Illustration + Nature Sketching
I’ve been sketching lots of flowers lately and as we’re starting the live version of Introduction to Botanical Sketching this week (you can still join the feedback group!) I thought I’d share a bit more of my process for quick botanical sketches. Plants are a great subject to draw for beginners, as they are very … Read more
Between the last post and this one, spring has really arrived. One day it’s just a few blooming flowers here and there, and when you look around suddenly everything is full of fresh green leaves and you can’t see the birds in the trees anymore. I took the opportunity to sketch Japanese cherry blossoms and … Read more
Every spring, I’m waiting for the days finally getting brighter and warmer, and for the first small flowers to come out. This year we had quite the warm winter here in Germany, and a few of the spring flowers were already blooming in February. And now finally everything is sprouting and blooming – including the … Read more
I’m back from my spring break! During my vacation I visited a small zoo – I had planned to do some live drawing, but due to the weather it fell through, I only managed to get some rainy photos. But it was nice to sit down over the next days and recollect. I ended up … Read more
This week, the remake of my course on painting clouds is coming out, yay! I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I think it’s a definite upgrade to the last version. The course has an introduction on how to paint skies, lessons about choosing blues and how to get great mixes for clouds, … Read more
Welcome back to another sketchbook tour. Right now it seems like there’s nothing happening in my sketchbook at all – I’m busy with filming an online course (which means painting outside of the sketchbook), there’s an illustration project to finish, and I’m also still very slow – my health is only getting better in baby … Read more
Shadows are a great way to show the form of your subject, they can help to make a sketch appear more three-dimensional. With light and shadow, you can shape and sculpt your drawing. So adding values (the degree of lightness or darkness of an object) is almost always a good idea. How do I add … Read more
Just a quick announcement for those of you who are interested in a basic drawing course: I’m currently offering my foundational drawing course called “Sketching Fundamentals“. It comes in two different versions – as a self-directed course (you can start right away and go through the class at your own pace), or as a guided … Read more
As many of you know, I’ve been sketching orchids in the field last summer in several places, and I thought it would be nice to turn all my sketches into more finished artworks. In this post I wanted to share the process of doing this with you – in fact this has turned into quite … Read more
At the end of every year I like to use the quieter days between the years for winding down, reading and for a bit of reflection: what did I do this year, what went well, what didn’t and what are my plans for the next year. I do this for my art (where it’s often … Read more
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
I’ve been collecting a lot of wildflower seedpods throughout the summer months, mostly roadside finds from plants around the neighborhood. I thought it might be nice to take a closer look and do a sketching session with some of the seedpods. A lot of them are as beautiful and intricately built as the flower itself, … Read more