Nature Journal
A fellow artist reached out to me the other day to suggest a monthly nature sketching outing. She’s more of a drawer and will go far – she is particular and a perfectionist and has an eye for her mistakes and a passion to get it right.
Our first outing was August, 2021. We jumped right in with a landscape. I took photos to see the relative sizes of the objects, and settled on a photo where the pond made an interesting shape.
We brought our paints but decided to stick with drawing. Even with just pencil set up and ink, we were there for a good two hours. We drew the landscape for awhile and then walked around, finding things to quickly sketch. My friend took photo references to dive into the details from home.
My 8-year-old granddaughter joined us. She decided a different part of the hill was the view she wanted, and drew and colored a landscape. On the way to the restroom, Birdie and I saw frogs jumping. When we saw one later, we took the time to sketch it, holding very still and being very quiet so that we didn’t frighten it. (My friend noticed the pattern on the frog – I saw only the two lines from his eyes to his tail.)
I painted my sketch when I got home.
xoxo
I was trying out some greys, with a bold color for the pot behind the bench. That color turned out to be too bold, so I added a bird for balance.
