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My Sketchbook In June 2019

hoher meissner 1

Here are my sketchbook pages for June. I sketched a lot of butterflies for an upcoming class, as well as the obligatory birds and some flora. Something I’ve also enjoyed – without having it mastered fully – is painting quick landscapes. I’m planning to do more of these quick small sketches, as they give a great sense of place and mood. Read on for a few details of the last month in my sketchbook.

I’m still drawing birds, although my Common Birds project is on hold right now. The jackdaw is a smaller corvid that has bright blue eyes and likes to nest in colonies.

Three different butterflies as preparation for a new online course – actually I regularly see two of them when I’m outside, so it’s interesting to observe the details on these butterflies.

More butterflies in different techniques. Watercolor and colored pencil on the left, and ink drawings on the right.

Another page of corvid birds, this time a magpie. We have quite a few in the neighborhood, they’re very curious and loud. Note how I rescued the not so great ink sketch by simply adding a few notes to it – suddenly it’s not about the sketch anymore, but about the notes.

Another page with local butterflies, showing how you can add contrast to white wing edges by adding a dark background. On the right, experiments with colored paper and a black redstart. These small songbirds have suddenly appeared around the house lately.

A detailed sketch of a small geranium that I encountered on a hike.

More butterflies, this time from my online class on how to paint butterflies.

A hike through the Hoher Meißner region which I already visited with my sketchbook in February. It’s so interesting to see how a landscape changes through the seasons, and there was a lot of lovely flora to see, particularly a lot of lupines.

Another landscape sketch, this time from the other side of the same hill, I think this could use a bit more contrast. And I found a rare kind of loosestrife in a pond along the way (Tufted Loosestrife) that has beautiful yellow pompom flowers and grows directly in the water.

I also finished my current sketchbook and am looking forward to starting he next one, as always with the first page reserved for small weather sketches – here’s an entire page of weather thumbnails from April through June.

That was an outtake of my sketchbook in June, I hope you enjoyed it. I’d love to hear what you have been drawing lately.

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7 thoughts on “My Sketchbook In June 2019”

  1. Thanks for sharing, this is very inspirational. I love the page with the magpies, we have them here in Edmonton, Canada, and you have really captured their gestures!

    1. Thank you very much! I love watching magpies, and they seem to be present almost everywhere in the world.

  2. Just wonderful, like all your journal content. I enjoyed your butterfly skillshare class very much and keep on to practise.

  3. Isabel Patchett

    Thank you so much for sharing your June sketchbook pages they are so lovely. We are going through a very cold winter at present here in Melbourne Australia , I cannot wait for Spring to come with all her beautiful colours.

    1. Oh I can imagine you’re longing for spring! I’ll send a few warm sun rays in your direction. 🙂

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