Illustration + Nature Sketching
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 …
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 …
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: …
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 …
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 …
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. https://youtu.be/e4wLtBqDJlM If you can’t see the video above, watch it here. P.S. I’m currently working on updating my …
The other week, I took a walk (when that was still a less stressful activity, and still an option) and I actually spotted a kingfisher near the river of our city. It has been over 15 years since I saw a kingfisher and I was really excited to see this beautiful bird! I heard the …
In this post, I want to try and give an explanation of why I think art is important, especially now. Here’s a video of this post: https://youtu.be/V8nZX6ueJOs If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it. My very first encounter with art as a child was probably a children’s book, or a …
Before I show you the next in my little bird-sketching video series I want to say a big thank you for everyone’s support, comments and thoughts over the last few days, I deeply appreciate it! I’m especially grateful for those who bought a class from me and gave a bit more through the pay what …
I’m keeping myself occupied by sketching birds right now and by filming the process for you. Here I have two different sketches of seagulls (a herring gull, to be precise) in pencil and watercolor. I like to keep these sketches quick and less detailed than a full illustration. I have had some fun encounters with …
Today I’m starting my post a bit differently than usual, but we live in unusual times. Here in Germany, we are preparing bit by bit for a complete lockdown due to the coronavirus situation, a measure that is already in place in several European countries. I still have the hope that Germany can avoid it …
Here’s my sketchbook tour for February. Currently I love doing bird studies (as well as simply watching them), and I’m exploring painting in gouache a bit more. I might need to start a separate sketchbook for these studies, to keep them all in one place. Here is a video version of this post: https://youtu.be/U8I3YjlgrGY Click …
If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you know I made a few updates to my watercolor palette last year (read more about my previous palette layouts here and here), mainly about arrangement and a few pigments, and now I’ve changed my palette again. This time the changes are more prominent. I’ve shared my …
Let’s take a look at primary colors and how understanding them gets you better mixing results. You can watch a more or less similar video version on this topic here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r61SySIghDU Colors in painting are an important tool – they’re not actually the most important for getting a painting to look right (that would be …
This month I’ve returned to sketching more birds, which is something I’ve missed, and continued my mammal studies. I’ve also introduced a bit of gouache painting into my sketchbook, which I haven’t done in a long time – gouache is opaque watercolor, and it can be combined with watercolors very well. In fact, all I …