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!

Sun Prints

This fall when I was out hiking, I collected leaves from trees, ferns and weeds. Back at home, I pressed them in books to flatten them.  I tried to collect a variety of shapes and types of leaves to use in sun prints, also called cyanotypes.

Below is the two-part mixture product I used to make my sun prints.  

The process takes a bit of preparation, requiring you to add distilled water to the powder in each bottle, then wait 24 hours for the mixture to activate.  After 24 hours, you mix equal parts of Part A and Part B, stir it up and paint it onto whatever you want to use for printing.  

In this photo, you can see examples of paper cyanotypes I made.

After trying paper sun prints, I bought some 100% cotton napkins and painted them with the cyanotype mixture.  

You have to let the mixture dry before printing, and you have to do all of this in dim light, away from the sun.  I set up a painting station and drying rack in my pantry and kept the napkins in the dark while they dried.

Finally, I was ready to make sun prints!  

I laid out a napkin on a drawing board, arranged the pressed leaves, and put a piece of glass over the top to keep the leaves from being blown away by the wind.

After 20 minutes in afternoon sunshine, this is what the napkin looked like.

The cyanotype mixture changes color from yellowish green to bronze in the sun.

The final step is to rinse the print in cold water, which will set the print so it is no longer sensitive to light.

You can see the yellow-green mixture washing out from the areas that were covered by leaves.

You rinse until the water runs clear, then hang up your print to dry.

Here are two of the four napkins I printed.  As time passed, and the afternoon sun moved closer to the horizon, I had to expose the napkins longer, up to 30 minutes.  But I could always tell when the napkin turned bronze in the sun that the print was done.

You have to be careful when laundering your cyanotype fabrics not to use bleach or detergents with phosphate.  Also leaving them to soak too long can wash out the blue dye.  Hand washing is recommended.

But that's worth it for the thrill of creating things for your home that reflect the beauty of nature!

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling Class at Raccoon Creek State Park

At the end of April, I led a class in Nature Journaling for Beginners at the Wildflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park.  We had a wonderful day -- sunny and warm with loads of wildflowers blooming.

When I arrived at the Wildflower Reserve before class, I warmed up with a quick sketch of Virginia Bluebells, and even watched a hummingbird hawkmoth -- a moth that looks and moves like a hummingbird --  drink nectar from the flowers while I drew!

It was so quick, and I was a bit flummoxed, but here are my quick sketches of this amazing moth.

During class, we found tons of different plants in bloom in the wooded outdoor classroom behind the nature center.

I also found a blister beetle, a large and beautifully iridescent beetle slowly crawling through a rotting log on the forest floor. When picked up, these beetles exude an oily substance that causes blisters.

After class, I walked through the floodplain area and found more gorgeous wildflowers like this Toadshade Trillium and some Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

What a magical day to find so much beauty!

If you'd like to take a Nature Journaling class with me, I'll be leading one at the Community College of Beaver County in July.  You can read more about it and register for class here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/course/nature-journaling-washington-county2

Here are a few photos I snapped.  I hope they'll inspire you to make sketches!

And I hope you get a chance to take your art supplies outside to create in nature.

Happy Creating! 

The Winter Nature Journal: Icicles!

After 6 months of drought in our area, abundant rain and snow have created a new landscape.  The creeks run musically, and massive icicles formed in the Frankfort Mineral Springs area of Raccoon Creek State Park.

David & I hiked to the falls, he with his cameras and me with my nature journal. 

Though the trail to the falls was treacherous with wet ice and packed snow, the warm air and sunshine felt like spring.

 

I sat in the snow on top of my heavy winter gloves, and felt like an early naturalist illustrating a new land. I sketched with a brown ink fountain pen and added watercolor washes.

I've always felt that Nature puts on a perpetual show, and the price of a "ticket" is simply taking the time and effort to get outside and be still for a moment. 

Lately, the sun feels stronger and brighter each day; the world feels more inviting.  I think keeping a nature journal helps me to see these things.  It wasn't long ago that I watched outside for a little vole to peek out of its hole under the birdfeeders just outside my studio window.  I could count on it to show up about 4:50 PM as the sun set.

After watching this vole several nights in a row, I would think of the little creature every day just before 5 PM. No matter where I was, I knew the creature was hungrily scavenging seeds.

I haven't seen this critter in weeks now.  We've both changed our routines.  Just the other evening, I tidied up some garden beds in the relative warmth until the daylight ebbed.

These are the sorts of tiny adventures that keeping a nature journal can lead you on.

What's going on outside where you live right now?  What in nature's detailed show would you like to witness?  I hope you take the time to sit and enjoy the show, and make a few notes in a sketchbook.

Happy Creating!

Bluebird Art Hike Day

I took advantage of a lovely day out in my EV Bluebird, and hiked the state park with my mini art kit.

I sat down on a log and laid in a pencil sketch.  Before I could layer on permanent ink, I noticed a tick crawling up my leg.  Yikes! I brushed the tick away and snapped a photo of the scene in front of me so I could finish my art at home. 

