Illustration + Nature Sketching
My friend Bethan from Brisbane, Australia is offering an awesome online event for nature journalers: the International Nature Journaling week from 1-7th June 2020. During the next week nature sketchers will come together as a world-wide community to celebrate and document the beauty and diversity of of the natural world. Each day during International Nature … Read more
Today I show how I’m sketching a hare in watercolor. This video was requested by one of my readers – I love getting in touch with all of you and learning more about what you would like to see. So if you ever have a certain topic you want to learn more about, or if … Read more
I wanted to give a quick update on my shopping ban. I started the experiment in December 2019, and I meant it to be a disruption to my usual buying habits. In the mean time we got another disruption which has pretty much turned my shopping ban into the new normal. If you want to … Read more
Here’s another coast scene in watercolor (and a bit of gouache). I have a lot of fun doing these with my old vacation pictures! When painting landscapes in watercolor, you can slowly build up layers of color and give a lot of depth to the objects you paint, like rocks or water. And if you … Read more
Today I want to show you the different techniques for gouache that I use and how you can get started with gouache paint in your sketchbook. I like to have one pan in my field kit filled with white gouache, so that I have an opaque white which I can also mix with the other … Read more
It’s been a while since I’ve seen snow here, but painting winter landscapes in gouache can still be fun. I’ve shown this landscape in an earlier sketchbook tour and repainted it for this tutorial. Painting a subject again can be weird – sometimes it gets better, sometimes not. The painting process is always enjoyable, though. … Read more
Here’s another short tutorial that’s available in full length in the How to draw birds class: I’m painting a goldfinch in watercolor. Goldfinches are pretty, colorful birds that I often see in late summer when they’re feeding on sunflower seeds. Like many finches, they love all kinds of seeds, and they have the right beak … Read more
One of the new tutorials in How to draw birds is a barn owl. These big birds are so beautiful – I recently watched one, just before the lockdown began, in a local wildlife park, and later made this painting from a reference. Their plumage is a joy to paint with the small light and … Read more
In the past weeks I’ve been working on an update for my bird drawing class. I’ve added 7 new bird painting tutorials to the class. You requested most of them like the goldfinch, red cardinal, mallard, woodpecker and waxwing. Although the class focuses on drawing songbirds, I’ve also added two tutorials that feature raptor birds: … Read more
My sketchbook tour will be a bit different this month as I have been doing a lot of painting at home since the lockdown, and my sketching activities in nature have stopped entirely. I’ve been recording a lot of bird sketching tutorials, some of them I’ve already shared on Youtube, some of them will be … Read more
I’ve been painting in gouache a lot lately. Since plein air painting will be off the menu for quite a while, I’ve looked through old vacation photos and use those as a subject. I have a lot of material from recent years! I quite like this process, since a lot of memories of great places … Read more
Here’s a quick video I did back in the winter months when I saw a lot of fieldfares. They typically come in small swarms and eat up all the apples that are still hanging on the trees. If you can’t see the video above, watch it here. P.S. I’m currently working on updating my bird … Read more