larger painting using this small work as a guide.

Even if you only create the smaller studies, you learn how to simplify the scene with every little painting.

Happy Creating! 

Watercolor: Autumn in the Field

After all the puttering, swatching, color mixing and playing around, I finally slipped back into painting with a scene that I see nearly every morning. 

Not every painting is successful, but every painting teaches me something.

I'm happy with this painting.  I focused on the parts of the backlit scene that really attracted my eye -- the glowing foliage against the dark trunks, the foreground milkweed plants like lanterns against the shadowed bushes, and the crimson berries and leaves announcing the turn of the season to fall. 

Do you take regular walks around your neighborhood?  Why not look for scenes that appeal to your artist's eye and take a picture, make a drawing or paint the scene.  I hope you find some beauty to inspire you today!

Happy Creating!

Storm Cloud Painting

Whale and dolphin watching gave us the opportunity to take lots of photos of the ever-changing sea and sky.

Outside on decks, the winds typically were 40 knots or more, so painting in the moment wasn't practical.

Inspired by this photo, I made a monochromatic painting in my journal of the scene.

One important part of creating a landscape with the ocean in it is to make sure the horizon is level and straight.  I used painter's tape to tape off the horizon, and painted the stormy sky wet-in-wet.

I used Payne's Grey and French Ultramarine. Limiting the color palette feels freeing to me, as my focus turns to following the values and shapes I see.

 

This photo would be a great source for a series of paintings -- 

a monochromatic painting of the scene, 

a study of just the clouds, 

a study of just the horizon, 

a texture study of the ocean surface, 

& a variety of compositions selected from within this photo.

What would you like to create from this photo?

I hope you'll take the opportunity to paint, draw or collage with this image and share your art in the comments below.

Happy Creating!

Fall Foliage with Watercolors

 

Autumn has arrived at my home on Hawk's Hill, and I recently spent a morning painting the first splashes of color adorning our Grandmother Sugar Maple tree.  This ancient tree brings beauty to our lives in any season, but particularly this time of year.

My recent lessons with Pittsburgh artist Yelena Lamm taught me so much about how to approach painting landscapes, how to control edges, and how to see colors.  What a pleasure to dive into painting this scene with a new focus and new skills!  Many thanks to Yelena for her instruction and the inspiration it brought me.

Autumn is a great time to take a class and pick up new skills.  Art classes are a terrific way to bring focus to your art practice and to gain momentum -- and to connect with other artists.  

Click here for a link to my upcoming classes. I hope you'll join me for one!

Watercolor Lessons with Yelena Lamm

I've long admired Pittsburgh area painter Yelena Lamm, and recently I've been taking watercolor painting lessons from her.  I want to learn how to paint with the intense, fresh colors I see in her work.  

Above is a sunset scene painted after my first lesson. I worked from a photo I took in May on my farm.  Yelena helped me to approach painting in a new way, focusing on the general impression of the scene, working quickly with a wet edge.  She reminds me to plan my painting before putting brush to paper.  

September always inspires me to learn something new.  If you'd like to try something new artistically, I invite you to join me for a class.  You can find my CCBC classes here. Click on "Arts."

I hope to see you in a future class!

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!

Osher Watercolor Explorations: A Blue Virginia Mountain

Friday marked the last session in my Osher Watercolor Explorations class, and we focused on painting landscapes with skies. 

I had fun preparing for class by painting clouds off my front porch the day before.

The painting was meant to be expressive of the clouds without being literal.  I laid in a flat wash of Ultramarine Blue, and quickly, while the painting was wet, lifted out cloud shapes with a paper towel.  I then mixed a blue gray by adding a bit of Burnt Sienna to the Ultramarine Blue, and watering it down quite a bit, and added that in to create shadows under the clouds and within them.  

For my class demonstration painting, I selected a photo I took on a recent trip to Virginia to visit with family.

I was taken by the clouds, the blue shadows, the hazy mountains receding in the distance and the way the blues transform into greens as they approach the foreground. 

I hope you get a chance to go outdoors to paint this summer.  If you're not able to, why not paint your own version from the photo above?

