Nature journals

[Kristen Lango]

@demotlj Thank you! And totally, I agree with you about drawing from photos. It seems a little insane to me to try to draw a bird moving about in nature - unless you have a photographic memory, I'd find that task near impossible.

I also love how your sketches have energy to them - I sometimes get lost in the details and tend to tighten things up too much, so hopefully we can learn from each other

[demotlj]

@Kristen-Lango

It makes me feel so good to hear you say my sketches have life to them because I have worked hard at trying to let go of some control. I even have a note pinned over my desk that says, "Don't just outline!" It's funny how much work it can take to make a piece look spontaneous.

[Valerie Light]

@demotlj I love the juxtaposition of of spontaneous brushwork with orderly composition and lettering. That page with the ospreys is so beautiful.
@Kristen-Lango those brussels sprouts are the cutest, and I love the soft texture in the horse.

This weekend I visited a farm museum to sketch animals up close. I filled up a dozen sketchbook pages with half-finished scribbles of ears and noses and fuzzy butts and silhouettes. Later, in my studio I put some of those sketches on my lightbox to do gouache and watercolor pencil sketches in color. Here are some of my favorites.

It just felt really good to take time to play and experiment with traditional media, and practice observational drawing with an eye for character and expression.

[Kim Hunter]

@Valerie-Light )

There's something very familiar about your work. Hmmmm, I wonder what it is?

Cracked me up when I saw your pic. This is my mustang, Sage, and his wee girlfriend Holly. They're quite the pair. Cheers!

[Valerie Light]

@Kim-Hunter Wow! They're just like the pair I saw! The pony was so sassy, chasing off geese for the fun of it, while the horse stood guard in case any of the geese got out of line. So funny!

[demotlj]

@Valerie-Light These are so wonderful -- you have captured such character and personality in the animals both in the poses and their expressions. I've been painting so many waterfowl lately because it's migration season but this makes me want to find a farm to do some animals.

[Blitz55]

Don't have any recent outdoor nature drawings as I haven't got out to do much lately. But here are some of my older ones to start with.

[Valerie Light]

@Blitz55 YES! your trees are lyrical, Blitz.

[demotlj]

@Blitz55 I love drawing trees. Yours are great and I especially love the last one. It's like calligraphy.

[demotlj]

Here are photos of my two most recent pages in my nature journal. Too many black ducks -- I hate trying to get a good black in watercolor. I use alizarin crimson and phthalo green as suggested by Vesper Stamper in her SVS course on watercolor palettes and it works well for small areas but in larger areas it tends to separate. I'd love to know what you all use for black.

[Asyas_illos]

@Valerie-Light these are cute

[Asyas_illos]

@demotlj beautiful work

[Blitz55]

Those are great! I love drawing birds as well, really I love bird watching, if you've never looked through a pair of really really nice Binoculars at birds, it changes everything, it's addicting!

[Kristen Lango]

@Valerie-Light Thank you! And wow! I love these, expecially the cow - I can see the movement of the paint and I love that I can see it's done traditionally, those bleeds and brush strokes are just wonderful. These are really joyful to look at

[Kristen Lango]

@demotlj haha I totally know how you feel! I'd love to meet up and sketch together, but I'm sure we are located far from each other

[Kristen Lango]

@Blitz55 Really lovely! You're so brave for taking on trees in this way - they always overwhelm me. Loving the colors on that third image

[Kristen Lango]

@demotlj Really nice work again! I can see that northern harrier pouncing - you really nailed his pose and the action that birds of prey exhibit

[Blitz55]

Couldn't help but do another hornbill. Weather is starting to get better so at some point I'll be outside drawing from life again.

[demotlj]

@Blitz55 You do beautiful work. Hornbills are fascinating looking birds.

[Blitz55]

Thank you so much @demotlj
And yes they are, from what little I've looked into them I couldn't find a definite reason why they have the huge horn bit on the bill. Sounds like there are theories but nothing concrete, at least from what I read.