I did this study back at the end of December, the sketch was done outside and I painted it near the woodstove heat at night! I’ve included lots of pictures to show some stages of painting and other fungi I found.
My view of the stump and rocks covered by moss.
This is the view I had from my place on the damp, cold ground. It’s just a pile of rocks and old stumps but I’m drawn to the deep cracks and crevices that connect them all like a puzzle. When I draw this kind of subject, I usually get a bit lost with all the crevices and rocks, but being that it’s a natural subject, you can just adjust it as needed so it looks ok.
My sketch in progress.
Above shows the size of my sketchpad and the thick thermal gloves I wore. I also had my rubber gardening pants and Wellies on because it was so cold and wet on the ground.
Deadman’s Fingers on the old stump.
The pictures above and below show the interesting fungi that grows out of the stump. The fungi is either Xylaria polymorpha (Deadman’s Fingers, what a name eh?) or Xylaria longpipes. The guide says Xylaria, “look for: hard, tough, usually dark brown to black, clustered finger-like fruit body on dead wood.” Well the black fungi on this stump is much skinnier than what the book shows, but maybe it’s because it swells up at a certain time of year?
Another view of the fungi, Deadman’s Fingers, and lots of soft moss.
Mossy old stump with many interesting fungi growing on it.
This is the sketch I did outside in my small field sketchbook. As it says on the bottom of the drawing, I wore thick, thermal work gloves while drawing, a difficult task! And I used a new pen I’ve not tried yet, “Tombow Brush Pen”, hard tip, I thought it would be better for making quick marks in the cold. I also bought the softer tip version, which is in my field bag to experiment with also.
Painting at night from photo reference, using my new Van Gogh watercolors.
Above shows my Van Gogh watercolor set, the color chart I did of each paint and the sketch on my board. I always keep a small bit of watercolor paper for testing colors nearby.
First layer of watercolor.
I used a color called “Moonglow” by Daniel Smith. It’s a dull purple color I’ve used before for underpainting rocks and like experimenting with it.
Above shows more layers of watercolors to build up colors.
Adding gouache for the mosses.
Now that the watercolor layers are on I start to add gouache, which is opaque and is great for building up the texture of the moss. If you plan ahead, the gouache can really stand out nicely, especially on dark areas.
Finished study.
This is the study finished, I took this with my cell phone camera at night in regular lamp light, but the warm hue is pretty close to the original.
Scarlet Elfcup – Sarcoscypha austriaca, beautiful little red cups hiding in the grass.
Every year, since we’ve moved to our property in the Scottish Borders, I’ve spotted this tiny Scarlet Elfcup growing. It springs up in Autumn under the huge ancient Ash tree in our paddock, but so small I have to be careful not to step on it. I picked up a few sticks and placed them to form a square around it, just to help me see it and not step on it.
A second Scarlet Elfcup!
This year I was lucky and found yet another little Scarlet Elfcup. I’m hoping it spreads more every year.
Mushroom growing on dead Hawthorn branch.
I don’t know what kind of mushroom this is on a fallen dead Hawthorn branch. You can see several stalks from others that broke off, they are quite small and delicate.
Underneath the tiny mushroom.
Here is a view from underneath the mushroom, showing the gills. I love the fine, soft looking white threads around it’s base, I’m not sure what they are.
The best Christmas present ever!
This was my favorite present from my husband this Christmas, over the new clothes, treats and bath powders etc, I was so excited about getting this book! Does that make me a ‘Nature Nerd’?
It’s full of clear illustrations.
The book is full of clear, well painted illustrations. The introduction is full of clear diagrams and information about fungi in general and it’s a great place to study to learn more about them. Though the book is well illustrated, I still find it very difficult to positively identify each mushroom I find. I belong to a group or two on Facebook for mushroom and fungi identification in the UK, I don’t know what I’d do without them!
Gorgeous lichens on fallen branch.
This is a branch I picked up under the old Ash tree, covered with lichens. I’m learning more about lichens as they really are fascinating and beautiful, BUT I admit it’s super hard to identify different ones unless I share it on the Facebook lichens group where the experts can tell me what it is! I know there are different groups of lichens like Foliose, Crustose and Fruticose. I should’ve shared these pictures on the Facebook group to find out what kind these were, I will sometime. But as an artist the first thing I’m drawn to are the colors, the textures and form. I’m just fascinated as I look closer, at all the little cups and branches!
