Magnolia study
What makes your top five list of spring flowering trees? The Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) is right up there on mine, even though I don’t get to see it unless I’m traveling to the mid-Atlantic or Southeastern U.S. where it grows. But what a beauty! Its huge white flowers are set off by glossy dark leaves and, later, its bright red fleshy seeds are eaten by birds and other wildlife.
Tips and Techniques – I painted this study while preparing for the first session of my upcoming online class, Savoring Summer Sketchbook Series. We’ll focus on painting white blossoms, which are tricky on white paper because they rely on subtle color mixes and carefully observed shadows. For this version, I used cobalt blue, aureolin yellow, and permanent rose. Next, I plan to paint it again using cobalt blue and transparent pyrrol orange (PO71) to see how a more neutral gray changes the feel. My tip: reminder to experiment, both in your sketchbook and on various types of watercolor paper. It’s one of the best ways to learn.
Tiny Signs of Spring
I began this page in late March when the first daffodils began to poke from the ground and a few green buds appeared on the lilacs. I thought I’d capture spring’s tiny, tentative first steps: woodcocks calling, the phoebe’s return, flowering red maple. I hope you’ve noticed these things too and can make time to get outside to watch the great unfolding of the new season.
Tips and Techniques-I find doing a composite page that evolves a little bit each week really helpful in early spring. It motivates me to get outside and see what’s happening and to celebrate small but steady progress. If you want to try it, pick things that interest you and build the page as you go. You don’t need a grand plan for the layout. Just keep adding sketches and make notes or use text to fill extra space until the page feels complete.
Lured in
Enticed by folds of foliage and dark pools, I get lost in painting pitcher plants. All those reds blending into greens and purples. Tiny hairs leading downward into open mouths. It’s not hard to see how these plants work their magic. Once lured in, leaving is difficult—and for some, impossible.
Tips and Techniques– When you are working with a complicated subject, take time to study it closely and record enough information in the drawing stage before you start painting. This is especially important if you will be painting it later. I spent nearly an hour drawing these plants and then painted them over the course of several evenings. While my reference photos were helpful, it was my underlying drawing that kept me from getting completely lost in these remarkable plants. Learn more about purple pitcher plants here.
New workshops! I’m excited to announce a new online class, Savoring Summer Sketchbook Series, starting in May, and an in person workshop, Creative Nature Journaling, next January in Tucson, Arizona. Learn more on the Workshops page or directly on the class links.
At last!
Finally, it’s warm enough for me to make my way through the woods to the muddy edge of a creek where the skunk cabbage thrives and sketch. For weeks, I’ve gone out scouting good locations, watching the maroon spears push up through frozen earth, watching the ground give up its ice as the spathes open. I’ve been waiting for a day when work, wind or fading daylight wouldn’t keep me indoors with an empty sketchbook…and here it is.
You might think forty degrees is awfully cold for sketching outdoors, but with a wool hat, down jacket, a bit of sunshine, and a genuine affection for your subject, it’s entirely doable. (Materials: Handbook Journal Co. 140lb watercolor sketchbook, Micron 005 black pen, watercolor)
Coming up! Winslow Art Center’s free annual Spring Fling Festival takes place April 9-12. Take advantage of four inspiring days of live demos, interactive work-alongs, and engaging artist talks. I’ll be doing a presentation, Sketching Through the Year, on Friday 4/10.
Warblers in my Sketchbook
Spring is here! Well, not really. It will be a few weeks before things start to green up and another six or seven weeks before the warblers show up in New York. In the meantime, it’s 40°F, raining, and gray, and the only warblers I’ll be seeing for a while are the ones in my sketchbook.
Tips and Techniques– You can see from my color notes that I used very few pigments to paint each of these birds. When choosing colors for a subject, experiment with a few mixes and see if you can narrow them down to three or four main pigments. This helps to keep your painting unified and reduces the risk of getting muddy colors from mixing too many paints. (Materials: Handbook Journal Co. 140lb watercolor sketchbook, Micron 005 black pen, watercolor)
Ink: Dry and Wet
I recently bought two bottles of Diamine ink—one ochre and one chocolate brown—to use in my fountain pen. I was hoping to find a warm, sepia-toned color reminiscent of the inks used by Renaissance drawing masters. Both inks flow beautifully, and when wetted they can be pulled into light washes.
