What did you think I’d be doing on Mother’s Day? It was gorgeous outside and I had the day to myself until later when my son comes over, so off I went for a walk with my sketch journal!
female bluebird I met along the way
Along the way I captured this shot of a female Bluebird, I’m so happy it came out. I didn’t use my long lens today, so the camera was actually easier to hand hold. (click to see as Note Card where you can see up close)
My watercolor crayons in a vinyl case so I can scatter them as I worked.
I was thrilled to find that the land on one side of the field was actually sort of dry. I mean I’ve been wading through water for weeks now, so any dry grass was pretty great. Before walking at all I decided to sit right down and have a go with my kit. I knew something would strike me. Above you can see something new I tried that worked great; I brought this empty vinyl case along and when I was ready just opened it and put it on the ground. I took my watercolor crayons and set the box right inside it, as I used colors I could just plop them in front and find them easier as I worked. This would be good to use for the watercolor pencils too, as they get lost easily in the grass.
Putting color down around a round plastic shape.
I wrote some notes at the top of my paper as I sat, not even caring about painting, just enjoying the great weather. Then I decided I’d try to put a landscape but leave a circle in the foreground to fill with something. I have a piece of plastic I cut from a plastic milk carton and just filled in green watercolor crayon around it.
Blocking on more green for grass, sky has been painted a bit.
As I decided where my horizon line would be I colored blue in the sky, leaving the clouds just blank paper. (lately I’ve been doing them with white wax to ‘block’ them out using a resist method, this time it’s just bare paper)Â I then brought the green up as far as I thought it should go, then wet my paper with the big brush to blend all and used a brown crayon to put trees in on the wet paper. I like how sharp the trees can look if you put them on wet paper; if you draw them dry first and then wet them, they can get fuzzy looking.
My set up on the grass, balancing my sketch journal on my knee.
Here’s my set up, as I sat on my piece of vinyl and kept everything in easy reach. I actually leaned on one elbow to do most of this sketch, and quite smartly tucked an empty sandwich bag under my elbow. By the time I was done, my elbow would have been soaked!
The real scene behind my sketchbook, the clouds have already floated by.
So here’s the sketch with the ‘real’ scene behind it, I don’t really like the greens of the watercolor crayons, but more practice will help. Sometimes I admit I could do a better job but when working in the field either the weather is too cold or my back hurts then I just want to hurry up. So I try to work fast, I can always touch up later if I want, or leave it as a study.
This is the page as I finished it in the field, dandelions and all.
This is my study finished in the field, I decided to put dandelions in the small circle as they were everywhere. First I lightly sketched in pencil then went over it with a brown Windsor Newton Permanent ink with a dip nib pen. Then I colored them in by touching the brush tip (a finer one) to the crayons then painting. I colored the letters the same way using a blue crayon. I really want to go back and tone down that green on that grass! Yikes!
Field sketch after touching it up back at home.
Well here’s the sketch after I got home and touched up the greens and added the yellow dandelions.
Leopard Frog
On our way after that sketch, I kept seeing Leopard Frogs. If I stood still I would start to pick them out of their hiding places.
Leopard Frog
I was really getting good at it! As you walk by they get scared into the water…then if you stop a few steps away, they would seem to appear everywhere. I imagined a funny cartoon of a photographer stopping to look for frogs, the way in front of her clear, but behind her all these little heads popped up in the water! haha, well it’s me of course!
mystery water bug
This was really cool, I noticed as I stood watching for frogs without moving, a little something moving in the water below me. I swore they were just catkins from the tree floating along the bottom, but it’s a standing pool of water and instinct told me otherwise. I bent over and kept watching them and remembered reading about larvae that formed cases by ‘gluing’ stuff around them. I got this great shot of it actually poking out of the case a bit! I am not sure yet what it is, have to look it up.
Long Lane green and lush.
Here’s Long Lane on the way back home. It’s green and lush in this very wet spring we’re having. It’s a bounty for the frogs but that means soon will come the mosquitoes too!
I hope you enjoyed this springtime walk with me and my sketching. I hope you go out and capture some nature the way I did, just stop and stand or sit still and you’ll be amazed at what you notice.
Enjoyed this very much!
Thank you so much for sharing your walk. I just love all the photos, especially the elusive frogs. Your page is beautiful. What a great idea to work around the circle to highlight the dandelions.
Hi Patsy, thanks so much, glad you enjoyed it! I always hope people will like all my nature photos too. I like leaving little frames sometimes, but usually I forget and start drawing right away.
Hi Don, Glad you liked it! thanks for stopping by!
I really like the little landscapes you are doing with the watercolor crayons. This one is very nice. Interestingly, I have that same vinyl case and am using it for my neocolor II crayons. It works great.
What a super post – so interesting! I think those lavae may be cadis flies. When I was a child, we used to keep them in an old sink up the garden and give them little beads etc to use for their cases – made them look pretty! (I am ashamed to say that we also delighted in tickling them with a blade of grass until they popped out of their cases…)
Coincidently, the Castle museum here in Norwich (UK) currently has an exhibition of these little creatures and they have been encouraged to make their caseds with precious stones and suchlike. Beats my childhood beads.
