Illustration + Nature Sketching
I’ve put together a new video class for those of you who want to make their own sketchbook. Basic bookbinding skills are not hard to learn and you can easily bind self-made journals that cost a fraction of store-bought sketchbooks. The great thing about this is that you can use the exact paper you want, …
First of all, thank you everyone for the massive feedback you all sent after my last post – I’ll definitely do an update on my first year without social media – I only see this as the beginning, or rather, deleting the profiles as the end point to something I no longer needed. I’ll just …
It’s been one year since I deleted my social media accounts. I checked my calendar: I deleted my Facebook account in the middle of June 2019, and Instagram followed at the start of July 2019. So it’s been one year without any of those services.Except for Youtube, which I like as a tool to share …
Here are some quick tips for sketching butterflies that I’ve collected over time (the tips, not the butterflies). Watch the video version with a sketching demo:Quick tips for sketching butterflies. Here are my tips for sketching butterflies in list form: If you have more tips, feel free to share them! Learn more about sketching butterflies …
Summer is the time for observing many different kinds of insects. I know there are probably other species that seem cuter and more accessible, but maybe none that is stranger. When I pause to sketch insects, I never stop to think about how weird they truly are, and what their world must look like with …
After last week’s International Nature Journaling week is over now, it’s time for me to recollect. I’ve seen so many amazing journal pages – learning about nature and how other people use their journals always brings something new to my own sketchbook. There were so many cool ideas that people integrated in their pages, and …
We’re approaching the last two days of the International Nature Journaling Week. The days have gone by so fast, but I managed to fit in a nature sketch almost each day, next to my other painting duties. I had a lot of fun sketching my favorite fungi that I remember from foraging – I learnt …
I hope you’re enjoying the prompts for the International Nature Journaling week which is happening right now! I promised myself I would try to participate as much as I can, so I did two quick pages for the first two days. The theme yesterday was plants – I’m already looking forward to the video recording …
In this landscape watercolor tutorial (with a little bit of gouache and colored pencil mixed in) I share how I paint foliage, foamy and translucent water. I’m still enjoying making landscape paintings from vacation photos, this time from a mountain stream in the Italian alps – in fact I’d love to go back there right …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …