Drawing Nature - Five Creative Sketchbook Activities

1. Introduction : Hi, I'm Rebecca, and I hope you'll join me on my Skillshare course, drawing nature, five creative sketchbook activities. I've always been inspired by nature, and I've always wanted to draw flowers, trees, landscapes. But when it came to finished pieces of landscapes, I've always felt quite overwhelmed. And one way that I have got over this overwhelm, is to work in my sketchbook. This course is really just about developing a sketch book and trying out different activities that focus on different aspects of nature. so that you can experiment and find out what you enjoy, what your strengths and weaknesses are. This class is for anyone who is interested in nature and wants to take part in some sketchbook activities. That could be somebody who wants to start a sketch book. This class is an absolutely ideal opportunity to get started with a sketch pad. Or it might be that you keep a sketchpad already but you just want some structure, some inspiration, to work through some activities over a period of time. This class is not a step-by-step class in that you will get specific instructions because I very much want it to be about your own response to nature and your own exploration. However, I will be sharing many tips and tricks in the class and sharing my experience. This class is really going to encourage you to get out into nature and observe closely. The five activities are very much based on my own teaching experience. So these activities are all things that I have taught to my learners. And I've been teaching for over ten years now. So they are very tried and tested activities that I've seen results in. I have found out a great deal from these activities. There is a learning focus behind every one of those activities. So it gives you a structure to work to. At the end of the class, you should have completed a nature sketchbook. And you will have explored all the five areas. And I'm pretty sure that you will have an idea of which areas you enjoy, which areas were not so interesting to you. And have learnt more about the topics we cover. 2. Class Project : The class project for this class is not so much one big project that lots of little small activities. So your task is to complete the five activities. Each one has been designed to focus on a particular area that you are exploring. This whole focus of this class is that by the end of it, you will have explored these five areas. And you will understand more about your own creativity, what you enjoy, and your strengths and weaknesses. Each activity is quite short, so you don't have to allow a lot of time. Ten to 30 min is suggested. However, you can spend longer if you prefer. But I think what is quite important is the regular nurse of it. So doing these activities once a day or once a week is recommended to complete all five of them. The basis of this class is going on a nature walk. So this very first task of getting out in nature, where you're going to be observing and recording is going to form the subject matter for the five activities. The five activities I will go through in more detail in each segment. However, here is an overview of what to expect. So activity one is all about the close up. We're going to be picking one aspect of our subject matter and homing in on that. And keeping it really simple with the art materials. Just using one material. Activity two is all about mixing materials. So here we want to think about things that we haven't used before together and combine mixing materials. And it's sort of experimentation. And activity three is all about color. So again, it's about experimentation. We're going to be working with a limited palette. So it'd be thinking about a few colors that perhaps you haven't used before. And activity four is all about negative space. So this is a slightly different way of looking at things by looking at the gaps in-between things rather than the things themselves. And it's quite an interesting way of developing a drawing. Activity five is about collage. Say, Hey, we're working with paper and scissors. Once you've completed the entire five activities, you will post those hopefully to the project gallery. It's really fantastic to see what people have done. It really does inspire. And everyone has a unique take on the five activities. And that is always fascinating to me and I'm sure to others as well. Once you have completed the project, I think what you'll get from it is you will realize what you like, what inspires you, what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, and what your interests are to perhaps take forever. Hopefully, all that sounds exciting and you can't wait to get started. So I shall see you in the next lesson. 3. Materials: Welcome to my class. For the materials for this class, it's quite open as to what you use. However, you will need some materials. The materials are quite open, and I've done that on purpose so that you can use what you have. It's not one of those classes where you need specific materials. I have a materials list which you could check out in the resources section if you do want to see exactly what I've been using. And I will make some suggestions for the activities of the sorts of materials that suit. I think the activity best. However, it's quite open. But I would say the more materials you've got the better because one of the activities is all about mixing materials that we really want to get experimental and try out lots of different materials. So if you haven't got many, you'll be a little bit limited in terms of the quality of the materials and the type of materials. It's also not a class that specifies a particular quality of art material or type. In fact, sketchbook activities I feel are often best when you use things that you're not too precious about. It isn't your most expensive pastoral set that you're using. The materials are things that you hopefully have already or things that are fairly