I am doing very tiny steps towards a nature sketchbook. I would love some tips on sketching outdoors during winter time because I can't draw with my gloves on and it is quite freezing here in Finland. However, that wont stop me for long, I have started warming up, heh, with some indoor sketching. First, I shook away the fear of "starting" by painting some of the references from the class (I chose on purpose the one I felt would be more challenging, the one I unconsciously felt like avoiding) using cheap watercolor paper I turned into a sketchbook, yay for handmade! :)

 

Also painted some circles, just to loosen up. After that I used a Hyacinth I keep in my apartment and had some fun analyzing and researching a bit about its morphology:

 

 

This was my result, I used ink only, because I know that once I use pencil I will erase multiple times and my inking will suffer as well. I have noticed that my sketches look better when I don't have the option to "undo" and I ready myself for mistakes to happen.

Interestingly, my artistic side was eager to add more contrast and make colors pop, change things here and there, when in reality it didn't look like that. Maybe I can find a balance between staying true to my subject and having some degree of artistic freedom but for now, I kept it as accurate as possible.

Nature is, at the moment, mostly snow and pine trees, everything else is buried under the snow, so I might focus on landscape for my next sketch and get better at painting snow! :D

 

Thank you Julia!