Field arts events in the UK this fall

I hope to see you on one of my book or workshop events held throughout the UK this fall, from Hastings to London to Devon! Stay tuned as I will be adding more events farther north and possibly Wales.

  • Saturday, October 21 – Hastings

  • Saturday, October 28 – South Devon

  • Wednesday, November 1 – London

Details below:

Saturday, October 21, 2023 — Hastings

Nature Journaling — Book signing and free how-to-get-started mini class

Join naturalist, field artist, and explorer Roseann Hanson for a morning introductory talk on how to get started nature journaling and field sketching. Her books, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, and Master of Field Arts, are unique “workshops in a book” format with easy how-to instructions that progress chapter-by-chapter and include goals and homework assignments to keep you on track. Nature Journaling for a Wild Life (£39.99) includes 60 pages of blank journal pages plus special pull-outs such as bookmarks and an acetate drawing grid.

With this book, you will be “drawing to learn,” not learning to draw, and you’ll discover that anyone can master field sketching and watercolor.

Roseann’s second book, Master of Field Arts (£37.99), is like a master’s degree in becoming a more advanced field sketcher and naturalist, with chapters on cartography, animal tracking, reading the weather, and deep dives into mastering pen and ink, graphite pencils, and natural pigment paints, as well as a bonus chapter on making your own ink and quill pen.

Join us and enter the magical world of nature journaling and field arts.

Books for sale, signed by the author. Outdoor sketching demo if weather permits.

WHEN: Saturday, October 21, 2023

10 am to 11:30 am

WHERE: The Bale House, Hastings Country Park Visitor Centre, Lower Coastguard Ln, Fairlight, Hastings TN35 4AD [MAP]

Saturday, October 28, 2023 – south devon

Wild Colors — make paint and ink workshop

Let's play in the dirt—and more! Learn to create paint and ink from soil and plants in a 5-hour workshop at The Nature Journaling Centre in beautiful East Devon in the village of Colyton. The centre is housed in Umborne Bridge Studio.

Instructors Roseann Hanson and Alex Boon will teach you how to find the right soil and plants, how to easily process them into paints and / or ink, safety tips, and more. Devon is famous for its red soils, and we’ll work from pigments you gather or that we provide from local foraging expeditions we’ll do ahead of time, to ensure we have enough material for everyone.

Instructors: Alex Boon and Roseann Hanson.

WHEN: Saturday, October 28 from 10 am to 4 pm (bring a lunch)

COST:

- £75 including soil and plant materials from which we’ll make paint and ink; equipment for processing; containers so that you can take home sample soil paints and inks from the workshop, plus Master of Field Arts, Roseann Hanson’s field arts guide that includes chapters on making ink from natural materials and painting with soil pigments (as well as chapters on cartography, animal tracking, meteorology, and much more). BONUS: Includes access to a private online community of field arts enthusiasts just like you. On this forum you can share your future experiments, ask questions and receive timely answers from your instructors and other wild color enthusiasts. (Field Arts Community Forum)

Bring a lunch. Tea and water provided.

WHERE: The Nature Journaling Centre at Umborne Bridge Studio, Unit 1 Dolphin St. Colyton EX12 6LU [MAP].

Optional: Join us for an optional pigment collecting expedition on Friday, October 27 at 5PM, leaving from the Hideaway end of Seaton Beach. Please let us know upon registration if you would like to join in.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023 – london

Field journals and sketching in nature workshop

Join me in London for an afternoon and evening of field journaling at the Royal Geographical Society, part of their Explore Festival!

Field notebooks are a time-honored tradition of explorers and naturalists for hundreds of years. Charles Darwin, Lewis and Clark, Mary Anning, and Beatrix Potter all kept careful notes of their observations and journeys.

Keeping a field notebook—also known as a nature journal—can both deepen our connections to the natural world and help us learn more about it. And you don’t have to a trained scientist or artist to keep a journal. This afternoon workshop will start you on the path to developing the skills of a naturalist and a field sketch-artist and a lifelong journey of discovery and exploration.

You will learn the tools and processes of keeping a nature journal with instructor Roseann Hanson, a Fellow of the Society and author of Nature Journaling for a Wild Life and Master of Field Arts. The workshop will focus on the importance of field notes, the cognitive value of visual learning, and the social and ecological value of sharing our discoveries.

The workshop will include:

  • The nuts and bolts of journal-keeping (paper and ink types, archival systems, how to make entries that you can refer to later, laying out pages, prompts to jump-start observations, and tips on researching science questions sparked by your observations).