Back in my studio, I added ink with a Lamy Safari fountain pen, then began adding a in washes of color.

Mixing phthalo blue and burnt sienna created the evergreen foliage, ultramarine blue for the sky, and a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna or burnt umber made the greys in the trees.  Burnt sienna and yellow ochre filled the forest floor with leaves, and sap green and yellow ochre created a moss color.

The crooked little sapling caught my eye from the moment I sat outside in the park, so I saved that tree for last and treated it lightly.

Comparing the photo to the painting, you'll see plenty of "artistic license" being used.

Remember that as the artist, you get to decide what to include in your artworks, and you can emphasize angles as I did with the little sapling here.  

You can make choices based on what you'd like to see in the composition and leave out trees or other elements as you choose.

I enjoyed keeping one light colored tree that caught my eye while I was sketching.  There are some things a photograph can't convey.  I'm glad I made a pencil sketch first to capture that fresh feeling you get from creating art from life.

Happy Creating!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you all a day of relaxation and appreciation for the people and facets of your life you love.  I hope you get time to create over the holiday weekend.

Happy Creating!

 

When You Don't Like Your Artwork

One of the things that keeps people from creating in a nature journal or sketchbook more often is the fear of making a page they don't like.

It's important to remember that you won't like every page.  You will have days when your sketches fall flat, and nothing seems to work.  Perhaps you're tired or distracted.  Maybe you're out of practice and not feeling inspired.  We all have these days. That's normal.

Maybe you're experimenting, and you haven't found the way it works yet.

The important thing to do is to keep sketching -- keep creating!

Keep trying new things, exploring different approaches, different media even.

Remind yourself that if you like every page in a sketchbook, you're probably not trying hard enough.  

Every artwork does not need to have a purpose other than the experience of creating it.

And if you turn the page and keep creating, you'll find subjects that inspire you, and techniques that work for you.

Pablo Picasso famously said, "Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working."

I don't love every painting and sketch I make, but I know that making "bad" art is part of the process. If you trust the process and keep creating, you learn, develop new skills and make wonderful discoveries.

The "meh" pages make the "Wow!" pages more satisfying.

Happy Creating!

The Finished Mini Nature Journal

In my last post, I shared how I've been taking an online course from Cathy Johnson called Quick Sketching in Color.  

Cathy explains that one of the tricks to doing a lot of sketching is keeping your journal and supplies simple.  She's right! Her techniques inspired me to fill this concertina journal in less than a week.

My simplified art kit includes: 

a travel watercolor palette, two water brush pens, a pen with waterproof ink, a mechanical pencil, an indigo colored pencil, a jar lid for extra mixing space, a water spray bottle, a tiny container to rinse brushes in, a small water bottle,my journal, and some paper towel.

And, here's a tour of my journal, start to finish.

When the page spreads are this small ( 9"x 6"), it takes very little time to fill them.

The size forces you to simplify complex landscapes.

A single 4.5" x 6" page gives just enough space to explore one facet of the natural world around you,

like a sleepy flock of geese or a tiny newt underwater.

Whenever I flip through this journal, I remember each of the experiences that inspired a sketch.  This last one was made on a beautiful, chilly afternoon hike with David.  The sinking sun lit up the woods along the creek, making the last bits of color seem electric against the shadowy trees. 

I hope you give this approach a try!

If you'd like to learn more about Cathy's online, self-directed classes, follow this link: https://cathyjohnson.info/art-classes/

Happy Creating!

Paddle and Paint in a New Nature Journal

A new nature journal brings the energy of beginnings.  Anything is possible, and there are pages and pages waiting to be filled.  

I brought my new nature journal along for a paddle and picnic date with my husband, and he kindly agreed to spend some extra time after lunch so I could sketch and paint this hickory leaf and nut on the picnic table.

I started with a pen and ink sketch with brown ink in a Lamy Safari fountain pen.  Then, I added color with my Winsor & Newton travel watercolor kit.

The paper in this new journal is not made for watercolor, but I still use it.  The paper warps and wrinkles, and the colors don't flow and move the way they would on real watercolor paper, but I can still lay in color to my sketches as if I'm using markers.  

That's what I love about nature journals and sketchbooks. You can do anything in them. No rules.  If you find you don't like the end result, just turn the page and start again.  

What would you like to sketch in a nature journal or sketchbook? I hope you make that sketch!

Happy Creating!

Nature Journaling: White Tailed Deer

One autumn morning, I looked out the window to see this White Tailed Deer down the hill from my home.  Her gray winter pelt attracted my eye, and I grabbed my cell phone, and captured this photo of her.

The gorgeous morning light and autumn colors inspired me to make a quick sketch in pencil in my new nature journal, then splash in watercolors.

I focused on the bright colors and contrasting values that caught my eye, and didn't get everything in exact proportion.  I am happy with that decision, as it expresses the morning and the scene.  I always tell my students: You're not a camera! Don't feel like you must get everything "perfect."

I hope you find something in nature that inspires you.  If you'd like to create using this photo as a reference, please do!

Happy Creating!