Camp Creek Press

Happy Earth Day!

Are you doing anything to celebrate the day?

We’ve been celebrating our planet with our nature journals and visiting the local nature center.

We made that great field bag from a worn-out pair of pants.

We make lots of art out of recyclables and free things from around the house.

I hope you all get out to touch a bit of the Earth today with your kids.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike. — John Muir

Along the same lines as observational drawing, we will concentrate on looking closely, noticing details, and doing our best to paint what we see.

We will try to paint the colors exactly as we see them.

First we do an observational pencil sketch. (If you want to try ink, make sure it is waterproof.)

Then we add details in color using the watercolor techniques we have practiced.

Because we're working in our sketchbooks and the pages are not as heavy as watercolor paper, we’re careful about using too much water — and we use an extra piece of paper under the page we are painting on to absorb any wetness that soaks through.

Things to do while making observational drawings and paintings in nature:

• Talk about what we see.

• Ask questions about what we see — and remember them, so we can look up the answers later.

• Talk about what has changed since we were here last.

• Write descriptive words in our journals.

• Pay attention to everything around us — not just what we can see, but also what we can hear, what we can feel.

• Make sure we take everything with us when we leave.

See also: the complete list of nature journal lessons (as it grows!)

You may also be interested in the complete list of art activities.

Most of our nature journaling will be done en plein air. But don’t overlook your local nature center. You can get up close and personal with birds, reptiles, and animals that you will be lucky to see from a distance when you’re drawing and painting outdoors.

See also: the complete list of nature journal activities (as it grows!)

park bench, by Jack, age 8

Last week I brought the camera but forgot to take pictures.

This week I forgot the camera altogether.

Somewhere is my little waterproof digital I use when I go kayaking; I need to put that in the art bag and leave it there.

(Luckily, one of the other moms had a camera! Thank you, Megan!)

Nice things to have when you draw outdoors:

• A big binder clip to keep your sketchbook pages from flapping in the breeze.

• A hand lens for looking at flowers, insects, and textures up close.

• Hat with a brim to keep the sun out of your eyes and off your neck.

• There is so much to look at, sometimes it’s hard to choose what to draw. A small frame or viewfinder can help a child focus on a smaller area that is easier to draw.^*

• Take a photograph of what you were drawing. (It helps if you don’t leave your camera at home.)

^*I’ll talk more about this in another post.

Are you nature journaling with us? Let us know!

We’ll be taking watercolors with us to the woods and the prairie and the garden this summer with our nature journals, so we can give our drawings a wash of color.

Since it’s still quite cold and blustery in our corner of the world, we did a little drawing outside for Friday’s art class, then we headed inside to review some watercolor techniques.

I’ve already shared that I think the best way to introduce any child to a medium is with plenty of free exploration. Time — time to play and explore and experiment! Children need time to master materials before they can work purposefully.

This is a pretty common material, though — most of my students have already used watercolors. And my time with them is limited to an hour and a half a week. So I thought I’d lead them through some simple guided experiments to become familiar with (or become reacquainted with) what watercolors can do and how they behave.

This “lesson” isn’t about making art — we’re just going to learn and/or practice a few skills so we’re ready to make art next time!

Everyone started out with their watercolor paints, a nice heavy sheet of watercolor paper, a paintbrush, and some clean water.

First, we talked about how to get the paint wet to get it started. We loaded up our brush with a lot of color. Then we painted one big stripe across the top of our paper.

Then we dipped our brush back into the water and without getting more paint, we painted a second stripe across the bottom of the first stripe. The paint ran together, but the bottom stripe was lighter. Then we did it again and got an even lighter stripe. Now we had a graded wash.

Cool!

Next, we cleaned out brushes thoroughly (by swishing our water violently) and then painted a wet square of plain water on our paper.

Then we loaded up our brush with color again and painted on the wet paper.

Then we painted another line beside it on the dry paper and talked about the differences.