I mean look at all the tiny little round ‘plates’ on this lichen and then the difference in their colors. I love the limey green yellow color of the crusty one and the pale mint green of the branched foliose one. If I do some painting studies of lichens then I’ll find out the names of them too and share them. I bought a book on Lichens by Frank S. Dobson, but really it’s still waaaay over my head! I never knew there were so many kinds.
Well I guess that’s enough pictures and talk about mushrooms and lichens! Even though I don’t post updates a lot, I am working very hard on finishing up the first draft of my first Children’s Book. It’s all new to me so it’s taking much longer than it probably should! I’m also messing around with updating and changing things on my website and adding a proper shop, but these things take time when you do it all yourself. It’s frustrating when all I want to do is paint and admittedly work in the garden!
Please leave comments or ask questions, I love reading the comments from all over the world.
The painting above I did while following a Youtube video, something I’ve never done before. It was fun to try colors and techniques that someone else was doing. Mine came out very different because I played around with making the speckled spots with my own technique of dropping water onto the paint. What I liked also was the idea of using gouache to paint the background, something I never tried before. I did mine in the blue tones, lighter towards the bottom. It’s good practice to do in gouache, which are harder to keep even and flat looking. I thought the blue would offset the orangey tones in the mushroom caps.
Mushroom watercolor with notes.
I like taking pictures of mushrooms when we go out walking and love doing studies from them. Over the years I’ve paid a bit of attention to the different types but have never really gotten into learning the various families of fungi. Some people go nuts learning what mushrooms are edible, I would NEVER go that far! But I would like to learn at least the different groups. The study above is just made up, not from a real mushroom. It uses similar colors that were used in the study from the video, I noted them next to the study so I can refer back to it if needed later. I think the best thing I learned was using sepia, usually such a dark color, very watered down, was perfect for the ‘mushroom’ color of the stem.
Colorful mushroom study.
The study above was really fun to do. I thought I’d try using purples for shadows and let it get quite vibrant. The oranges of the cap really sing with the purples next to them! I used “Moonglow” by Daniel Smith, in the darker shadows. This is a great color to lay in shadows, as it’s pretty toned down in chroma, or dull. I liked putting the bright yellow on the right which really glows. I used Lunar Blue and Mayan Blue (both Daniel Smith) for the blues on the ground, mostly just to play with them as I don’t use them much.
Complete page of mushroom studies in watercolor.
The studies above are all on the same sheet, what a fun time I had doing these! I put color swatches next to each one and labeled them, so I can refer back to them as reference. These mushrooms are all from photos of real mushrooms, only the bottom right one is from my own garden, the rest were just images online.
Spectacular Rustgill #1, mushroom, watercolor with notes.
The mushroom above is a “Spectacular Rustgill”. I really like how the cap looks, especially where it’s been chewed on. I used the purple “Moonglow” as the shadow under the cap.
Meadow Waxcap with notes.
This is a “Meadow Waxcap”, another one I’ve never seen in real life.
Spectacular Rustgill #2, watercolor with notes.
Two more of the “Spectacular Rustgill” mushrooms, well three if you count the teeny one at the base. I like how this one came out with the shadows and colors.
Tiny mushrooms in vegtable garden, watercolor.
The study above was from a photo I took in the vegetable garden. While weeding under the brassicas I saw these tiny mushrooms and snapped some pictures using my cell phone. I had to get on my elbows to get close enough, and as usual suffered some pretty muddy patches on my coat. I like the fragility of these tiny types of mushrooms and the way the color streaks down the cap. They really were very tiny and delicate.
This post has a lot of photos showing as many stages of painting as I could. I’m taking the pictures using my cell phone, sorry they are not perfect! I’m using a photo I took a few years ago in Northumberland, on a walk with Gary at Beanly Moor. Some of the most beautiful old Beech trees are there, the tall stately ‘ladies of the wood’ these trees can be known as. Many times we find a long row of very mature trees and know that once they were part of a farmers hedge and left to grow because they were forgotten and went wild. I love that.
