Crosshatching is a great way to show value and form with a pencil or pen. Learn how to use a simple line work system to convey light, shadow, and the orientation of surface planes. Read More
Category: Art and Drawing
Tricks, tips, techniques and inspiration for artists.
Winter Trees
In this Ask Jack session, we look at the shapes of deciduous trees in winter and learn some tree tricks from John Muir Laws! Read More
Let’s Draw a Steller’s Jay!
Join John Muir Laws as he walks us through the process of creating a careful illustration of a Steller’s Jay. We will use a combination of graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil highlights. Read More
How to Draw Mushrooms
Join John Muir Laws, the Brower Center, and Bay Nature Magazine for a workshop on how to draw Mushrooms, focusing on structure and foreshortening. Read More
Lessons Learned in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest
John Muir Laws recently spent a week in Ecuador and journaled birds, birds, birds,(and flatworms and bugs). Join Jack’s journal flip share and then unpack some of the new techniques and refinements on bird drawing strategies that he learned. He will also ink and paint a few birds he saw from a blacklight blind. Read More
Perspectives, Part 2
Let’s build on the perspectives basics we explored in the previous workshop. Today we practice finding the vanishing points in actual places and use those to show depth in our illustrations. Read More
Oh My Gouache! Part 2
Learn a practical and portable system for using gouache in your nature journal. Gouache, an opaque watercolor, has wonderful practical uses but also its own challenges. In this workshop, we will review Jack’s gouache system and learn how to use our new gouache palettes with watercolor on toned paper. Read More
Exploring the Arctic and How to Draw Snowy Owls
Join John Muir Laws and Nicolas Lecomte for an exploration of the arctic ecosystem, most especially the “ghosts of the snow”, the Snowy Owls. We will learn about ongoing Arctic research and lessons learned in the field. Then John Muir Laws will demonstrate techniques to draw Snowy Owls. What are lost and found edges and Read More
Let’s Rock! Drawing Geology
Learn how to visualize and draw geologic cross-sections and block diagrams for field sketching. This will help you draw what you see, and see what you draw! These techniques can be adapted for all kinds of visual thinking applications. Read More
Nature Journaling, the Art of Seeing
Joan Greene wrote this rich and thoughtful article about Nature Journaling for the September 2021 issue of the Tennessee Conservationist Magazine. Read More