Illustration + Nature Sketching
I’m excited to announce that another sketching class is finished and ready for you. It’s called: Wildflowers in Watercolor and Ink: Introduction to Botanical Sketching and it’s available directly from me or through Skillshare. The class has a lot of the energy I was after this summer, with long field trips, concentrating on new sketching … Read more
As I’ve already mentioned in my sketchbook tour, recently I’ve slowed down my sketching process a bit. As much as I love quick and spontaneous sketching, I’ve found that when I take my time for the drawing I often like the results better. Just to clarify, “taking my time” still means that I will typically … Read more
Something that came up in the recent run-through of my class Sketching Fundamentals and that is also a frequently asked question generally is how do you capture the atmosphere of a place quickly (in drawing or painting) before the light changes, and how to you find a good place to set up and work? I … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
“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, … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
Color theory can appear difficult as there is no absolute rule for identifying a color as either warm and cool – color and temperature perception is something individual. Yet warm-cool relationships are essential to our visual system – our eyes use change in color temperature to help us understand objects in space. And there are … Read more
There are a few different ways you can mix neutral colors. You can get interesting greys and browns with just the slightest hint of their base colors by adding complementary colors together, or simply use the muddy parts on your palette to add neutral areas. Other possibilities are using premixed greys (there are a couple … Read more
In the next outtake from my new class Sketchbook Composition + Layout I’ll show how you can use color to make your compositions more dynamic and interesting. Color is a very powerful design tool, even just the monochrome variant like in the example. Here’s the video: Adding color to sketchbook pages – Sketchbook Composition (video) … Read more
My new class Sketchbook Composition + Layout has just opened and one of the central topics are the individual layout elements you can find on each page – all the elements that you add by drawing, painting, writing and annotating or highlighting. Here’s an outtake video from the course: Layout Elements for Sketchbook Composition (video) … Read more