Nature Journaling and Field Sketching

This was a wonderful experience! Thank you so much for all the instruction and encouragement. I really appreciated the all the tips especially looking for negative space. I definitely grew as an observer -- and your positive encouragement will stay with me. It was a pleasure viewing other people's drawings and reading their reflections --- helped me learn more tips. I loved this class and would recommend it to others!

This course has taught me so much--a million different techniques that I never would have guessed existed. I used the light techniques mostly, and all the techniques turn out impressive results. I am very grateful for this course, and will use all the techniques it has taught me in the future.

I thoroughly enjoyed "round 2" of this beautiful little warbler, now with new techniques under my belt! I feel more and more comfortable with watercolor every time (although I'm still very much a newbie), and I can feel my improvements in this one. Could still work on making it look even more realistic (softer head features, and the eye is tough!) but I'm so happy with this one and this course! It has been so enjoyable. Day 1: Now:

Throwing us "into the deep end" of Beebe  Lake (!) on the first day of class, with the exercise of drawing the bird, was a great idea! The instruction then was a little vague on whether to just draw the warbler and leave it  at that, or to actually go on and apply watercolor. My initial pencil sketch and then my end-of-course color version, based on a new sketch, are inserted below. The biggest lesson I learned between that first class and the conclusion with the warbler was that I could add a final coat of a different yellow to make the image of the bird stand out more. Note that the early sketch is on white paper but my photograph tinted it. Here are my and-of-course sketches in the final watercolor, which needs work but I am afraid of overworking it.     The bill and eye are all wrong, I did them last. As the critical part of the image next time they will be done first.   Wow! There are some wonderful images below.  

May 3, 2023. These little guys have just returned to Connecticut, but I'm pretty confident a field sketch will be nothing like what I've just done! I'm still more comfortable working at my table, but I feel really good about how I've been able to relax my techniques, and accomplish a fun painting, whether at a sit spot outside or copying from a photo indoors. The relax and keep it fun part is not trivial, and I've really appreciated Liz's constant reminders that it's supposed to be fun and to not be too hard on ourselves! In this page I tried to come back to the idea of informational boxes, since at the beginning I said I liked how that looked, how it made the page look more organized. I have to work more on finding the highlights - which parts to leave white. I found this a little difficult in the warbler and I think I laid the color on too bright, when I should have built it up layer by layer. I like the glazing technique for making shadows and I've appreciated the lesson on finding the negative spaces. When drawing the leaves below I started three times before I got the positions and spaces right! The pencil sketch was dated April 5th - it has been a very fun month of sketching!

The drawing on the left is the first session and the middle and right pictures are from the last session.  I feel certain aspects of my drawing are better; however, I need work on mixing paint and its application for details on the bird.  I feel my observation skills have improved as well.  I will continue to work on this drawing and painting adventure.  Thank you!

I think I paid more attention to detail in my later drawing.  My first was color pencil and second was watercolor with details in color & graphite pencils.

The pencil drawing is my "before" drawing.  Initially I wasn't happy with my "after" drawing, but looking at the drawings side-by-side made me see how much better the proportions and accuracy are in the "after" drawing--I'm clearly letting my brain "fill in the gaps" less.  I am still getting used to watercolor layering and color mixing.  The tiny black details on the warbler were tough, and the electric yellow was a hard color to replicate.  Things to work on!

I am pleased with the improvements from the sketch to the watercolor.  My sense of proportion is much better!  Adding color makes a world of difference. I tried stippling and utilizing negative space which were helpful.  I could be more patient in mixing colors and applying layers.  I definitely need more practice with the wash technique and chiaroscuro.  Overall, a successful journey!

I’ve been taking this class off and on for a year now! Life happens!  The lower image is my first sketch and for the recent one I tried to get more life and personality into this little bird.  I have had a lot of fun but I think I will always be more of a wander around, take pictures then draw at my desk kind of a person.  I am trying to make more notes when I’m out so I can remember more of the feel of the place.

I actually like the before picture,  there is a spontaneity to it that appeals to me.  I used dry brush for the branch,  color layering, applying a wash (didn’t turn out very well) and used negative space to check my drawing.

I think both my first drawing and this last one turned out pretty well. The photos are poor quality since this is a chromebook camera but at least it shows the general shapes. I would like to work on the dry brush for the feather textures in particular. I feel it will be a useful tool once I can do it better. The moss was surprisingly fun! I did pointillism rapidly so they blended a little and it captured the look pretty well, I think. The leaves were a challenge, as far as placement, colour, and the veins go. I had fun placing everything on the page using negative space to double check. This course taught me so many new techniques! I am so happy to learn them as it will improve my drawing/painting/nature journaling skills. Thank you so much, Liz!

The bottom is before and the top is after ☺️

This was drawing at start of course. Back to the course with the drawing at then end. Then decide to paint it... second try at painting it... Wow, I learned a lot about sketching and watercolor. I have so many things to practice and have appreciated the opportunity in taking this course! Not sure I captured all I should have within the painting, but it certainly will bring positive memories. I keep talking about sketching and now I need to get at it! Thanks Liz!

I haven't been drawing since school and never used watercolour. But I have been into birding and wildlife photography for some time, learning about behaviour and letting all my senses explore my environment. And I am super happy with the progress I made even in a short time. Negative space was an eye-opener, as well as gesture drawing and the tools for measuring.  To know that with short sketchy lines I can keep refining until I am happy. I am astonished how much more I see and notice now, after studying a subject for hours. I still have to practice painting with the dry-on-dry technique and mixing the colours. I still feel I am using too much water. And I have to work on creating textures. I feel that I learned so many useful techniques and will keep practising. I absolutely loved this course. Thank you for inspiring me.

These they are.  Again the negative space was a big thing for me - really helpful.  The leaves and branches of the Elm Tree came out well after I decided to leave them out first time round.  Unfortunately I then proceeded to paint in the green background wash, and I wasn't happy with that version AT ALL.  Fortunately I have a a"before" photo to share.  I will work on the green version on a few days and see if I can redeem it.  Clearly I need to do more work on background washes and when and how to apply them ensuring I get the balance right.  

Placing my two Yellow Warblers side by side I can really see the benefit of adding color to parts of my journal. I still like using pencil to show detail and I like how the two techniques work together. I felt more comfortable using the photograph as a reference but arranging its elements on the page to suit the story I wanted to tell. I would like to keep working on different ways of combining these techniques and adding background washes too.

All the techniques came together here - adding color was greatest improvement. Proportions were better, shapes were better too.

• Understanding that I need to let the colors dry as I apply color.  This is why I felt like I couldn’t control the paint before. I use mostly acrylics, but have always admired watercolor paintings.  This class has given me so much more convenience in using watercolors.  I still need to work on blending colors and knowing how much water to use on my brush.

New techniques I was able to apply were Gesture Sketching, and Proportions. I feel better about the proportions because I always feel like something is off, but something I would still like to improve would be drawing/painting bird feet and realism.

Honestly, I can appreciate my progress comparing "after and before" seeing the results, anyway, I´m having problems to get some colors, because I´m working with a watercolors `no matte´ box, and I still have doubts in the selection for mixing and calculate accurate portions to obtein tones that I expect. Slowly, but I feel that I improve in the application of learned techniques, but to shade or feign proportions or volume, I need to do it with a ballpen, pencils or markers, for me it´s essential to give it more expressiveness. Obviously it´s different the sheet that I used for my first exercise too, for which I chose one page of my own diary and give way to a new phase.