Where All Drawing Begins

“Drawing takes time. A line has time in it.”

~ David Hockney

The last nature journaling workshop of the year called ‘Spring Flowers’ was recently held. This workshop was quite different from previous workshops, in that it was really focused on drawing skills, as opposed to nature journaling walks and journal entries.

I chose a drawing subject that many beginners find interesting and have wanted to draw and paint since time immemorial…flowers.

In this comprehensive workshop, a lot of information and techniques were covered in three hours, and all participants were eager to learn and apply what they were taught. Considering the amount of information given, they all achieved outstanding results and I was so impressed!

Here is a brief overview of what was taught:

• Creating depth with shading, using pencils (lead and watercolour pencil) and multi-liner pens. Techniques included hatching, cross hatching, stipling and more.
• Drawing Flowers: from creating basic shapes, through to refining, outlining in pen, adding depth using the above shading techniques, and then adding colour with watercolour pencils.

And here are some before and after images of the work of a few participants:

Many of the participants had never really drawn before, so to get from a basic pencil drawing to a completed work of art that has depth, contrast and colour is truly remarkable.

You see, everyone can draw. It’s just a matter of knowing where to begin. And all drawing begins from observing and breaking down your subject into basic shapes. So rather than seeing a flower with all it’s complexities and every detail, try to see it as one big shape with smaller shapes inside it.

Feedback on the workshop was so encouraging, with a number of participants requesting that I hold the same workshop again to cement their learnings.

So I will be holding this workshop again in early 2024. However, it won’t be exactly the same. I’ll be tweaking the content to make improvements on what I deliver, so everyone will get even better results they can be excited about!

At this stage, I will be looking at a holding a comprehensive one-day workshop and providing a take home workbook. It will be around February/March 2024. And if you haven’t already subscribed to my mailing list, be sure to sign up so that you’ll be notified first of the details of this workshop.

You can subscribe to my mailing list here.

For those people who attended this workshop, I hope you’ve had a chance to go back and revise what you learned. If not, I would recommend to practice before next year’s workshop so that you can advance your skills (think more than one flower, leaves, buds, etc).

Until next time…keep practicing and never stop learning.