  • Easy tips that enable anyone to get started sketching and painting.

  • Roseann will help free you from your inner critic and start sketching and painting. Art in a nature journal is not only lovely to see, but an important component of your skillset because the very act of drawing and painting something from life involves incredibly intense observation. Your brain is wholly occupied by only that thing you are observing and drawing—it is a kind of meditation that results in new insights, deeper understanding, and discoveries.

  • A short classroom session and, weather permitting, the rest of the session will be held in Hyde Park (please wear suitable footwear and outdoor clothing.)

  • A copy of the workbook, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, which includes blank journal pages, special field tools and a basic field sketching set (pen, pencil, eraser, ruler).

WHEN: 1 November 2023

2.00pm - 5.00pm

WHERE: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR

COST: . £48 (includes handbook)

After the workshop, join us at the RGS for The Art of Exploration, a panel of environmental scientists, conservationists, explorers, and journalers as they discuss how exploring, studying and drawing what they observe deepens their connections to, and inspires conservation of, the natural world. See details below.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023 – london

the art of exploration — in-person & online PaNEL

Join us in person or online for a panel of environmental scientists, conservationists, explorers, and journalers as they discuss how exploring, studying and drawing what they observe deepens their connections to, and inspires conservation of, the natural world.

A practical field journal and sketching workshop can be booked separately for early afternoon. (Information above.)

Panellists: Rob Fraser, Roseann Hanson, Ali Foxon, Alex Boon, and Tony Foster.

Part of the Explore festival. 1 November 2023

6.30pm - 7.45pm. In person: £12, £10 RGS-IBG members. Online: £6, RGS-IBG members £5.

Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR

Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp — Field report

Sketching landscapitos at the Wood River below the lodge.

In late August thirteen of us—a lucky number—met up in Fairbanks, Alaska, for our first Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp. We enjoyed a visit to the Sandhill Crane Festival and the Morris Thompson Visitor Center in town, then boarded our chartered flights to the remote Wood River Lodge in the Alaska Range. This historic property dates to the gold rush days in the late 1800s and is a gem of comfort (a hot tub right off the cabins and next to the beautiful river!) and true Alaska charm, surrounded by tens of thousands of wilderness acres. Moose, grizzly and black bears, Dall sheep, caribou, wolf, and wolverine are all in the area, and we saw peregrine and goshawks every day, plus dozens of songbirds and Willow ptarmigan and sage grouse. The Thorgesen family—all twelve of them!—kept us well fed and met all our needs. The full bar and custom cocktails crafted from local ingredients like spruce tips and berries kept us well watered. While there was a scary moment at the beginning when it looked like our flights might be grounded due to weather, we all made it in and spent four days in pure field arts discovery: tracking, birding, paint and ink making, hiking, field sketching, botanizing, berry picking, and much more.

From Wood River we flew back to Fairbanks and then drove the group by van halfway up the “Haul Road”—aka the Dalton Highway—over the Yukon River, across the Arctic Circle, to the quirky and very Alaskan Coldfoot Camp. All in all it was an epic time!

If you would like to join us next year, please >sign up< for our interest list (which does not guarantee you a slot, just a timely notification when we open registrations). We hope to see you here in the great Alaskan wilds!

Journal Pages from the Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp

Free Online Workshop - Creative Night Skies

How do you journal night skies? It's always been a love-hate thing for me—I love tracking the stars and planets and finding constellations, but depicting them in journals can be challenging!

In this free online workshop, we will work on four different approaches:

  1. Pre-painted watercolor skies on which you can add sky components live or after a sky-viewing telescope session (a technique inspired by Alaska artist Kristin Link);

  2. Making a cutaway peek-a-boo window showing day-and-night;

  3. Using Sharpies and white, silver, or other metallic pens and pencils; and

  4. Using black paper and white, silver, or other metallic pens, pencils, and paint.

WHEN: Saturday, September 9 at 9 am AZ time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

COST: Free but registration is required (link below)

HOW: Register now via Zoom at this link >HERE<

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

  • Journal with watercolor paper (or loose sheets);

  • Paint colors: Indigo, Pthalo Blue (Green Shade), Quinacridone Rose or similar, Burnt Sienna (mine are Daniel Smith but any brand will do);

  • Hair dryer;

  • White gel pen (the best is Uniball Signo;

  • White and red colored pencils;

  • For fun if you have them: metallic paints or pens and pencils;

  • Black Sharpie;

  • Black paper.