inexpensive. Now of course, it's a sketchbook activity class. So you will need a sketchbook. And sketch books come in different shapes and sizes and different types. Personally, I have been through lots of different sketchbooks in my life. And my favorite ones are always these hard-packed sketchbooks, partly because they're very robust and you can take them out with you if you want to draw and paint outside. I also like the quality of the paper. It's very thick and it takes wet media, water as well as dry media. And a mixed media sketchpad would also perhaps be a really good idea for this course. This class is an ideal opportunity to explore materials and perhaps use those materials that have been in the cupboard or the drawer. And you haven't ever got out or you didn't really know what they were for? I think we all have a few materials like that. So now we have our materials ready. We can start our sketch book activities. So I'll see you in the next class. 4. Inspiration : Inspiration is really the key to our creativity. If we are not inspired, then we're not likely to want to draw or paint anything. Therefore, it's really important that we get out and we look at things and we record things that inspire us and that we do this consciously. We can do this by getting out into nature and really looking and taking our time to really look and find out what interests us. So the first thing that we're going to do is go out on a nature walk. This can be 10 min an hour, however long you've got. If you actually don't have much time to get out into nature, then this could just be your walk to work or your garden. Even. It doesn't really matter how far you go or where you go, just that you take that time to be consciously inspired. And when you find things that interest you, I would like you to collect some imagery and perhaps take some samples or foliage or leaves. And maybe even write down words that inspire you and remind you of the setting. Whatever you're drawn to needs to be recorded, observed. And we're going to use this material for the basis of our five sketchbook activities. Another thing that really inspires me when I'm thinking about what to do, what projects to do, and what to do in my sketchbook is to look at other artists and illustrators. And one way that I like to do this is to create a Pinterest board. If you're new to Pinterest, it's basically a scrap book, if you like, where you can pin images that interests you and you can create a board. And before a project, I usually like to start a Pinterest board. And you can see I've got one here for this project where I have pins some of my favorite artists and illustrators. So I have Michelle Moore and here's one of my all-time favorites, who has beautiful colors. And then we have mouth, arm at large, who is creating these beautiful designs. And then I also like Helen wells, were her bright colors and her expressive mark-making. So all those influences are there for me on this board and I can use that if I choose to. Hopefully you have got some ideas for material that you'd like to focus in on in terms of your five activities, you're feeling inspired. I think we're now ready to move on to the next activity. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. Get Ready to Create : This class is ideal for anyone who wants to start a sketch pad. and it's also useful for anyone who already works in sketchbooks because it's going to give you lots of different ideas for short sketchbook activities. Just a word about sketchbook activities. We really want to treat this class as a chance to find out what we enjoy, to experiment play, to have fun, and to explore our creativity. The idea of each activity is that we have a focus and an area that we're going to look into one by one. And by the end of the activities you will understand the sorts of things that motivate you and your strengths and weaknesses. And if you don't complete all five activities, then you won't have that full picture. So I would encourage you to do all five and I would encourage you to treat it as a chance to find out more about you and what you enjoy. So at the end of it you will know what interests you. If you have that intention you will know more about your own creativity. And try to push aside any kind of idea that it's a perfectionist piece because it isn't. And you can do the activities more than once if that helps. One thing that really helps me when it comes to completing classes is to block out creative time in my diary. I would recommend blocking out some time in your diary for this class and working out when you will complete each of the five activities. Ideally, once a week would be a good time span, but once a day would perhaps be even better. You don't want to leave it too long because if you leave it beyond once a week then I think that you can lose any momentum that you may have gained. So try to block out some time, once a week or even more frequently, if you can. Now I think we are ready to create, shall see you in the next lesson. 6. Activity 1 : Okay, so we are going to start off with activity one, which is very simple. It's about the close up. So we're going to take one aspect of our inspiration material and really home in on the detail of it or the simplicity of it. So whether that be a seed head, a flower, or a leaf. And if you have taken lots of photographs of landscape, then you perhaps want to take one aspect of the landscape, such as the sky, the tree line, a pattern in a field. And we are keeping it, really simple with the materials. We're just going to use one material for this activity. I'm going to be using ink and working with a brush. But it's entirely up to you what material you use. And if you are really intimidated by the idea of drawing something that is a whole, then you could perhaps home in and do a real close up and just look at, say, a pattern of the texture or the outline of just one petal. So it's really up to you, but we want to keep it simple to start