How to Take GOOD NATURE Reference Pictures on the Trail: Painting & Drawing Tips

I love to go on Nature Walks.

My favourite are trails that wonder through different terrains with a variety of vegetation and have  water. 
 

Wendy at Kay Dubois Trail - Quadra Island, BC

Of course, on any walk. there is a strong urge to take pictures.  Believe me, Apple could get rich on the storage fees I pay to save my pictures.  It seems no matter how rigorous I am when I get home, I can't seem to delete them.  Even the ones I know are bad!

So I have a new strategy.  Take GOOD pictures.  This means Have a Purpose. I know, you are going to say, You Always HAVE a Purpose.  By Purpose, I don't mean 'Take nicely composed landscapes'.  

There is more to be DONE to make those Photos good Reference Pictures. . . ;

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See my YouTube video with more discussion and examples on this topic: 

How to Make Interesting Landscape Paintings  
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Can't you just see a Seagull on this driftwood or use it as a mini- environment.  I love that plant growing there.  

First of all, consider what you want to do with those pictures.  When I hike along a trail I am always looking for interesting settings to place my birds and animals.  Often my bird photos do not have natural settings so I need to find some for them.  The other thing I look for is interesting nature environments. What is your purpose for your pictures?

Think about the lighting.  This is particularly important if you are mixing elements from several photo sources.  Depending on the time of day and sunlight, there will be different shadow patterns in your photos.  Yes, you can 'imagine' the shadows as you integrate the material from each photo but really, nothing compares to seeing the 'real' thing.  

Very interesting Negative Space and love the misty rain in the background

Look for interesting Shapes and textures.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming in the summer to find interesting pictures.  Everything is green!! I look for interesting shapes and textures.  For landscapes I like to take pictures that have interesting Negative Space.  I liked the misty rain in the background of the picture above.  It was really nice to see but very wet for me. It really poured after I took this photo and it was a good 15 minutes back to the truck!!

Place a model in the setting to give a sense of size to elements in the photo

Think about proportion: This is especially important if you are thinking of adding a subject to the photo when you paint it. Having the size of the bird or animal match the scale of background you are putting him in can make or break your picture.  I often use people, my dog or even a glove to give myself a sense of size. This really helps when I am later working on the painting. 

Good Fishing - Caught this great shot of an eagle eating a fish and put him on this rock in the bay.  

Take more than One Picture: If I know I want to use this picture for a painting I will take extra pictures.  Zoom in and Zoom out.  This information can be very useful when you want to add things like: more vegetation, other types of plants, logs, stumps, etc.  The material in the other photos will represent what would be in the area and it would have the same light and shadow patterns of your main reference. 

Taking pictures is great fun on the trail, and even more so if they prove useful for your creative process.  

*************** Special Note: 

Time to REGISTER: Enhance Your Drawing Skills 

Thursday, October 10, 17 & 24, 6:00-8:00pm PST (Zoom) 
$75 Before Oct 8, $90 after
Medium: Ink & Watercolour

Join Wendy to learn new drawing skills with this playful pair.  See below for more info.  Contact Wendy to Register

***

See my YouTube video with more discussion and examples on this topic: 

How to Make Interesting Landscape Paintings  

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Always  Available at Art by Wendy's Studio

Original work, Commissions, Private Drawing Lessons, Prints and Cards of her Work, 

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Have a great Artful Day,

  

Wendy

How to turn a GREEN TREE into an interesting colourful, Painting - Painting & Drawing Tips

Here ON the West Coast trees are GREEN.  All Summer!! Many of them all winter too. 

So how can that be COLOURFUL?!

Part of an Old Garry Oak Tree I found on the Trail

I must admit, I love the trees here on the coast.  As a kid I loved to climb them. And of course the forts. Secret Forts, of course.  Up in the branches or buried in the bushes. My special place.  As an adult I still feel  there is just something about being around trees that calms and centers me.  I know I am not alone.  

However, when it comes time to draw and paint trees everything changes . . . .

Part of a beautiful old Gary Oak Tree I found on the trail

Trees are a Challenge. . .

As a subject they are very complex. And in the summer, they are all GREEN. This makes them even harder to work with. 

Over time I have found a few things that have helped me.  
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*** Further discussion can be found on my YouTube video: How to turn a Complex Tree into Art

*** Looking for Private Drawing Lessons?  See below for more information. 

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I did some hiking while on Gabriola Island this summer and came across this big, old Gary Oat Tree.  It was certainly a stranger on the island as they are usually only found close to the salt water on the southern part of Vancouver Island.  This one had fallen over many years ago and was still thriving. Horizontally rather then Vertically.  A real testament of survival.  

Look for the branch structure to get your bearings 

I was really drawn to the tree and felt I needed to draw it.  Because it was so big and I wanted to zoom in on it, I decided to paint only half of the tree.  (yes there is way more of the tree on the left side.  Remember it is laying down) 

The leaves are in clumps.  

Using the branches to get the structure and size of the tree I set up my drawing.  After that I used a loose line to create the clumps of leaves, trying to keep the tree loose and lively.  

The branches give structure to the clumps of leaves 

Because of the complexity of the branches I opted to paint the main branches first so I could clump the leaves around them.  

Seeing the branches with the clumps helps to set up the drawing

When it came to painting the clumps of leaves I moved around the tree focusing on 3 things:

- 3 colours for the sunny bright areas on the tree (Sorry, I know they are a little hard to see in the reference picture as it is reduced down to such a small size)

- 3 colours for the dark shadowy areas of the branches  

- focused on each clump moving from dark to light in value, temperature and colour (so each clump has 6 colour changes) 

You'll notice I did the same with the branches  and ground in trying to create depth and texture.  I like to challenge myself to have at least 3 difference colours in any shape.  This ensures I have warm and cold colours as the shape moves from light to dark.  