Watercolor Explorations: Landscape

In preparation for our first landscape class, David and I took a hike with a camera and captured several landscape scenes.  I also got permission from a photographer friend to share several of his photos with my Osher class.  

I sketched a rough outline of the scene, marked out the highlights in the foliage around the old tree trunk, and used masking fluid to protect the highlights on the tree's trunk.  

To create the woodsy foliage, I began with washes of mostly Windsor Yellow, with a bit of Sap Green mixed in.  I wanted to capture the sense of sunlight pouring into the foliage. While the foliage washes were wet, I added Sap Green splotches and even a bit of cool, Hooker's Green.  Several layers of leafy greens came next. 

After the forest background was done, I worked on the main trunk and nearby trees & twigs.  I mixed Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna for a general gray, and Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber for darker areas.  I also washed in some Sap Green to the main tree trunk to represent the green I saw reflected there. I added a bit of earthy browns and grays to the forest floor.

The final step was to use a rigger brush for a few fine limbs and twigs, and a spattering of white gouache, Sap Green, and Windsor Yellow.

Watercolor Sketching on a Summer Day

 

One lovely summer morning, I found myself with some time to create. Sitting on my front porch, I was drawn to the lush treeline where it met the sky, and simply started "sketching" with my paints and brush.  I followed the forest canopy down the hill with my brush, and included the single-wide trailer down the hill, the place where we lived while we built our solar home.  Tucked in between the hills, the trees and the tall pasture grasses, it charmed me.W

With all the green-on-green, I felt like the scene needed a bit more contrast to come to life, so I used a Micron pen to add contour lines.

Sometimes, it's a pleasure to let the scene lead you in your painting, to experiment and make discoveries.  

Art for Self-Care: Painting Trees

 

I sat outside on a gorgeous spring evening -- the Eastern Bluebirds warbling from this grand old Cucumber Tree.  I had been feeling anxious about an upcoming doctor's visit, and reached for my paints and brushes to ground & calm myself. 

Sketching the scene, connecting with the stalwart old tree and her new friend springing up among the raspberries tuned me into the essence of the tree -- her vitality, her strength and her ability to weather every storm.  Healing.

Of course, there was a moment at the outset when I felt like the painting would never work, and I'd end up with wasted paper, but I pushed through that.  I've learned that even if I create a painting I don't want to frame, I always learn something from immersing myself in creativity, and there's always some part of the painting I feel really happy about.

At the end, I did like this painting. And I felt so much calmer.  

And the doctor's visit the next day turned out fine -- better than I had imagined.

I find it helpful to have a stack of smaller pieces of watercolor paper that I can experiment with tucked into the backpack I tote my watercolors outdoors in.  I painted this scene on a 6" x 7-3/4" paper sample from St. Cuthberts Mill.  I bought a variety of watercolor paper samples with an order of other supplies.  Paper samples don't cost much, and they're freeing to create with.  

I hope you can find peace and grounding by sketching, painting or even just sitting with a friendly tree.  

Happy Spring!

Sketching Trees

Lately, I've been enjoying the warming weather, the sunshine and the songs of bluebirds out in my local state park.  I've found that studying the structure of trees is easiest right now while they are still bare of leaves, and I can really get into bark texture and other details.  

I began the painting above with this sketch in my nature journal.

And, I came back to the same field the next day, and painted this young oak tree, still clinging to her leaves.

Canopy branches can feel confusing and hard to follow at this level of detail. I find that focusing in on the part of the scene that intrigues me yields the best results.  In this case, the main trunk and lower branches:

One thing that painting these scenes has taught me is to simplify my painting, and focus on the larger forms & values in the landscape.  Simplifying the color scheme to just a few colored pencils or pans of paint also helps to create more unity.  As Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify ..."

 

SpaceX Iteration & A Mossy Oak

Out hiking on a chilly, sunny day, I snapped photos of this terrific tree trunk with gnarly old roots clasping mossy rocks down by a stream.  I prefer to paint right outdoors while sitting on a rock, but the weather has been too cold for that. So, I painted this oak trunk from the photo I took.