Above, first I did a light pencil drawing but didn’t add too many details. Then I started to add some color that I see on the tree, I’m using gouache paint.
Here I start to put the greens of the ground down and a bit of burnt sienna mixed with burnt umber on the tree. I used a big filbert to brush the tree and used strokes that followed the rounded contour of the trunk. This left ‘streaks’ in the paint that I liked and I used the same brush later to add more tree color. The strokes it made I left and they really look great even at the end with other textures layered on top.
Here I did quite a few things, I toned down the green in the background on the left by putting a more opaque light green on top. I scumbled in more of the foreground greens and values then I added the dark browns you see using the big filbert brush. These are important dark areas because I’ll be putting light grasses and bracken on top and this will make them look more three dimensional.
I also made some brush strokes on the tree for the lichens and moss that I rather liked the texture of. When you see lichens on trees like this, it almost looks like fur. So as I continue I try to keep that texture on the tree.
I used a very light wash of color brushed on the left side of the tree, I’m trying to get rid of areas that are not as light in value as the right side of the tree and the background. I used the big filbert brush again to stroke with the round trunk.
The background trees get brushed in. Whoever said trees have brown trunks? Most tree trunks I see are green and grey in color!
Here you can see I’ve added grey on the right side of the tree. Then because gouache paint can be lifted quite a bit if you wet it, I was able to carefully lift the dark color off where I plan to put light patches of paint. I could probably have painted right on top of the dark, but this way I figured it had less chance of mixing and getting muddy. It was a good way to ‘sketch’ out exactly where I wanted to put the light patches.
I’ve also added more opaque color to the tree on the left which is giving it so much more ‘solidness’. And I added leaves/branches to the background trees and don’t forget the wee cows!
This is showing how I had it set up on my table, plastic palette on the right, gouache paints above that in a resealable palette. Just above my painting you see a clear plastic tray with round depressions, that was some packing material from battery tealights, it makes a great mixing area for paints! The colors in there were for painting the light bracken and finding the right color and value drove me crazy!
A lot has happened here, the light patches going onto the trunk and some very light speckles, bracken fronds all over, more texture on the ground in the back.
Here I worked on that grey area on the right side of the trunk, more texture and some sharpening of the dark edge to show the tree goes in there, like an old wound maybe?
Now I know the color of this picture is hugely different from the pictures of the stages of painting, this is the scan of the painting. You can really see the vibrancy of the greens, whereas the other pictures are all taken with my cell phone under lamps and some with cool natural light.
Once I get set up with a printer again, I’ll definitely be making prints and note cards of this one; I love the colors and textures! I hope you liked seeing all the steps of painting as I worked, please leave me a comment if you like. Please share my website with your friends! You can also follow me on Instagram to see more updates on my projects, look for Mary_McAndrew_Artist.
Another adventure into the snowy, cold back garden! I sketched this scene on January 17, 2023 then worked on the painting in February. I seem to be drawn to this Hawthorn tree and wall, it’s the same one I sketched last year in March on a rainy cold morning. I just love old Hawthorn trees because they usually twist and twine together and bend and grow shaped by prevailing winds.
Another thing I love in winter is the dry grasses; the color of it and how it lays in clumps, it’s strands making such interesting forms. I like looking at them to see where voles and mice have made entrance holes to hideaways. The other thing I love about this wall is all the moss of course! It’s a fun challenge to paint and I will be doing a lot more paintings and studies of it.
I used my very small sketchbook and drew the sketch above using a permanent ink pen. I did this from life, standing right in front of the tree and wall as you see in the previous photo. I did have my big mittens on with the flip back top so I could use my fingers, but it’s still a challenge to draw!
The picture above shows what I did next. I took the small original drawing (bottom right) and scanned it. Then I printed it out on plain computer paper, and looking at the photo I took, I drew darker lines on the printed paper and used white out to block lines that I didn’t want, like where I drew lines through a branch etc. Then I scanned that large one I edited and printed it again but at the size I wanted, a bit smaller.