us off so that we're not intimidated by the activity. We're going to spend about 10 min on this activity. But of course, if you'd like to extend it and spend longer, that's absolutely fine. As a quick recap on activity one, we're looking at the close-up and we're making it simple. We're spending about ten to 30 minutes on the activity and we're using only one material. And if you would like a full description of this activity and all the others, you can find those descriptions in the resources section. Good luck, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 7. Activity 2 : Welcome to activity two, which is all about mixing materials. The idea of this activity is for you to really explore different materials and to combine them together in ways that perhaps you hadn't considered before. So it's a complete experimental approach in that we're going to have the intention of learning what materials we enjoy and which ones go together well. And we might use again, in terms of mixing the materials, I'd like you to really experiment. So the choice is yours. Generally speaking, I would recommend mixing wet media with a dry media. So that means things that are wet media use water. So that would be watercolor, ink. Any paint media really. Then on top of it, you can use things like pastel or pencils, coloring pencils, pens, things that don't need water. And I always think that this is a fantastic combination. And what I'd like you to do is perhaps just try something you haven't done before. So if you don't know what pastel is like on watercolor for example then you can use this activity as a chance to find out. So we're going to be finding out what interests us, what goes together, what combinations work well, and having fun in the process of learning about materials. Now that we have explored materials, we're going to move on to our next activity. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 8. Activity 3: Welcome to activity three, which is all about color. Now, many people love color, but I have come across some people that I have taught that really are a little bit scared of color. So the purpose of this activity is to get you to explore color perhaps in a way that you hadn't considered before. So we're going to be looking at a limited palette. Limited palette means only a few colors. So you're going to be selecting maybe two to three different colors and working just with those. One interesting way of working with color is to work with the complimentary colors. These are the colors which are opposite on the color wheel. Say we have blue and orange, red and green, and yellow and purple. I was once given the exercise to work with two complimentary colors and also to mix the two and work with the colors that I could create from just those two colors. And this is quite an interesting palette. So that's one idea for your color work, another idea is to work with the complimentary colors and add white. So this gives you a whole range of tints to work with. So when you mix blue and orange, you get these kind of teal green and netural colors. And then when you mix in white you get all sorts of tints of those colors and they always look really good together. Some key points on our activity on color. We're going to spend about ten to 30 minutes on this activity. You can always repeat it and do it more than once. And the subject matter will be from your inspirational material, and it can be anything of your choice. And the main focus of this activity is to experiment with color and to try things that you haven't done before with color. In terms of color combinations, we are very much focused on a limited palette. So that means two to three colors only. And we are going to focus either on random colors that you choose, any colors that you want, as long as there's only two or three of them. Or you could focus it on the complimentary colors, where you pick the colors that are opposite on the color wheel. So for example purple and yellow, mixing those together and then seeing what colors you get and working with that palette. And you always have the option of adding white. So you can create lots of tints, so for example purple, yellow, and white, and then creating all the tints that go with that. And this palette always gives a very cohesive look. The idea of this activity is that once you have finished you will have learnt something about color that perhaps you weren't aware of before. Well done on completing the activity on color. Let's move on to our next activity. 9. Activity 4 : Welcome to activity four which is all about negative space. Negative space is the gaps in-between things. So we have the gaps in-between things, which is the negative space. And we have the solid areas which are the subject or the object. And this is the positive space. So here I've got my foliage and we would call the stems the leaves, the flower heads positive space. And we would call the negative space the gaps in-between the stems, the leaves, and the flower heads. So what you might also call the background. So we're going to be developing a drawing by looking at the negative space. So first of all, we block in these gaps and spaces. And then we see what we're left which is the silhouette of the positive space. And it's quite an interesting way of developing a drawing. Using foliage is a great subject matter for negative space because they all have these gaps in-between the leaves, stems and the flower heads. Now foliage varies considerably, so we've got here something that is rather intricate and would take quite a lot of close observation for me to really get into all that negative space. So you might want to make it a little bit more basic and pick perhaps some foliage that is bigger, has bigger leaves, bigger flower heads. So the spaces in-between are a bit more obvious. One simple activity with negative space is to get a bright colored piece of paper and put some leaves down flat and make a frame for those leaves and then observe