**Special Note: I was also experimenting with using other colours.  I decided rather than have white for my white areas, I used a light shade of my turquoise blue.  The jury is still out on whether I like it there or not but it does make for interesting colour in the leaves.  

Do you have special colours you use to deal with GREEN leaves?

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Wendy

3 Ways to Control Eye Movement in your Painting - Painting and Drawing Tips

I like to READ.  Actually, I love to REad.  But I don't read books.  

By books I mean I don't read real books. I like to read online.  

THE FOREST FLOOR WIP - 12 X 24 - Ink on Wood 

Why?

It is all about my eyes seeking a pleasurable experience.  We do listen to our eyes and we often make decisions based on them.  I like the strong contrast of the print to screen.  I like to dim the light on the page, making reading the pages a soft, relaxing experience.  I like to change the font, if it doesn't appeal to me.  

I must admit, once I found how easy it was to sign out books online from our library, I was hooked. 

As an Artists you are very aware of what pleases the eye. . . . 

This awareness is both conscious and unconscious.  I found it is here that my Inner Critic is most helpful.  He looks at my work and says "it's missing something".  Very often it is that 'little thing' that catches or moves the eye around the painting.  

Wood cradle is 12 x 24 - certainly invites the eye to start at the left side and slide out the right side

As I worked on my drawing "The Forest Floor" I became very attuned to eye movement.  Having a rectangle drawing that was long and narrow, was really inviting the viewer's eye to run across the drawing and out the other side.  I really needed to make sure to keep the viewer's eye in the piece. 

Here is some of the things I noted.

3 Ways to Control Eye Movement in your Painting

1.  Stoppers

Our Culture reads left to right.  This means the viewer's eye usually comes into the piece from the far left and moves to the right. I noticed right away that my cluster of stumps and trees acted as a great stopper for the eye.  They grabbed it and changed it's direction. The eye had a choice, move up the tree trunks or move down to the plants and leaves on the forest floor.  The ferns reaching from the left side grabbed the eye that moved upwards.  The plants and leaves at the bottom did the job there. 

However, at first the tree trunks didn't do their job!!

Cropped right side of THE FOREST FLOOR - WIP - Note the stopped on the tree trunks to redirect the eye movement back into the picture.

My Inner Critic immediately blurted out, "those trunks just shoot the eye up and out.  Fix it!!" He was right.  As soon as I added a few branches and ferns on the trunks, I could see that the eye was stopped and directed back into the middle.

2.  Movement

Eyes like to move around.  They like to follow paths.  They like to run and jump, stop and ponder and rest.  The forest floor is a natural place to offer this kind of entertainment.  I think this is one of the reason why I love drawing these 'close up' forest views.  

 As the eye moves across the image it is happy: it can slide down the smooth sleek lines of the tree trunk; it can dance about in the ferns; it can stop and study the intricate shapes buried under the fern; then skip away on the log off to a new spot.  At the same time there is a sense that there is more to see and something to come back too.

  

The Forest Floor - Sketchbook drawing to Plan the Project

3.  Contrast

We all love contrast.  The eye is no different.  Light and dark.  Rough and smooth. Lines that dance about and lines that are calm and patterned.  

As I pick and chose which items I will include in my drawing I think I was both conscious and unconscious of creating this contrast. (Because there just isn't room for everything.)  I definitely think my Inner Critic was busy too.  I worked on a small mock up of this drawing in my sketchbook to see and feel how things were going.  I wanted to present the fascinating life on the forest floor but not put in tooooo much detail.  (Definitely I love my detail)  Keeping that idea of contrast in mind does help me in the designing stages.  

Bonus Note: 

4. Tension

I think this might also be a Grabbing Point for the Eye.  And I think it is here in my drawing.  The focal point is the large cluster of stumps and trees on the right but I feel the contrasting shape at the left, the single tree growing over the stump acts as a second, lesser focus.  Even as the eye finishes with the main cluster, I feel there is a pull back to the first tree.  

Possible Tension within the picture - the draw between the main and secondary vocal point 

What do you think?  Is there a pull?  Is there a bit of tension?  If so, that would be part of the Eye Movement Story.  

Still bits and pieces to finish up on my drawing "The Forest Floor".  I must admit there is lots about it that catches my eye.  I really enjoy working on it and studying it.  There is lots it seems to want to tell me.  

Further Reading/Viewing

5 Tips for Drawing on Wood - Blog Post

How to Draw on Wood Blocks - YouTube Video 

EeK!  How to Plan a New Art Project (Series) - Blog Post talking about how my Drawing on Wood came about and more examples of this Series. 

Looking to Move your work to NEW LEVELS?  

Contact Me for:

1. Private Drawing Lesson: (3 Sessions 2.5 hr each $250)

Do you want your animals to breath, your flowers to sparkle or your people to walk?  Whatever subject your like to paint or draw I can build a drawing program for you.  Private Lessons allow you to focus on the skills you wish to develop.  Wendy is a experienced teacher, providing a calm, relaxing experience as you learn how to use the principles of drawing.  Beginner to Advanced are welcome.  Special rates for younger students.  More info here.

2.  Online Mentoring/Teaching  (3 sessions 30 minutes each $75)

Are You and Your Inner Critic looking to expand your discussions.  Here's how it works: Send me a few pictures of your paintings.  I will prepare material to facilitate a discussion based on your goals.  I am a sounding board, coach and teacher,  with suggestions, techniques and tips to help you meet your goals and move your art forward.  More info here.   Looking forward to Zooming with you.  

Many find this post helpful: Turn your Inner Critic into your BFF

Be sure to like and share my posts.  You won't miss a single post if you Follow by Email 

Have a great Artful Day,

Wendy