Join me at the Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference

Join me for the 2023 Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference—I’ll be appearing and teaching several times with 25 other international instructors. I’ll be teaming up with the popular Instagram duo Ben Goulet-Scott and Jacob Suisse known as Let’s Botanize to take you on a virtual field trip to Panama, and I’ll be leading a panel on Adventure Nature Journaling!

The conference is 100% online, and five days long—the cost for all five days is equivalent to just $6 per class!

The dates are September 13 to 17, 2023, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 pm Pacific each day!

Buy tickets at the Wild Wonder Foundation website: https://www.wildwonder.org/wild-wonder-nature-journaling-conference-2023

Meet all of the teachers & speakers

Learn about P22, the mountain lion in the conference art by John Muir Laws.

Chroma Borealis–Colors of Alaska

Making paint and ink from wild sources is one of my passions (see Wild Color! Make Paint and Ink from Soil and Plants, in the Nature Journal Academy), and I couldn’t wait to get started in Alaska when we finally got back to our cabin in Fairbanks in June.

On a trip down the Richardson Highway to the Copper River, we stopped several times to gather pigment in the Alaska Range—at Rainbow Mountain (above) and at the stream that outflows from the Castner Glacier (below). The iron-rich soil and stones produced one of the richest reds (siennas) that I’ve ever worked with, and I was especially intrigued by the iridescent oxidation on some of the weather stones; the surface acts like a paint-stone—just by swiping a wet brush across, you get a beautiful reddish stain.

The pale silver soil I gathered next to Castner Creek is ground over many millennia courtesy the Castner Glacier. Over the millennia the glacier grinds its way slowly across the landscape, turning the underlying rhyolite, andesite, granite, and other intrusive igneous rocks (at depth) and sandstone and mudstone (closer to the surface) into what geologists call “glacial flour.”

Glacial flour comprises the lightest soil particles and they remain suspended in water, giving the region around glaciers the characteristic glowing turquoise and light blue, turquoise, or bright gray hues.

Castner Glacier particles are full of sparkly mica and the resulting paint maintains the metallic silver sheen. And yes those are porcupine tracks in the silt!

Sadly, the glacier, like most in Alaska, is melting much more rapidly now, and the sediment is increasing as more of the glacier releases its trapped soil.

Drawing to Learn — A new course series

We can all draw.

None of us is born “talented” or “not talented.” It is a skill that we learn.

And here’s an interesting fact: our brains love to learn, so much so that the more you push your brain to learn a new skill, the more neural pathways develop. So you get better not only at what you are learning, but at many other mental skills. You get smarter!

I like to say that learning a skill such as drawing is like learning a language. You are not born knowing how to talk. You learn it.

This course is going to teach you the words and grammar you need for the language of drawing, and we are going to use a technique that is proven to work:

We will DRAW TO LEARN, not learn to draw!

This two-day, five-part course Drawing to Learn, Workshop #1 – Trees with Roseann Hanson includes:

Lesson 1 - Study Your Subject

  • Learn how to intensely observe a subject in order to collect the “words” you need for your drawing language.


Lesson 2 - Make Marks

  • Practice those new words by making marks that represent your subject—this is a critical building block in unleashing the power of your drawing language.

Lesson 3 - Find Shapes

  • This exercise is critical for beginning to learn the “grammar” of your subject in order to get the context right.

Lesson 4 - Create Your Study Sketch

  • You will learn how to get proportions right—proportion is like the advanced grammar in this langauge of drawing;

  • You will learn to dip into your Marks to add characteristics to your subject, and check the shapes.

Lesson 5 - Dive into Details

  • Our final lesson brings us back to the study notes in Step 1, coming full circle to finish up our process of Drawing to Learn.

 
 
 
Class - June 2024 - Drawing to Learn
$75.00
Quantity:
Add To Cart
 

Special introductory offer for live, online course: $75

two days:

September 30 and October 7, 2023
9 am – 11:30 am Arizona time

As you move through the lessons, I will encourage you to use our private Field Arts Community forum to post your sketches and ask questions—I will be on the Community nearly daily to help you and provide encouragement!

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Field Arts tools: A round-up

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As field artists we tend to focus on the tools of paper and ink and color . . . but there are many other tools that enhance our ability to see, study, and record our nature observations. Below is a round-up of my favorite field arts tools. I go into much greater detail on each of these in my book, Master of Field Arts. The Field Arts Discovery Kit includes two of the tools listed below, a Pocket Loupe and a Mini Plant Press.