them. You can draw the same sized frame again by drawing around the frame in your sketch pad, you are going to observe the negative space by blocking it in. I like to use ink because it's quite a fast way of just blocking in that negative space. The good thing about this activity is that it's very easy to observe when the leaves are flat and they are near you. I always start with the corners because I find this as a very good reference point. You can expand your drawing. Once you've filled up your little square by removing the frame, you can choose any type of leaf for this activity, but the best ones tend to be ones that are quite flat so that they don't curl up towards you. And ones that have a little bit of a curve or serrated edge. Some takeaways from our activity. We're going to spend about ten to 30 min observing negative space. Foliage is a really good subject matter, or leaves arranged in a frame. You're going to block in the negative space. And then it's optional whether you want to then complete the drawing by filling in the positive space. Or you can just leave your drawing as a negative space drawing and just have the silhouette of the positive space. You can use any material for this activity. Well done on completing this activity on negative space. You now have an awareness of what negative and positive space is. And you know how to use that negative space to help you draw things. And as a way of developing a drawing. We're now going to move on to our final activity. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 10. Activity 5 : Welcome to activity five collage. This activity is a bit different to the others because it's using scissors and paper rather than art materials. And it's a way of responding in quite a quick way with shapes and possibly textures. And to get down what we see. And I always used to think that collage wasn't something that you could do in your sketch book. I used to think that it was for very long drawn out pieces where I would spend hours, but not at all. Collage can be really and quick. In fact, it can be just a different way of drawing. And since I have adopted it as a sketchbook activity, I've really enjoyed working in this way. And I think you are going to enjoy it too, let's have a look at what we need to do to start our collage activity. I have a paper library of papers that I've collected for collage. And these are papers that are from past projects. I just keep, and I'll say create purposefully papers for collage by painting on paper. This project, you can use any type of paper wrapping paper, parcel paper, colored paper. But I find that painted papers is always the best for me because of the textures that you can create from using different types of media. You may consider making some papers just for this project. Or if you want to keep it simple, just use any papers you have to hand. You will also need some scissors and some glue. This project I'd just use the glue stick and some small scissors. I decided to cut some simple shapes of the oak leaves for my collage project. I didn't draw them out first I just simply worked with the scissors. Here are the results of some of my collage projects. Well done on completing activity five. I hope you enjoyed working in collage. I certainly do because I've been collaging for many years and this is an important part of the way I work. If like me, you really love collage, then you might want to check out my two Skillshare courses that I have all about collage. Now that we have completed activity five, we have actually come to the end of our five activities. So we're now going to move on. And I will share with you some of my observations, findings, reflections on the process of doing these five activities. So I'll see you in the next lesson. 11. Congratulations: So after these five activities, we should have kept a nature sketchpad. You should have learnt how to gather inspiration and keep references. Look at artists and illustrators and be inspired by those styles and different ways of approaching nature. And also, we have explored all those five areas. So we've looked at the close-up abstraction simplification, just keeping it simple with one aspect. We've looked at mixing materials, color combinations, using a limited palette, using negative space and collage. So all those areas hopefully gave you opportunity to experiment and to find out what interests you. And I'm hoping that you feel really inspired and that you would like to continue to keep a nature Sketchpad and perhaps extend some of those activities further, the ones that interested you, please do share your work on the project gallery. It's really interesting to see how everyone has such a different approach to these five activities. And I find it really inspiring. Some of my favorite activities, we're mixing materials. I've always loved this. I always loved playing with color. and this activity did give me a focus to use colors that I wouldn't have considered. And that was quite interesting. I also really enjoyed the very simple things like just focusing in on a bit of detail and just doing a very simple brush drawing or a very simple shapes with cutout collage. Some of the activities were more successful than others, and I did have to fight my perfectionist tendencies in that I kept going back and fiddling. But I really think this sketchbook practice has been very helpful for me in terms of learning, experimentation and loosening me up to just trying things. I think I would really like to continue this sketchbook practice. Now we've come to the end of the course. And thank you for joining my course and following along with the five activities. I really hope you've got something from it. Please do check out my Skillshare courses that I have on collage. If it particularly enjoyed activity five, than these will be very suitable for you. And please do check out my profile. You can follow me on Instagram. And I hope to see you again on another Skillshare course.