Illustration + Nature Sketching
Drawing is the fundamental skill behind keeping a sketchbook, visualizing your thoughts and making a great painting. Having well-practiced drawing skills will help you immensely when you’re trying to express yourself artistically. So learning to draw is the best gift you can give to yourself as an artist. Here are some tips to help you …
Last week I showed you how effective it can be to limit the colors on your palette for a sketch. I find it can be a good method to get better at mixing, and to really get to know your paints (or some colors that you have lying around that you don’t use enough…) As …
Last week I rediscovered a landscape sketching video I must have made last year and totally forgot about. I remember the scene though, I took the photo I painted from later very early on a summer day, with morning mist still densely on the fields, and the sun just about to peek through. It was …
Welcome to another sketchbook tour, we haven’t had one of these in a while. During this winter, I really focused on pencil drawings, since I was working on my recently released drawing class at the same time. I’ve forgotten what a versatile, expressive medium a single pencil can be. I experimented a bit with inks …
“Learning to see like an artist” is often described as noticing your subject as a combination of simple shapes instead of a cartoon object that you have in mind. We’re trained to think in object-mode: I see an apple. Apples are supposed to be round, so you draw a round shape – a circle. That, …
I’m happy to announce that my new class Sketching Fundamentals is out now, available on my website and on Skillshare. This class is a foundational drawing class that will teach you basic sketching techniques. In this in-depth introduction, you will learn how to see like an artist, explore different drawing techniques, create quick sketches from …
For the first time in three weeks my desk is free of camera equipment – yesterday I’ve completed filming material for the Sketching Fundamentals class. I’ve been working on this course for so long now and I’m really looking forward to finish it and getting it out to you. There are still a few odds …
It’s going to be another short post this week since I’m filming the new drawing class. Above is a page put together from several of my winter walks: I got to see a pair of great crested grebes who are changing into their nuptial plumage now – they are spectacular looking birds. We followed badger …
Dear readers, I have a question for you this week: I’m in the process of putting together and filming the foundational drawing class. It’s going slower than I had planned, and although I already have a few hours worth of material, I can still add things. I have already planned in short mini lessons for …
I was asked if I could do a post about my favorite colors for landscape sketching. I have talked about the colors on my watercolor palette before, but this got me thinking: do I have any favorite colors? Here’s a video version of this post: My favorite colors for landscape sketching (video) I’m a bit …
After I shared my big wildlife illustration project last week I got a lot of lovely feedback from you (thanks so much!) and a few inquiries if I do sell prints or original paintings. I’m happy to announce that I do – if there is any interest. I’m currently working on a way to make …
I’ve recently finished a big project that I’ve produced a lot of new artwork for, and I thought I’d share a bit about it. All of the pieces were for three different information boards about local protected areas and show a variety of wildlife and plants. A smaller information board shows local orchids. I learnt …
I like to have a few colored pencils around for sketching, but I don’t usually use them alone. Rather, I combine them with watercolor to add texture and detail. I find colored pencils can often bring out certain fine details better and in a more controlled way than fiddling with fine brushes, and sometimes I …
I love complex lighting situations, and this scene is probably as close to my original photographic series of folk tale landscapes as I can get with my cirrent sketching technique. In this scene I was -again- attracted by how the light fell through the trees, and in this case the scene almost appears graphic – …
Welcome to 2022 on my blog! I still have a few sketchbook outtakes to share from the end of last year, and a few from January, so I might as well start with a sketchbook tour.Most of these still are studies of local orchids and other plants. In 2022 I started things very slowly with …