Pocket Loupe

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In my mind, the well-equipped naturalist and Master of Field Arts will carry two optics tools in his or her kit. The least expensive and also most indispensible is a loupe or pocket loupe. The word may derive from Old French meaning “sapphire lens.”

Use one to inspect the reproductive parts of a flower, the scales on a butterfly wing, or even the edge of your field knife whilst sharpening. What to look for:

- I like 10X power—although you’ll find more powerful loupes, the greater the magnification, the smaller the depth of field (which is hard to use), and with lower-powered magnification, you just can’t see as much detail.

- Glass lenses (rather than plastic).

- Triple lenses, called a “triplet” or “Hastings triplet.”

- A self-cover and a pouch for carrying is a bonus.

The Field Arts Discovery Kit includes a Pocket Loupe; a higher quality option is a $30 Bausch and Lomb Coddington model.

Binocular

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A binocular is the next most important optic. And if you want to be insufferable, insist on saying “binocular” and never “a pair of binoculars.” That’s because a binocular is literally two ocular lenses; a monocular is one ocular lens.

Okay, didacticism aside, let’s get down to why every serious naturalist needs a good binocular instrument for:

- Observing wildlife from a far vantage point without disrupting the animal’s behavior;

- Observing close-but-small subjects such as butterflies and lizards;

- Scanning far landscape features such as geology or plant species;

- Observing very small details (by inverting the oculars).

My favorite binocular is the Swarovski NL 8X32: excellent exit pupil size for great low-light viewing, fantastic field of view, amazingly close focus for the power, and excellent weight for their power. I can wear mine all day and not feel any neck strain, and because of the superb optics, no eye strain. They are, however, very expensive (worth it if this is a tool you use every day, like I do; plus Swarovski’s warranty is excellent and portable with the binocular, so look for them used if you can). An alternative that is the excellent 8x30 CL.

We’ve been Swarovski fans for more than 30 years and remain so to this day. My only minor complaint is their new strap system, which is way too fussy—as you can see, I replaced mine with a simple leather strap, which is far preferable to the vaguely S&M contraption that is stock.

Field Knife

“Back in the day,” as the saying goes, whether hiking, backpacking, canoeing, car-camping, hunting, or doing fieldwork as a biologist, you carried a fixed- blade sheath knife. It was axiomatic that the knife would be your primary tool for dozens of tasks: cutting rope and webbing, field-dressing fish or game, cooking and eating, carving, you name it.

It was also axiomatic that a fixed-blade knife would be the best choice for those tasks, given its superior strength and control over a folding knife, and easy one-hand accessibility right there at your belt.

I favor a knife no longer than 4 inches, with a spear-point blade and a Scandinavian (“Scandi”) grind (the blade holds its thickness from the spine most of the way toward the edge, which has a single bevel extending quite high up each side). These are versatile and very strong. The knife above is my original little LT Wright field knife with a stag handle (no longer made, sadly); today my knife is a 3.5-inch Böker with a leather sheath, made in Argentina.

Mini Plant Press

In the mid-1980s I acquired a 3x5-inch mini plant press from Vince Roth, the director of the Southwest Research Station—he made a few to sell to students and fellow biologists. It’s been with me all over the world, and I love it so much I decided to replicate it and offer through my Field Arts Institute. Press flowers, leaves, and other curiosities to preserve in your field journals.

Presenting at Overland Expo West 2023

Jonathan and I will be in Flagstaff, Arizona, May 18-20 teaching at Overland Expo West 2023, the event we founded in 2009 (and sold in 2019). We hope you can stop in and see us either at one of our presentations, or at our booth (space Q62, at the entrance to the big barn “Inside Exhibits” #8 on the map).

Photo: Ann Youberg

SCHEDULE

Friday, May 19, 11 am – Keeping a Travel Journal – 11 am (open to Overland Experience ticket holders)

Friday, May 19, 3 pm – Overlanding with a 50-year-old Vehicle: How to update while preserving a classic (Booth Q62) – open to everyone

Saturday, May 20, 10 am – Best Modifications to Leave OFF Your Overlanding Vehicle (Booth Q62) – open to everyone

Saturday, May 20, 1 pm – Women’s Overlanding Roundtable Discussion (Roundtable Pavilion) - Chairing – open to everyone

Tickets range from Day Pass from around $27 (lower on Sunday) to the all-inclusive Overland Experience ($490). Hope to see you there!