After making a light pencil sketch, I applied masking fluid to the areas I wanted to keep white on the sunny side of the tree, and in the little lichen-covered spots.  Masking fluid protects areas of your painting from taking up paint, keeping the underlying paper white.  Masking fluid goes on a liquid, dries into a rubbery solid, and is easily removed by rubbing it off with a gum eraser or your finger. When your painting is done & dry, you remove the masking fluid so you can add any last touches.

After reading Cathy Johnson's book, Creating Textures in Watercolors, I was inspired to try mixing Burnt Sienna with Ultramarine Blue to create a gray trunk color.  I dropped in more Ultramarine Blue here and there to create shadows and a more varied wash. 

As I explore watercolor painting, I remind myself to take the approach of Elon Musk in creating new rockets. In his early stages of development, Elon loses a bunch of rockets in fiery disasters, but he & his team learn from each "rapid unscheduled disassembly."  In fact, Elon expects failures, stating, “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

As a result of his design iteration process, SpaceX successfully launches more rockets than any other company in the world, and, in 2020, became the first private company ever to carry U.S. astronauts to the space station. 

I don't plan to make history, just to improve my painting skills.  I don't fail as spectacularly as a rocket, but I have ruined some paper learning.  

I recommend taking the SpaceX approach of trial and error and learning.  And don't forget to find some inspiration from other artists ... or rocketeers!

A Simple Winter Watercolor Landscape

I'm currently reading Cathy Johnson's book First Steps: Watercolor Painting (North Light Books, 1995).  She shares her step-by-step approach for beginners to simplifying a landscape.  I tend to get lost in details, wanting to include every knobby tree trunk and bowing weed stalk in a scene.  I am happiest when I can fall into the tiniest features of some bit of nature -- an acorn or autumn leaf, for instance.  

But with an entire landscape, I am learning to see & paint the larger forms first.  What a relief not to expect myself to trace every bramble and bough in the landscape, but just to capture the spirit of the moment.

Saturday morning, I sat down with my paints at the kitchen counter and looked out the sliding glass door to the image above.  The morning mists made the distant trees look hazy, and I focused mainly on Grandmother Sugar Maple -- the bushy looking tree on the left.  

In years past, Grandmother Sugar Maple has provided us with gallons of sap to boil down into delicious, golden maple syrup. I have a special reverence for her, which deepened my painting experience.

Each painting is a learning opportunity. A chance to connect with nature.  A chance to slow down. A chance to express ourselves.  

I hope you will keep painting -- it leads to delightful discoveries!

Art for Self-Care Update

I've been enjoying reading Cathy Johnson's book Painting Watercolors, North Light Books 1995. Her playful approach to building skills with watercolor painting makes picking up a brush and experimenting easy. Sunday morning I wanted to do a bit of painting, but didn't want to do anything complex, so I flipped through Cathy's book and found a simple landscape to copy.

Copying another artist might seem like "cheating," but it's a time-honored method used to train art students in the techniques used by more skilled artisans.  Every time you copy another artist's work, you gain insights that don't come simply from looking at the artist's work.  You get to play with your art supplies, to learn, and get a burst of inspiration all at once. 

And, you're left with something lovely to prop on your desk and admire as you pass by in your daily routine.  This little painting will likely become a post-card and get dropped in the mail after I've enjoyed looking at it for a few days.  Small art has the benefit of feeling like less of an undertaking, and more of a game. Isn't playfulness the best type of self-care?  

I used a palette of Prussian blue, Cobalt Green, Indigo, Burnt Sienna, and Chromium Yellow Hue Deep. The feathery snow effect resulted from table salt sprinkled on the snowy Prussian blue hill. I let it dry a bit, then used a blow-dryer on low to make sure it was crisp-dry before sweeping the salt off and adding the cabin and trees. 

I hope you find time this December for some artful self-care!

Here's a link to Cathy's book in case you'd like to explore self-care with a watercolor brush:

 https://cathyjohnson.info/bookpages/paintingwatercolors.html

And, here's a link to her blog:

https://cathyjohnson.info/tips.html

Cathy also has provided her e-book Keeping an Artist's Journal  free for a limited time in response to  Covid-19.  Here's the link:

https://cathyjohnson.info/ebooks/artistsjournal.html