Join me and Anna Mason of Nature Studio TV for a discussion of nature journaling practice and theory. Do you want to live a more creative, nature-connected life? Well to help you do that, it turns out there are just 8 words you need to remember. In this video, Nature Journaling legend John Muir Laws Read More
Category: Art and Drawing
Tricks, tips, techniques and inspiration for artists.
Value Studies with Watercolor and Tombow
Let’s use a brush to create our values. Learn techniques with monochromatic watercolor and Tombow brush pens to create fast value studies. Bring paper brushes, watercolor, and gray value Tombow pens. Try an N95 (lightest), N75 (light), and an N65 (dark). Download and print the lion skull worksheet here: https://johnmuirlaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Lion-Skull-line.pdf Read More
Drawing Underwater
In this “Ask Jack” session, John Muir Laws discusses some of the logistics of trying to nature journal while underwater, as well as how light and color change underwater. Valters Videnieks weighs in with some of his experiences. Read More
NJC, Episode 39: Metadata
Let’s explore how adding “metadata” to your journal pages adds depth, context, and scientific value to your observations. Make adding the date, location, and other relevant background information a regular part of your journaling practice. Read More
Watercolor Special Effects
Learn a smorgasbord of watercolor tricks and hacks to get cool textures and effects. Read More
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Join John Muir Laws and naturalist, journaler, and explorer Sandy McDermott for a bear-raising adventure. Sandy describes her adventures with Brown Bears in Alaska and we draw them together as we learn about their natural history. To learn more about Sandy McDermott, please visit her website https://www.sandymcdermott.com or follow her on Instagram @sandyhmcdermottart. Read More
Bare Trees and Waterfalls
In this session of “Ask Jack” (April 2021), John Muir Laws shows us tips and tricks for drawing bare trees against landscapes and using Tombow markers, ballpoint pen, and more to render waterfalls across our pages. Read More
Mountain Meadows and Nightingales
(Ask Jack session, March 2022) Thank you to all the nature journalers who contributed their illustrations to Point Blue Conservation Science’s Mountain Meadows Project! In this session, view the presentation as compiled by John Muir Laws; following this, we will learn how to draw a nightingale, Ukraine’s national bird. Read More
The Cold Canyon Fire Journals
Join Robin Lee Carlson and John Muir Laws in a discussion of nature journaling in the aftermath of a wildfire. When the nature reserve at Cold Canyon went up in flames—a casualty of California’s raging fire seasons—Robin Lee Carlson embarked on a five-year journey to learn the legacy of the burn. What she saw challenged Read More
NJC, Episode 38: Fast Sketching Tips
Learn fast, fun, easy, low-cost, techniques that can improve your field sketches and nature journaling. Here are a handful of techniques that you can experiment with. If you like one of these approaches, add the new materials to your nature journaling kit. How can you use a brush with water-soluble pens, a pencil blender, or Read More