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Art of Trees Workshop Images

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We just wrapped up a perfect Sunday: time spent with 13 enthusiastic tree-lovers in the Bay Area’s Holbrook-Palmer Park (California), learning and practicing tree sketching skills for field journaling.

For this Art of Trees workshop, co-instructor Patricia Larenas and I were bless with wonderful students, a beautiful day, and a plethora of interesting trees from which to choose, from the native stately Coast Live Oaks and mighty Coast Redwoods, to the exotic and odd Monkey Puzzles and Japanese Maples, all putting on a great show. The Atherton Arts Foundation was the perfect host, and we are so grateful for Dorothy and team who make it such a welcoming, perfect venue for art education.

Here are images of our pages and happy students.

Please join my email list to learn about future in-person (and online) field sketching and nature journaling classes!

This video shows the progression in Kate Rutter’s journal using the field exercises to zero in throughout the day on a final sketch of a wonderful Coast Live Oak. First sketch for scale and notes and ideas . . . she remarked it was a bit “flat” so she spent time with “oak marks” (love that!) and the next 13 thumbnails exploring and getting to know the oak, its shapes, negative shapes, bark, and finally found a perspective she loved and used in a completed final field sketch.

The Art of Trees—In-person nature journaling class, Bay Area

Valley Oak in Holbrook Palmer Park.

Join me and botanical artist Patricia Larenas on May 7 in Atherton, California for a daylong immersive workshop on drawing trees for nature journalers and field sketchers.

Our location is a historic estate, Holbrook Palmer Park, now a popular tree-filled community park, between South San Francisco and Palo Alto off El Camino Real. Our host is the Atherton Arts Foundation, which operates an art classroom in one of the historical buildings in the park.

We will begin in the morning learning the key components of drawing trees realistically by their species and character in a field setting. You will learn:

  • Not to be intimidated by their complexity;

  • To train your eye to study the major branches and the structure of the tree and one really important “rule” that will set you free;

  • Important clues on how to capture trunks, branches, and twigs, and how to shade them correctly; and

  • Tips on capturing trees and their features quickly in the field.

After these classroom practice sessions, we’ll enjoy lunch (BYO), and then sinceit’s always best to draw trees from life to understand them—photos don’t capture them accurately—we’ll spend the afternoon in the beautiful grounds of the park putting our new skills to use.

Monkey Puzzle Tree on the grounds.

Each participant will receive an accordion book handmade by Patricia, which you can use to begin capturing your trees.

Cost: $75 per person, including handmade accordion book & morning tea / coffee; scholarship applications will be accepted. Please email with your request.

Location: Holbrook Palmer Park, Atherton, CA

Time: Sunday, May 7 — 9 am to 3 pm Pacific time

What’s Included: Instruction with Roseann and Patricia; handmade accordion book; tea and coffee and snacks mid-morning break.

What to Bring: Your journaling kit; sun hat; lunch in a small container (for the fridge). Optional: portable chair if you have one (the park has some benches and tables, and folding chairs in classroom may be available to move outside).

Evans House.

Classroom.

Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamps Recap

We returned this past weekend after spending eight days exploring southern Arizona’s Aravaipa Canyon with two groups of fellow naturalists, nature journalers, and adventurers during the Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamps.

Each group spent four days at the private Aravaipa Canyon Ranch, a family-owned working ranch. Our rustic but comfy ranch house was reminiscent of old-school Field Camps where many of us enjoyed biology courses back in the day.

It was definitely a busy field camp: daily nature rambles to journal and explore; scheduled learning workshops; and so many fun activities: animal tracking; plaster cast making; wild pigment foraging and paint / ink making; plant dissection and scope drawing; viewing bighorn sheep and new lambs through the spotting scopes; plant ID; live animal capturing and study (cactus mice, lizards, and a grumpy diamondback rattlesnake).

We enjoyed ourselves so much we didn’t want to leave. It was truly a joy to spend immersive time in nature with so many enthusiastic nature explorers and journalers.

Save the date for 2024’s Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamp: April 12–15. Spaces will go on sale later in summer. See the link below to join our Bootcamp email list to get alerts!

Photo Gallery: All images by Jonathan and Roseann Hanson unless otherwise noted.

ROSEANN’S JOURNAL PAGES

Attendee Journal Pages, Bootcamp 1

Attendee Journal Pages, Bootcamp 2

Journaling Night Skies

How to journal night skies? It's always been a love-hate thing for me—I love tracking the stars and planets and finding constellations, but I was never happy with the journaling results.

