Possum Patty's Journaling: Gnomes & Nature - Autumn Leaves

 

NATURE JOURNAL Fall Happenings! A Chilly Morning Walk, Colorful Flowers, Leaves, & Berries, Tombow Markers

 

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NATURE JOURNAL Fall Happenings! Inktense Pencils by Derwent

 

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NATURE JOURNAL Journaling after the rain... Fall Color Preview... Fungi Fingers!

 

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NATURE JOURNAL A Magical Walk in the Woods, I hit the Jackpot! Gold X3

 

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NATURE JOURNAL Do you know where the Bumblebees sleep? 3 White Flowers & A Few Berries

 

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NATURE JOURNAL A Super Sidewalk Plant: Purslane!

 

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NATURE JOURNAL 2 Journaling Projects: Zooming in on Flowers, Collecting Blossoms for the Flower Press

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NATURE JOURNAL He loves me, he loves me not... I'm Counting Daisy Petals, Parking Lot Veins on a Leaf, Chipping Sparrow out Hunting

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NATURE JOURNAL My 3rd Ordinary Happiness: Looking at Leaves

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NATURE JOURNAL Getting "Twiggy" with It! I am not afraid of fungus...

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#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #42 Meadow Shrub...

During the winter I was curious about the persistent seed capsules on this meadow shrub. Now that the leaves are coming out, I can take a guess as to what it is. 

It may be a Summersweet (also called Sweet Pepperbush), a Clethra spp. If it is, it will bloom with white spike-like upright clusters of flowers in July and August and attract many species of butterflies and birds. Yay! 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

Nature Journaling at Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center October 7, 2018

Nature Jounaling in the Fall is easy! Pick up a leaf, trace it into your journal, and have fun coloring it in with colored pencils, markers, or watercolors. 

Add interesting touches like drawing a small bit of the twig or adding a shadow. I experimented with using my paint brush to add the names of the leaves on the page. You don't have to know the name of a leaf to draw it! Just enjoy its shape or color.

Leaves that aren't perfect can be amazing subjects because of their small imperfections. Look for holes that a bug might have chewed and make sure to include it!

Ink and watercolor in my Jane Davenport Canvas Journal.

What's on my mind? August 29, 2018 Nature's paint brush...

What's on my mind?

Found a dark red Tupelo (Black Gum) leaf on the ground in the back yard. Both the Tupelo tree and the dragonfly on the August 30th journal page are Water Signs. The Sugar Maples in Connecticut have already been touched by Nature's paint brush: yellow, orange, and red. The Maple Tree holds the wisdom of balance, promise, and practical magic.

#SketchbookRevival Day 4 with Wendy Hollender Seasonal Botanicals: Tulip Tree Buds

The theme for Day 4 of the Sketchbook Revival with Karen Abend is to invite Nature into your sketchbook. The prompt from Wendy Hollender is to use watercolor and colored pencil to sketch a botanical specimen and to learn about the plant by adding notes.

I only put down one layer of watercolor and one layer of colored pencil and then I added some lines with black ink. (Strathmore 400 Series Field Watercolor Journal) That's not exactly how the lesson goes - but that is more or less my style.

I added some notes:

Liriodendron tulipifera

1. The bilateral halves of the leaf blade are folded into a flag-like outline at the leaf emergence.

2. Distinctive rounded stipules occur at the base of each petiole (3) on the young leaves. They abscise during the summer.

4. Terminal bud is valvate (duck-billed).

5. Lateral buds are smaller.

6. Leaf scar.

7. Circling stipule scars.

In stitches over what I put into my journal...

These Turkey Oak leaves (Not Southern Turkey Foot Oak, non-native Quercus cerris.) were painted on fabric and then machine stitched, hand stitched, and finally pasted down into my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media journal.

Placing some cotton material into an embroidery hoop, I put some old fabric markers to good use.

Added more color with the Derwent Inktense colored pencils.

After painting, I removed the fabric from the hoop, placed some batting underneath, and quilted around each leaf. I did this "free style" by removing the foot on the sewing machine and dropping the feed dogs. 

Some hand embroidery for texture. I think these are called seed stitches. 

The material is a dark natural hue. I decided the project needed more color and added some blue and white to the background. Oh yeah, who could resist a touch of Spectrum Noir sparkly autumn colors markers.

Well, what can I say besides "That was fun." 

How to Nature Journal like Henri Matisse...

How to Nature Journal Like Henri Matisse...

First, be inspired by nature. Now you can not possible tell me that Henri Matisse was not absolutely obsessed with the Turkey Oak, Quercus cerris. It is native to SE Europe and Asia Minor. These leaves are from a specimen which grows in a cemetery in Reading, PA. 

 

Nature on the top, Matisse on the bottom. You find the Turkey Oak leaf shape repeated over and over in many of his works.

As soon as you are inspired, get your studio assistants to cut up pieces of white paper for you. 

Then instruct them to paint the pieces with gouache. You, of course, should absolutely pick out the colors.

For good measure and to keep them busy (nothing worst than idle studio assistants), have them give the pieces a second coat of gouache.

While you lay in bed (or on the couch, as seen here) have the assistants hand you the pieces of colored paper. Take a pair of scissors and cut out organic shapes.

I've matched the shape of these Turkey Oak leaves. But you can be inspired by any natural object.

Have your studio assistants arrange the shapes while you supervise. Perhaps add a figure to the composition. Here's Happy Squirrel. She reminds me of Matisse's Icarus.

Glue your shapes down. Here's another example of Matisse's Turkey Oak leaves. 

Hand write some text in French and Viola! Fini.

Cutting into colour reminds me of the sculptor's direct carving. Henri Matisse

Tenacious...

Father Oak holds fast to his scared and leathery leaves while Mother Maple tosses hers, golden and red, onto the autumn breeze. 

Watercolor leaf mediation in a hardbound 140 lbs cold press watercolor paper Canson journal.

Silver Maple Leaf

Still in my autumn leaf mediation mode.. With the showers and the breeze the leaves are falling like raindrops today. Soon they will be all. 

Watercolors in a Canson cold press 140 lbs watercolor hardbound journal.

Sassafras Leaf

Painting leaves at Nolde Forest.

Old Possum Woman says that the Sassafras Tree was named after the frass of the Sassa. More on that later. Oh, yeah, and she says that she uses Sassafras twigs to make her toothbrushes.