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!

Mushroom Art

Out on hikes of late, I haven't had time to paint on the spot. Instead, I take photos and create when I get back to my studio.

This little mushroom caught my eye as I hiked by its rotting stump high up on a wooded hilltop.  I used gouache paint to make a nature journal entry from the reference photo.

Gouache paint is opaque when thick, and will cover right over your initial pencil drawing as mine did here.

Gouache's opacity allows you to paint light colors over darker backgrounds.  I find this ability lets me create lots of exciting details. So much so, that I get carried away as I did in the version above, and the background distracts the eye from the focal point.

Too many details!

It's easy to fix this problem.  I painted a thin wash over the background to tone down the highlights, and pop the mushroom forward. 

If you try out gouache, you'll find the trickiest bit is getting the paint thickness just right for your application -- thin washes apply like watercolor, and will cover a larger area, but will be more transparent.  You'll need a thicker consistency of paint to cover dark tones with lighter spots.  

With gouache, you start with the background, laying in general shapes, colors and tones, and then you add the foreground parts and more detailed areas. 

Start with a limited palette of colors -- here, I used ultramarine blue, burnt umber, burnt sienna, yellow ochre, lemon yellow and zinc white. Put a small blob of each color of paint on your palette, and make sure to keep the paint moist by spritzing it with a small spray bottle of water.

You can experiment freely, knowing that you can paint over any mistake.

Happy Creating!