Camp & Draw: Making a Nature Walk Journal Page

by C. Wu

Even if I’m just walking around the neighborhood pond, making a nature journal entry about my stroll makes it feel a little more like an adventure.

Materials:
Sketchbook: A4 Zap Book / Clairefontaine
Pencil: Pilot Color Eno / Pilot
Pens: Pigma Micron / Sakura
Markers: PITT artist pen big brush / Faber-Castell, Copic Ciao and Copic Sketch / Copic

materials2.jpg

I go out on a walk around the neighborhood pond, taking pictures and collecting leaf samples.

Back home, I start by using my colored mechanical pencil and a pen to draw a thumbnail of my layout. Journal entries look nice titled, so I decide on writing “Le Lac” (“the lake” in French) since it’s in the name of the street around the pond.  I also write some notes on what I want to include.

I move to my sketchbook, and use my pencil to transfer my layout. I keep the sketches loose and unrefined.

sketch.jpg

I start inking with my Microns, in the sizes 02 and 05. As I ink, I switch to adding detailed guidelines in green pencil if they are needed. I use a combinations of the leaf samples I collected, the photos I took, and online images as reference.

I accidentally wrote something wrong, so I covered it up with a sticky note; to have more unity in the journal page, I add another piece of a sticky note.

To keep the rough journal entry feel, I don’t erase the green lines after I ink

ink.jpg

I start adding color with the Pitt brush pens and Copic markers. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to color and how much I wanted to leave blank. As I worked, I decided that the coloring I had done so far would look best if most elements were completely colored.

color.jpg

Once all the main elements have been drawn and colored, I work on giving the journal page a more completed look. I take a light blue marker and add blocks of color behind the main elements of the journal. I also use my pen to add some small specks to the page, used as a design element as well as to fill space.

The animals didn’t pop out as much as I liked, so I went back with my 05 Micron pen to go over the existing outlines.

I use a limited palette of mostly earth tones and greens. Colors that stick out more, like the red on the blackbird, are used elsewhere to preserve visual unity.

final.jpg

And I’m done!

John Tipton2018Comment