Unfortunately, neither color was quite right. The chocolate brown was too cold and dark, while the ochre shifted toward an orange rust when wet. That led me to start mixing the two, carefully noting and testing different ratios in search of something closer to what I had in mind. Below are the results of my most recent experiments, shown dry and wet. Isn’t it fascinating to see how dramatically the color changes with the addition of water?
Tips and Techniques– Share yours! If you use fountain pen inks and have suggestions for a brand or sepia color that doesn’t shift when wet, I’d love to hear about it.
Not Quite Yet
Eventually, our desire for spring will match the reality outside. But not quite yet. I welcome the incremental increase in daylight and the occasional temperature over 40F, but I don’t let a warm day or two fool me. While I await spears of skunk cabbage to emerge from the snowpack, I’m also gearing up for my upcoming online class, Warblers in Watercolor. The class is intended to be a pre‑season warmup for the arrival of these delightful and elusive songbirds come May.
Like spring itself, warblers arrive on their own terms. They drop from the sky during migration and sing their hearts out, constantly flitting among the trees. Watching them feels like a game of hide and seek—they call to you and then disappear as soon as you think you know where to look. But when you do get a glimpse, you’re rewarded with a tiny colorful prize.
Tips and Techniques– The detailed markings on many warbler species make identifying them difficult and painting them challenging. During my class, I’ll share tips on what to look for and how to use layers of watercolor to paint them. Find out more at Winslow Art Center; the class begins on Thursday 3/12.
Collecting on Paper 2026
One of my favorite things to do at this time of year is to fill my sketchbook with specimens from a nature center or museum. There are always so many fascinating things to discover, and I enjoy the challenge of arranging them together on a single page. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ve seen similar pages before. Here’s this year’s collection, plus a few selections from prior years.
Tips and Techniques– Sketching in museums and nature centers is a defining part of my work and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It allows me to closely observe and study natural history subjects I might not otherwise encounter. It’s also a welcome excuse to sketch someplace warm during the colder winter months. Plan an outing and go! (Materials: Sepia Micron 005 pen and watercolor in a Handbook Journal Co. 140lb sketchbook)
Pre-Flight Checklist
Sketches. Maps. Curiosity. These travel essentials are just as important to me as airline tickets and a passport.
These pages are part of my preparation for a workshop I’ll be teaching at Sofia in Monsaraz, Portugal, June 3–8, 2026. This region of Portugal is a landscape of wide skies, ancient olive trees, cork oaks, vineyards, white-walled towns, and birds I hope to see.
I’ve never been to Portugal, so my preparation also includes brushing up on Portuguese history, reading a few poets; studying the work of Portuguese artists; and learning about the landscape. At times, this feels futile. While research provides a foundation, I know that gaining a sense of place comes from being there. And in just a few months, that magic can begin.
Tips and Techniques– If you’re longing to deepen your artistic practice and soak in a true sense of place, there are a still few spots available for this workshop. There’s nothing quite like the immersion and joy that come from an art retreat. Find details here.
And if your travels take you elsewhere, pick something that intrigues you about that location and draw it. Do a little homework and see where the threads take you.
Tools of the Trade
Wishing you a good weekend filled with art, art supplies, or both.
Tips & Techniques– I recently made a sketch of my art supplies using sepia ink. I was happy with the way it came out, but also eager to do it again in color. I always learn a lot from painting ordinary objects. They force me to figure out how to approach different textures or consider new layouts. Doing a page like this is sort of like putting together a puzzle– figuring out what the picture will look like as you go. Always a fun challenge! (Materials: Handbook Journal Co 140lb Watercolor Sketchbook, Micron 02 and 005 pens, and the paints you see here…plus a few more.)
Coming up! I’ve just posted a new online workshop for spring, Warblers in Watercolor. There are still openings in my in person workshops this summer at Sofia at Monsaraz in Portugal in June and Madeline Island School of the Arts in Wisconsin in July. Find descriptions and links on the WORKSHOPS page.
Drawn In 