I went for a walk just round the corner and found some elderflower leaves with the flowers in various stages of ripeness for picking. This took me back to childhood days with my Grandad who knew nature and how to live off the land so well. He used to make home made wine using elderflowers and taught me just when they were ripe to pick. I couldn’t bear to cover a page with green as it reminds me of school uniform,so I went for a more abstract rendition of the leaves instead and used the berries to make all the little dots. This was such a fun page to create. Thank you Helen. I outlined with my carbothello chalk pastel pencils which I activated slightly with white gesso just because I thought black outlines would be a little too hard on the soft colours.

I then made a really simple notebook for taking down any nature related notes when out on walks, or perhaps doing rubbings of textures or sketches.

 Lesson 3: Stamp Carving:

I couldn’t find my stamp carving kit, so I made a leaf out of polymer clay and used that as a stamp. For the trunk I first painted a light brown, dried it and then put down a dark brown and while it was still wet scratched into it for the bark marks. I added a verse about a woodland fairytale and a quick sketch of a fairy. 

I then found a three part leaf stamp that added detail with each layer so I added this very loosely to my homemade journal and added some writing. I really enjoyed this lesson. Thanks Helen!