Above it shows my light table, I put the scanned edited drawing on the light table and taped my watercolor paper on top. Then with the light on (of course) I traced with light lines using a pencil. Now it’s ready to use for painting! I like doing this because it’s always from my original sketch, not traced ever from a photo! A sketch/drawing will always have more character, not a perfect copy but maybe unnecessary details left out and others enhanced.
I decided to do this painting in gouache, as it’s my new medium and I love exploring it’s properties. I decided to use a thin base color of purply violet, I started light then darker layers to define the shaded areas.
This is a shot of my palette where I’m mixing my colors. I made it from the plastic cover of a notebook that I cut off and taped it onto mat or mount board. I have a travel palette that keeps the paint wet and soft just above this. I take a bit of wet gouache out and put it in little blobs on the mixing palette as I work, this keeps my travel palette cleaner. I especially do this with the white to keep it clean. As these little blobs dry out, I just rewet them as needed.
Above I mixed up some brownish purple color for the ground and wall dark areas in a little plastic dish. As I painted I used the waterbrush to blend out the edges to keep it soft, this is a technique I use in watercolors too.
Here you can see I started to put the background tree in and some of the distant wall. The thing is, I really was on the fence as to if I would put any background in at all! I can picture this tree and wall with just a white background, but it’s the landscape painter in me that wants to just put the whole scene in! Maybe someday I’ll repaint it with no background and see how it looks.
I added some sky and grass colors in the field behind.
Here I started to add the greens of the moss and bark on the Hawthorn.
Finally I start to add the greens of the moss on the rocks, trying to be careful and not painting areas of rocks with no moss.
And here I put more color onto the big Ash tree in the background, but try to keep it light. The lighting on my painting is terrible but I think I was painting at night time and this is using my cell phone.
Oh boy, look how crowded it looks on my table! This is working at a plastic 2’x4′ folding table in the living room, because that’s where the WOODSTOVE is!! haha. You can see my mixing palette and the paint container palette just above it, with my water just above that in a ceramic container. In the middle is the painting clipped onto my work board and above that is the printed out drawing I did. On the left is a photo reference for details and a bit for the color, and above that can you see the little study I did in my blog post “Stone Wall Studies in Gouache”. That is a great reference for color, moss and stones that I can refer to anytime.
I really liked how my painting was looking now, it’s really come to life for me, but a Hawthorn isn’t a Hawthorn without it’s berries! The tree had lots of dried out berries of deep red, just waiting for hungry Blackbirds or greedy Fieldfares! So I used an old trick by touching the end of my brush to paint on my mixing palette then made the round mark one at a time. I practiced on scrap paper first to see what color and thickness of paint I should use.
“Hawthorn and Mossy Wall”, gouache.
And here it is finished finally! I didn’t talk about putting the grass in front of the tree but that is an important part. As shown earlier, I put dark colors down first then this allowed me to use very light gouache on top to make grass strokes. It’s fun to arrange them so they look natural and they give a lot of movement to a drawing or painting. Then I added the dead leaves on the ground too.
I know I did this weeks ago when the snow was still flying, but today (April 2) I’m posting it after being outside in a sunny garden! We thought the sun would never shine again, it’s been so cloudy and grey! Soon we’ll be planting veg and flowers in the gardens and watching all the bees and insects come. I’d like to do some insect and wild flower studies and paintings, so we’ll see what comes this spring and summer!
(You can also follow me on Instagram as “mary_mcandrew_artist” and Facebook as “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration”, both of these I share more up to date progress of things I’m working on.)
Gary and I went out for a quick drive in mid February even though it was overcast and cold. We drove through Newcastleton in the Scottish Borders and up the lane that goes right out of the village (as the locals refer to Newcastleton) and up onto the moors.
This is the first view you get when you pull up, a nice bench for enjoying the beautiful scenery.
We pulled up to see the views and got out to take a look around. This is a sign about the Langholm Moor Project to help bring back the Hen Harriers. Hen Harriers are the same thing as the Marsh Hawks I used to see over my back fields in Clarence Center, NY!
There was an interesting structure made of rocks down a little grass path, so I went to check it out.
