Skip to main content

Nature Sketching

A 

nature journal is a collection of drawings from observation in nature: 

Get a sketch book and some drawing tools and take them with you when you go to the woods or the beach. Draw what interests you, and take notes. 

Drawing in nature can help you to understand how plants and animals are put together, and also help you to really see and remember. I usually combine nature drawing with photos, so if I decide to do a larger drawing or painting in the studio I have plenty of reference material.

A page in your nature sketchbook doesn’t have to be a pretty, finished drawing. It’s a practical tool and it can help you learn new things. Add some metadata to your page, like the date, the weather; note the size, the color, the habitat or the smell. What does it feel like? Where did you find it? Add questions that you want to look up later.

Zinnia drawings in pencil and pen

Here are different ideas and methods that you can use in your nature journal.

  • Draw one item in nature from a few different angles.
  • Take a plant apart and draw all the parts as a diagram.
  • Draw a sketch of the whole landscape first, then zoom in on a detail.
  • Draw quick gesture sketches of animals that are nearby.
  • You can include poems or personal memories to your sketchbook.
  • Collect from nature (nuts, seed pods, leaves) to take home to study in detail: This is a great technique when you can’t work outdoors (like in winter). Arrange and draw these collected items in your sketchbook.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paint Application and Mark-Making

We've   been talking about brushwork and palette knives, and I want to talk a little about paint application and mark-making. Paint can be applied with so many different tools. We all started out with finger painting, and brushes seem to be an extension of our fingers, but you can put paint onto a ground with a palette knife, old credit card, sponge, roller, etc. And besides the tools you use, you have options with the techniques. I took the following list of paint application techniques from a  Craftsy  Post: 1. Dry brushing: This is where you scrub layers of colors on using small amounts of paint. 2. Washing: This is when you apply a thin layer of diluted paint over the colors already applied. The thin veil of color allows the colors underneath to still shine through. 3. Dabbing: For adding texture. Apply thick paint with a stiff bristle brush or a sponge, with a pouncing motion or with quick dabs. Dabbing can be done in multiple layers to build depth. 4. Detailing: Thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What does it mean to "abstract" from nature?

N ature  has always been a favorite source of inspiration for painters, and abstract landscapes are compelling. To create art abstracted from nature you start with something “real” and then pull it and stretch it into something new, in order to express your feelings or your interpretation. Mitchel Albala says,  "There is a great misunderstanding in contemporary abstraction — that because it’s non-representational, anything goes. This could not be further from the truth. Good abstract art employs the same formal principles that great representational art does — line, form, shape, value, movement, composition, color, etc. It is the proper use of these forces that make a work of art successful. The only difference between representational painting and abstract painting is that in abstract work, the subject plays a more recessive role." The first step, then, is to choose a source of inspiration in nature that inspires a visual idea, such as color combinations (where two rivers me...
Post a Comment
Read more