Enjoyed the walk and your techniques!
Awesome sketch, beautiful page! =)
Lovely sketches and photos, thanks for sharing.
Great blog! I love frogs too! Actually had a tree frog, Triangle, that lived in our house for 6 years. He would eat flys out of your hand!
Continued success!
Hey Karen, that’s really funny we’re using the same case! Do you mean my turquoise one that I lay the crayons in or the white plastic hard case? I like the idea of laying my things in a case on the ground so I can pick through them, but usually I work standing up! I wouldn’t mind trying to find more watercolor crayons that are sold individually, I can’t wait to try the Inktense Blocks, that might be what I need.
Hi Margaret, Thanks for dropping in. I’m so glad you shared your story, I think it sounds really neat and wish I could see that exhibit with the Cadis Flies…precious stones!?? Wish I could glue a few onto me! haha. I find nature fascinating and can’t wait to come back to England for more exploration. Do you get out walking much in the Norwich area? I just had a quick look at your blog, LOVE the snail salt and pepper shakers, but then, I LOVE snails!
Thanks so much Sandra, thanks for taking time to comment. Keep coming back and we’ll see where else I wander….
Hi Alex, thanks for the vote of “Awesome”! Glad you liked it!
Thanks Janene, I’m glad you came by to see. I loved your last sketch of the eagles soaring in the clouds, really nice!
Hi Lyn, your tree frog sounds really cool, is it native to your area or was it a ‘pet’? I think frogs are very interesting and really want to take time to do a nicer painting of some, one of these days! Thank you!
Mary, I have the turquoise case. I have neocolor II and a set of Staedtler wc crayons and some pens and a niji waterbrush in it. It works very well for me.
Your posts are always so interesting, full of ideas and interesting photographs. Love the circular frame with the flower detail!
Great job…..that’s what i wanna do when I grow up…heck I’m going into my mid 60’s now…..gotta go sketch. Cheers.
Artlike
What a gorfeous layout for a journal page and so beautifully executed too. Love your work.
Oops! Sorry for the typo.
Hey Karen, what do you think of the Staedtler wc crayons? Can you buy them separately too? I’m going to look into what brands I can buy individually. I’m sure I bought some kind of crayon from Derwent, but have to look it up. Let me know if you know of any that are sold separately. Thanks for you comment!
Well thanks so much Cathy, glad you’re enjoying it. I’ve been busy with getting another business started, but trying to keep up with my walks and sketching. I hate it when I don’t get to sketch in my journal! But, bear with me as I’ll always put something new out there!
Thanks Ed! haha…never too late to start is it? I think it’s better to never grow up…how do you know what age is ‘grown up’? I think walking, looking at nature and sketching keeps me young! Cheers!!
Hi Dale, thanks for stopping by! I checked your blog and see your from Australia, I have cousins over there. Thanks for your comments, keep coming back!
Mary, I’m not sure if the Staedtler’s can be bought individually. I have only seen them in sets. I got mine at the local office supply store in the educational department. I do think the neocolors are a bit more opaque. I tested by doing a color swatch over a line of permanent black ink. They both seem to dissolve well.
Leaving a hole to fill in later with detail is a brilliant idea!
And re: watercolour pencils, I’ve got a few Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer ones individually from art shops in England and here in Sweden.
What a wonderful adventure in the field! Looks like a perfect day. Thanks for showing your process.
Thanks Charlotte! I teach my students they can use things to trace a small frame area or even color right over as a shield. There are lots of old illustrations for cards that would use a framed subject and put a scene behind it. I usually DON’T remember to draw a frame first though and think of it after! hahah…I’m trying to remember if I have any of that brand, in watercolor pencils I prefer Derwent or Prismcolor and I have some Caran Dache that are pretty juicy when you use them. (this post was done using watercolor ‘crayons’, very different).
You live in Sweden? In the country or city? I’d love to hear more, I don’t know anyone from there so not very familiar with it!
Cheers!
thanks Dan, you know, it really WAS a PERFECT day!! That’s why I wrote on my journal page, I’m just going to sit down and enjoy it, I didn’t even think of drawing for awhile, I just wanted to enjoy the warm grass, sun and birds. NOW the tiny black flies have made an appearance and they can drive you mad, we must enjoy the great days as they come. You’re welcome!
Nice technique. I love to see what others are getting up to. It inspires me to get out with more than my camera and slow down… It’s very wet here in Pennsylvania as well, and it’s really, literally put a damper on what we’d normally be getting up to this time of year. We have a lot of frogs and turtles who are pretty happy about it though. 🙂 Thank you!
Hi Laurie, I was thinking my land would be perfect for turtles, but only saw snapping turtles and that was probably 10 years ago! I wish I had turtles here. I hope it dries up soon too, the mosquitoes like it too much!