There was a very long sturdy bench built into the wall, which curved around in an arc. It was a great place to shelter out of the wind and I liked the way it blended into the surroundings naturally.
There was a plaque dedicated to Lord Eskdaill on his 21st birthday. I’ll have to look him up and learn about him; I found the spelling of his name interesting and I’m still learning about local history.
This is the view from the shelter, but I don’t think that little tree was supposed to be right there in the middle! It probably grew up by mistake. I was thinking that some wildflowers would look great growing around the grass circle.
This is the view I decided to use for my painting. I worked from this photo even though it’s much duller than the actual colors were. As I worked on it at home, I checked my colors by looking at the land and trees outside my windows.
First I did a light sketch in pencil on 140 lb watercolor paper.
I’m using the gouache lightly, just like watercolors, I’ll build up colors in layers. I’m sorry I didn’t take any other step by step photos as I worked! I think I worked on this one at night and just did it until it was done.
“View From Langholm Moor”, gouache Feb 17, 2023
Here it is finished! (click to see it enlarged) I had fun doing the grass in the foreground by first putting dark browns down then brushing lighter grasses on top. Then I went back and adjusted the colors of the fields in the background, trying to balance colors, lights and darks until it looked right.
I’m looking forward to getting up there again as the spring and summer brings new growth and colors to paint!
(Please click on photos to see enlarged, click again for larger view.)
Blocking in base colors.
For these two new little studies I’m working from photos I took this Autumn of a wall in our back garden. Instead of braving the elements right now, I’m painting in the sitting room with a wood fire going! I’m still a bit new to gouache but the more I use it the more I like it. Above you see I start by blocking in colors and shapes of areas with not much added detail.
Getting those darks laid in there.
If there is a dark area like under plants or in crevices, put them in early. This way you can paint lighter details on top and they will really show up. The rocks in the foreground had a violet coloring, that was fun to put in and see if it worked.
Adding the moss on top of the rocks.
After getting the rock colors right I dabbed on greens for moss, leaving the lightest values to use last. I used a very rough dry brush to dab paint on that wasn’t very wet. After it’s all dry I added the tiny wisps of dry grass over areas. I was also trying to use different brush strokes and dabs to create the fern fronds.
Working on my studies in my little cigar box pochade, with gouache paints and palette.
The picture above shows I’m using my very small cigar box plein air kit that I’ve created to use as a pochade box. I’ve tried to make it small and very lightweight so I can carry it in a backpack. It has a mount attached to the bottom that clips onto a tripod. But indoors I just set it on the table and use it to see how everything fits and if there was anything I could leave out.
What I want to point out is the bright blueish purple blotch and the blue one next to that at the right side of the paper. They were blotches from when I was just messing around with the gouache. I took a very wet brush and repeatedly wet, scumbled and lifted color with paper towel to remove the color as much as I could. It was stained into the paper so I decided to just work on top of it.
Painting on top of purple and blue stained paper.
When I looked at my reference photo, the stones had a cool cast to them so I thought I’d give it a go. I first lightly sketched the rocks in using a small brush to make the crevices between the rocks. You can clearly see the purple and blue colors in the paper! I started to dabble on the moss and the yellow color in some rocks.
Adding darks at base of wall, then leaves.
Then, at the base of the wall, I put dark burnt umber and sepia brown as a background. Then when you paint leaves and stems on top, they show up nicely. But this is the tricky part for me still, trying to have opacity and rich color but light enough to show up on the dark colors.
Here’s a better view of my little cigar box set up. The study is quite small but I’m very happy with how it came out. You can also see the two little studies I did last summer by our stone barn. (When you click the picture below you’ll see them much better.) I experimented by approaching them in different ways. The left one I put down black brown background and then painted the stones on top. The right one I first painted a dirty yellow ochre color (more of the stone color) then painted the crevices of the rocks. Then I added different colors of rocks on top. I definitely think some more studies of the barn walls would be a great idea!
I’m finding the gouache colors, chroma and values really lend themselves to woodland, mossy rocks, trees and muted color scenes. So many times I’ve seen gouache paintings that are all bright colors and scenes, but right now I’m attracted to their softer look. I have started using them with some of the children’s book style paintings I’m doing and that’s really different for me. This is still a new medium for me so there’s lots to try out and discover!