(The kids loved this whole exercise — part art, part science experiment, lots of excited exclamations: “Look at mine!” “Cool!”)

Now we painted another big block of a light color.

We cleaned our brush and loaded it up with a darker color and then put some splotches into the light color to see what would happen.

We talked about what happens when the colors mix together.

Then we chose a different color and painted another big area next to this one, allowing them to touch.

What happened? The colors blend together. When might we want this to happen? If we don't want the colors to mix, what should we do? (Wait for the first color to dry!)

Next we painted another big blue square.

More science! This time we're going to practice taking paint up from the paper.

We rinse our brush well and then use our fingertips to squeeze the water from the bristles.

Now use your dry brush to suck up some paint from your blue square. You've made a white spot! Magic!

You can also use this technique to fix mixtakes — well, a little mistake anyway!

Then we used a crumpled piece of paper towel to take up more paint, and stamp a pattern as well!

Mmm, looks like clouds! If you have time (and materials), you can experiment with using a small piece of sponge, crumpled tissue paper, leaves from the garden, and anything else you can think of to stamp in your watercolors.

Next, we used a white crayon to draw on the paper to make a resist.

Anything waxy will create a place the watercolor paint won’t stick — crayon, oil pastel, even a candle! (I know it’s a little late, but those plain wax crayons that come with Easter egg-decorating kits are perfect for this.)

Draw a little something on your paper and then paint over it.

We talked a bit about when you might want to use your white crayon — if there is something white in your picture that you want to stay white, for example.

Of course, you can use any color of crayon to make a resist painting! For our nature journal kit, though, we'll make sure to carry a white crayon.

Finally, we finished by using everything we just learned to paint whatever we wanted!

See also:

Nature journals

Free exploration/working purposefully

It's nice to have a small field bag for nature walks — to hold your art supplies and also to bring home any treasures you might find.

An old pair of pants can yield 2, 3, or even half a dozen bags depending on the size. We've made many a field bag from an old pair of jeans. Jack and I made this bag out of an old pair of khaki camo pants he had outgrown.

(Denim and khaki are great materials for a field bag because they are tough, durable, and hold their shape without a lining.)

First, find an old pair of pants. Any size will do!

We thought that knee pocket would make a great detail on the front of Jack's bag.

These back pockets would also make a great bag front. If you are using jeans, you can use the front pocket as the front of your bag and the back pocket for the back!

Mark where you want to cut your fabric, and make sure your sketchbook will fit inside your finished bag!

Right away you'll notice one great thing about making a field bag out of your old clothes — you won't have to sew very much, because you can take advantage of the seams that are already there. We cut this bag out of the middle of one leg, so we sewed the bottom and around the top. If you used the bottom of the leg, and the bottom hem of the leg became the top of your bag, you would only have to sew one seam!

Cut along the marks you made. Since we cut out of the middle of the leg, we now have a tube of fabric.

Turn your material inside-out and sew the bottom seam. We triple-sewed ours for extra strength.

Fold over the top and sew around, making the top seam. You can pin it in a couple of places if you are worried about it moving around on you, but uneven seams give extra character.

Jack really wanted a matching strap, but you could also make the strap out of any old ribbon or woven tape you have in your stash.

We cut a strip of fabric about 2 1/4 inches wide and then used that strap to cut out another.

Since there is no pattern for this project, you don't need to worry about how wide your strap ends up being — there is no right or wrong!

Sew the two long sides of your strap — but not the ends! Because next you need to turn it inside out.

Sew the strap onto the bag! We went back and forth a few times for extra strength. We are expecting this bag to get some heavy outdoor use.

All done! Wasn't that easy? While we were at it, we made another one:

You can decorate your finished bag by sewing on patches, sticking on your favorite pins, embroidering them, or anything else you can think of.

Then fill them up and take a hike!

See also:

Nature journaling: supplies

Nature journaling blogroll! (Want to play along? Send us an e-mail!)