NATURE JOURNAL Grey Smokey Skies, Magic Mushrooms, Playing with Pencils, Edith Holden is Here!

 

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

Winter Apples

What kind of apples do you eat? I love "theallsorts". 

All sorts of apples! My favorite is the Honeycrisp! It's PLU (price look-up code) is 3283. This sweet and firm eating apple was released in 1991 from Minnesota.

#4147 is the Jonagold - a cross between the Jonathan and the Golden Delicious.

The Cortland #4106 has been around since 1898!

Stay tuned! There are over 7,500 cultivars of apples!

Watercolor and colored pencil in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

Year of Beautiful Art with Sketchbook Skool: Look for my sketch of Penny the Dog!

I took the Colored Pencil: Sharpen Your Skills course. This sketch was done during Danny's Draw With Me (free) and used in the above video.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils If I was in charge of naming seaweed...

I sketched in the sun, sand, and salty sea spray. Prismacolor Premier colored pencils and watercolor in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

As I walked along the shoreline enjoying the feel of the waves, I discovered many different kinds of seaweed. I made mental notes of each kind along with a fun name to help me remember what it looked like. 

  

Back at the beach blanket, I sketched Tom as he went into the waves, and decorated the page with my algal findings.

Pink Pom-pom Seaweed, Sea Grass, and Sea Lettuce.

Lasagna Noodle Seaweed and Seaweed With-A-Stem-Attached-To-Some-Other-Seaweed.

Bubble-wrap Seaweed and Looks-Like-A-Feather Seaweed.

Nature Journaling outside of the box or in this case without a guide book. You don't always need a Latin binomial or even a botanical level drawing to enjoy recording nature.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Development piece of an interior view...

Waiting in the dentist's office for Tom. Practicing with colored pencils in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal. My only view was of 2 chairs and a window with vertical blinds. Not one person in the room to sketch, so this is a development piece of an interior view also known as practicing sketching chairs .

#PlaysWithPencils Space Rocks! Version 3 (tan background)

Derwent Metallic Pencils in a Strathmore Toned Tan Sketch Paper Journal.

When not tilted toward the light source, the page looks a little blah.

On these rocks I decided to do some mark making with my Lamy fountain pen.

#PlaysWithPencils Space Rocks! ver. 1 and 2 (black backgrounds)

Space Rocks colored with Derwent Metallic Pencils. The left hand version is drawn on black gesso in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal. The right hand version is drawn in a sketchbook with black paper.

The heavy texture in the Jane Davenport comes across even when the page has been gessoed.

Move paper around in the light to catch the metallic glow.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils These Pencils are Blender-iffic!

Look how luscious these Derwent Artists Color Pencils are when blended!

After doing the swatches for this 12 pack, I blended the second row with an alcohol marker blender. This was done in a Crescent Rendr Journal for markers. 

Just a doodle at the bottom of the page. Playing with colored pencils after taking Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse. 

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils COW ALERT! For a good cause...

  

Take the Hay Ride at Buttonwood Farm to meet the friendly Red Angus cows. Colored pencil over watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

If you love to be surrounded by sunflowers, this ride also stops in the center of the flower field. The farm's Sunflowers for Wishes program donates all of their proceeds to the Make A Wish Foundation. This year they raised almost $125,o00!

After the ride get some delicious farm fresh ice cream. And buy a bouquet of flowers for a good cause!

#DrawWithMe Thursdays with Danny Gregory with Lucinda

While Lucinda Rogers sketched the view out her window, she was interviewed by Danny Gregory on #DrawWithMe. (The youtube clip is live and there are audio issues at the beginning.) She first used ink with a brush to establish bold lines and then filled in the detail with a dip pen and ink. A touch of color was added with pencil. 

I sketched the view out my window, also. Here the tree service was taking down a dead tree in the front yard. The man in the bucket was so high up that he doesn't appear in the picture but the limb that he was dropping does.

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Journaling with Amelia

Never too young (with supervision) for  colored pencils! Amelia (20 months) and I are sketching in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal with colored pencils. She likes dinosaurs.

This journal has some heavy texture. Almost too much to get a good smooth cover with the pencils.

Working together we made a beautiful journal page!

Colored Pencil Sunflowers in the Sketchbook Skool Student Bulletin

I shared a comparison of two sunflower pictures, one from about a year ago in Pennsylvania, and another recently done at a farm in Connecticut with my Sketchbook Skool community. 

The smaller older one was done with watercolor and pen and the newer one on the right was done with watercolor and colored pencils after taking Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse.

I love the looseness of this version! I enjoyed the mark making with the pencils over the watercolors. So fun!

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Watercolor and Colored Pencil "At the Sunflower Farm"

At Buttonwood Farm in the sunflower field. Colored Pencils over watercolor in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.

Sitting on a hill overlooking the field. A crowd of Vietnamese visitors between my sketching spot and the flowers. 

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Homework for Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse.

Sketching people practice. I wish I had captured a few visitors as they stood among the sunflower stalks taking pictures! 

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils On the road...with a handful of colored pencils

#SBSColoredPencils  #PlaysWithPencils  Sketchbook Skool homework for the kourse Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills. At the 4H Fair, Brooklyn Ct Fairgrounds. Not easy to hold a sketchbook while standing next to other people, have a selection of colored pencils in one hand and try to sketch animals that insist on being moving targets with the other. 

Let's face it, Roz Stendahl I am not. Lessons learned for next time: bring a spiral sketchbook that will fold over for easier handling and more support; choose one subject and draw that animal over and over in several positions and with different expressions until I become more comfortable with its form; try finding a comfortable place to sit or bring a chair/stool. And a drink. And maybe snacks.

That green blob is a girl in a 4H shirt waiting to show off her calf. This was all sketched from observation in real time, not posed, and shared on-line. Stuck in limbo between Nature Journaling and Urban Sketching?

Some of my Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils. The journal is the one shown below:

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Koh-I-Noor Woodless Colored Pencils: Color Swatches

  

#SBSColoredPencils  #PlaysWithPencils You know the old saying "I'm not an artist, I'm an art supply collector," well, taking a kourse with Sketchbook Skool will inspire you to get out those supplies and actually use them! I completely forgot I had these woodless Koh-I-Noor colored pencils and I had no idea that they were oil-based until I dragged them out to learn and play.

Because they are oil-based, I tried some Turpenoid on them for a blender. I used a Q-tip instead of a brush and I made a bit of a mess. Not at all deterred, I then just blended two colors together by layering one over the other. These pencils do play together quite nicely. 

I love the richness of these jewel-like colors and will have to play with them some more. Just in case you are wondering what this is, she's a "mer-chicken" or a "chicken-o-the-sea".

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils Photo-realism with Prismacolor Verithins and Koojse

#SBSColoredPencils #PlaysWithPencils

Sketchbook Skool's Colored Pencils: Sharpen Your Skills Kourse. Playing with colored pencils to create photo-realism sketches with fakulty member Koojse.

Using Prismacolor Verithins in a Canson XL Bristol Smooth 100 lbs paper spiral journal. Verithins have a hard, thin core making them excellent for a detailed drawing. 

To create an illusion of form, I make the pencil marks follow the shape of the object. I use less pressure in areas for the highlights and add darker hues in areas for shadows.

Verithin swatches on Canson Bristol.

I must have bought all of the Verithins in blister packs because I couldn't find any tins or packaging in the closet. Currently, I keep them in a Global Arts leather pencil case. This case is designed to hold 120 thin pencils. There are two sections (the second section is not shown in the picture). Each section opens and closes independently with a zipper. The pencil holder straps are elastic.