So Fleeting!
Our poppies unfolded this week and enjoyed a brief three days of sunshine. I’m working on the sketch of day four now, post downpours; flames ragged and nearly extinguished.
Tips & Techniques- Instead of offering a tip this week, I thought I’d ask you for one: What types of tips or techniques are most useful or interesting to you? Your answers will help to shape future information included here. Thanks!
Drawn In 
I like continual line drawing. It relaxes my hand and creates imperfections
Thanks! I like continuous line drawing, too. I just tried it last week with buildings and was surprised by the results.
These are so beautiful! I’ve found your tips on working with darks and compositional balance helpful in the past, and would enjoy seeing more on those. Your darks in the poppy centers convey so well – I love the way the greens and blues show through.
Thanks Maggie– That’s helpful. Creating a balanced composition is mostly intuitive for me, but there is reason behind it, so I’ll try to explain that in the tips when it seems like a good fit.
opening day of poppies is better than opening day of baseball! As for tips-I’ll take all the help I can get, especially motivation and how to deal with disappointing efforts.
Agreed! Dealing with disappointment is a tough one. I often just try to press on through it, unless I can really see no way out. I appreciate hearing from you!
opening day of poppies is better than opening day of baseball! As for tips-I’ll take all the help I can get, especially motivation and how to deal with disappointing efforts.
I try to stay loose and expressive. Let go of precision. Focus on impression. Sketching has really helped me loosen up. I don’t worry about accuracy, just enjoy the moment!
Thanks. I’ve tried to embrace imperfection in my sketchbook, though sometimes I swing the other way. Regardless, enjoying it is key!
I know it’s a nuisance, but I would love to know the paper or sketchbook you are using for each sketch you are posting. Itwould be really helpful when I study the finished piece if I knew whether it was Zeta or Handbook Journal or something else. Thanks!
Thanks Dory! That makes sense. For this piece, I did Opening Day in my S&B Zeta and the other two in my Handbook Journal. It would have been much more difficult to do the larger flowers and negative painting of foliage on the Zeta paper.
Agree with Dory above. Also like seeing what pigment colors you used and if you layered colors or let different pigments mingle to achieve your results. I’m mesmerized with the beautiful green foliage and the red in the poppies in this sketch. But, I find all of your tips and techniques helpful. Thanks for another beautiful sketch.
Thanks Pat. I’ll try to include more about pigments and paper. I almost always do numerous layers to build up colors. In part, that’s because sketchbook paper tends to produce less vibrant results than, say, Arches or Fabriano papers.
Dear Jean, Your drawings/paintings are always an inspiration for me. They brighten up my week! What I enjoy reading in your comments are what you found challenging & how you dealt with the challenge for a particular drawing/painting, eg, mixing the poppy color, or the composition, or finding the bird/plant, etc. I think in general telling us what basic materials/ tools you used is helpful, pen vs pencil, type paper, any special inks, or watercolors, etc.
Thanks Carmela. That’s helpful to hear. Dealing with challenges is something I don’t write about much, so I can try to do more of that.
Love the poppies!!! For me personally, I love to see progressive pics that show each step – from initial pencil sketch to completed painting….and descriptions of each, so that I can get a better idea of exactly how the artist did what they did. Details like what kind of paper, pens, pencil, ink, and paints is also very helpful.
Thanks Teresa! I understand how helpful step by step process images can be. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time to make them (and to remember to stop along the way), so I tend to only do them for my classes. That said, I’ll try to be mindful of sharing that here from time to time. Good to know that the materials info is useful too.
All of the above and keep it up. Your posts have inspired me enormously. Many thanks!
I appreciate knowing that. Sometimes I feel a little like I’m sending art out into the dark, so hearing from you and others is inspiring for me!
I think you’d be pleasantly surprised at how many people you’ve influenced. Have a great day!
Hi Jean, thanks so much for keeping this blog! I recently discovered you through (recently discovering) the Winslow Art Center and got hooked right away. I enjoy your tips and techniques section quite a bit as a nature journaling beginner. (“Saw” you at WildWonder, too!) I know you hear it a lot, but your handwriting also grasped me because I am always drawn to a more whimsy look and often doodle words for fun, but for some reason I wasn’t confident in including it in my own nature pages. How odd, and how more *me* my journal suddenly became! Anyway, to your question, the types of tips I’ve found so useful are how you deal with mistakes. (Though to be fair, I’ve learned from pretty much every tip you’ve posted, so keep on keeping on;)
Hi– great to hear from you. I’m glad you’ve found confidence in adding your own words to your nature journal. It is a bit like adding a part of you to the page– you can add words, a quote, a poem, or facts– whatever gives the subject meaning for you. I’ll keep in mind dealing with mistakes– though I don’t generally think in terms of mistakes, just challenges, which I mainly press on through until I figure out a solution. Perhaps that bears its own post! Keep sketching– you’ll learn and grow and get better and better.
Dear Jean! Thanks so much for this post. My thoughts, intentionally tardy, allowed me to absorb what your followers had to say. Such great ideas all! I wasn’t sure what you could add to your Tips/Techniques that you haven’t already touched on over the years. Which is amazing in and of itself!
If I was to add one more idea, anytime you can speak about subject composition, background placement, boxes and borders, white space, text size and labeling, and if you have challenges with page clutter …… that is always helpful.
With all of the great comments you’ve received, it seems incorporating everything, every time, would lengthen your posts and maybe even overpopulate your pages? All of your posts are beautifully created, well written and readable in a short time, and informative. How you balance everything in each post is pure magic.
Your Opening Day Poppies are gorgeous!
I have found the suggestions helpful and I’ll pull from various ideas relevant to future posts.
Hi Jean,
I recently did your art of the bird class @winslow and art centre and loved your class @wildwonder. I lover your style of drawing and your teaching style. Your progress pictures + written text, tips regarding colour use, adding value etc. are all very useful to me. The poppies are one of my favorites, so I hope you’ll include them in one of your courses one day.
Ilse
Hi Ilse- I’ll consider poppies for a future class. Thanks!