I’ve already completed two gouache paintings since doing these studies, and I’m very happy with how they came out! One is from a photo I took of an old Beech tree along a favorite walk we had in Northumberland. The other is a photo right from my back garden here in the Scottish Borders, an old Hawthorn tree and mossy wall in winter. Those will be shared in posts coming up.
Thank you for stopping by to read about my painting adventures and to those who have been following me, thanks for being patient as I know my posts are very sporadic! I AM working very hard and always have some projects on the go. I’m looking into buying a good printer so I can produce prints as I used to before I moved to the UK. Then I can offer my new works and old, and get my website organized for that. Always something to work on isn’t there?!
You can see current photos I share while I’m working on paintings, on my Facebook page “Mary McAndrew Painting and Illustration” and on Instagram as “mary_mcandrew_artist”. Follow me there to see the up to date goings on and some photos of the views I see around me here in the Borders.
Since moving to our new home here in the Scottish Borders, we’ve been graced with the presence of hares in our garden. They actually live all around us, running wild on the hills, grazing in the green sheep fields and sometimes spotted loping down the lane on the verge. But our first season here we kept noticing what appeared to be an old hare, like a wise soul, hanging around our garden even when we were outside working.
Hares are extremely timid and do not go near people as a rule. Our garden is still very wild and has lots of long grass. Our property is surrounded by fields used for sheep so it’s kind of like a little haven for hares and rabbits. I’m not so thrilled having rabbits, being an avid gardener of vegetables, fruits and flowers. We have a 2′ fence around the garden, that’s an easy hop for a hare, but they haven’t bothered. They are not little angels though, they seem to like trying everything out, snipping off flower heads and stems of so many things!
Baby Leveret
This past spring I found a nest of baby hares or leverets down in our paddock, tucked into long grass and daffodil greens. We left the whole area alone for quite some time, then weeks later we started to spot the growing babies here and there by the house. Every evening the mother would come and two leverets would run to her to nurse. The amazing thing is we have this very large window that looks right onto the driveway and she would meet them right there. At the time there was also a big rabbit population too and to see all this activity was like cuteness overload! But a few times the mother hare nursed her babies right in front of us, I was so excited to get some pictures! I also set up a wildlife camera and got some interesting footage of their night time antics too.
Below is a video clip of the mother with one of the babies. Please excuse the blurriness when I zoom in and out! I removed the sound because I was talking loud so Gary could hear me in the other room. Watch for the little baby rabbit in the background too.
Below is a little gouache painting I did of ‘our’ leverets. Click any picture to see it larger and clearer.
“Two Leverets”, gouache.
First I did two pages of pencil sketches working from photos I’d taken, then I drew over them with permanent ink, and erased the pencil. I like the softness and detail of shading with the pencil sketches but because they are for reference to be handled often, I ink them. The other reason is if I like one of the inked sketches I can then trace it onto watercolor paper using my light table. Now I’ll share with you the sketches and some stages of painting to get to the finished little painting above.
Pencil studies of leverets
From the above page of sketches, I used the top right sketch and the bottom left sketch for my painting.
Having a good wash!
Below is a page that I drew ink over the pencil and erased gently. Sometimes I like the way they ‘pop’ out after you erase away the pencil but it also removes any subtle hatching or shading which I like.
Inked over pencil studies of leverets
I transferred the drawings onto watercolor paper by tracing using a light table. I decided to use only gouache because I’m really trying to teach myself this new medium by practice.
It started out as two separate studies.
Above, I first put pale yellow green around and then pale green grass on top of that.
Then I added more grass, darker blades.
Above, I added more dark areas around so that I could add lighter opaque strokes over it.
I worked on more details on the hare.
I added more details then decided to combine the two studies into one painting.
You can see the actual size of the painting above. I left the hare in the back, less detailed and paler than the front one.
Washing his face and paws.
And below is the finished little painting!
Finished!
Welcome to my Blog!
The most up to date information about my artwork, nature sketching adventures, or step by step demonstrations. Search using Categories or Tags, or use the search box in the left column.
Please sign up below to get notified when I post new articles.