Preparing for our recent Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamps, where I knew we’d have great night sky viewing with several Swarovski scopes, I decided to double-down on mastering this skill.

For creating pre-painted watercolor skies on which I could add sky components live or after a sky-viewing telescope session, I turned to the inspiring work and tutorials of Alaska artist Kristin Link, and I’m liking the results. Her technique gives you a rich sky that has a hint of color and lots of depth, so you can easily imagine galaxies far, far away . . .

Using my Sky Palette (five blues plus Burnt Sienna to make blacks and grays), I focused on darks using Indigo alone, then with Burnt Sienna, then brightening spots with runs of Pthalo Blue and Quinacridone Rose. One of the tricks is letting it dry completely between layers (I used a hairdryer).

Stars and labels are created with the Uniball Signo Gel Pen (per Kristin and @johnmuirlaws ), and constellation sketches and plane of the ecliptic line are added with a white pencil.

Below is a video of the process, with steps explained in the caption (the steps match the time stamps):

  • 00:01 STEP 1 Start with a wash of indigo, fading from dark to lighter at bottom. Mix a little burnt sienna into the indigo and darken the top, then drop in pthalo blue and quinacridone rose. Let dry.

  • 00:15 STEP 2 Add another layer of indigo around the edges and smooth into the brighter interior (even wash over a thin layer). Mix a little burnt sienna into the indigo and darken the top and edges. Let dry.

  • 00:27 STEP 3 Mix a dark with indigo and burnt sienna and paint a foreground. Let dry.

  • 00:31 STEP 4 Use a gel pen to add moon, planets, stars.

  • 00:51 STEP 5 Use a white colored pencil to create drawings such as constellations and the plane of the ecliptic.

ABOVE: I created this cut-a-away scene by first drawing an eastern view in daytime, then on the next page the nighttime scene of the same view, made a cut-out window, and glued the pages together.

BELOW: Beverly Owens, a science teacher, took photos of the night scenes with her iPhone right through the viewfinder of the Swarovski spotting scope, then she drew them in her journal. The trick for her backgrounds? A Sharpie! Proof that you don’t need to go fancy with watercolor to create great night skies. She used white gel pen and colored pencils.

BELOW: And for zero prep time, keep some black construction paper in your journal to either lace in or glue in. Using a white pencil, I drew the occultation of Uranus and Venus and the other elements of the western skin while laying on my back in the middle of the meadow. Back inside later, I added the labels with a gel pen and enhanced Mars and Aldeberon with red pencil.

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Seeing the Unseen: Cut-a-way Views

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During our recent Sonoran Desert Field Arts Bootcamp in Aravaipa Canyon, I watched artist Patricia Larenas draw a beautiful landscapito in her journal and turn it into an interactive feature by overlaying a door that the viewer opens to reveal the landscape.

Magic! I immediately thought of many other ways to incorporate cut-a-way panels: day sky / night sky; tree trunk / woodpecker hole-nest; creek or ocean surface / underwater life; gopher or ant mount / underground chambers; snow surface / animal tunnels or stream . . . it’s really endless, the only limit your imagination.

The technique and tools are pretty simple, too. In my field bag I keep a plastic-handled scalpel with cover (or search for “bread lame tool”), a small vial of PVA glue (= Elmer’s glue), and a small glue-spreading brush (from the bookmaking arts).

Create your “top” or “visible” view first, keeping in mind any space you need to leave for what you envision for the “underside” or “unseen” view, which you complete on the next page. Eyeball marker points to align the scenes up and pencil them in so you stay within scale and match features.

When finished with both drawings, lightly sketch with pencil the door/s you want to open, and also mark the hinges (the uncut part) so you don’t get over-enthusiastic and cut through them.

Once you triple-check the door placement and cut lines, place a piece of thin cardboard (such as from a cereal box; I keep a 9x6 piece in the back of my journal) between the pages, and use the scalpel to cut your door/s.

Finally, spread a thin layer of PVA glue on the back of the first page and carefully press to the second page, aligning the corners and smoothing everything flat. Let dry. Then I cover the cut-a-way part with a sheet of paper and lightly spritz the back side of the doors with water, close them, and then place my Perspex Palette on top of that, and a weight on top of the palette and let dry. This helps ensure the door lays flat again.

I would love to see your results if you try creating cut-a-ways for the “unseen” views!

Turn on the sound for soothing creek burbling and bird calls.

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Around the World in 80 Trees No. 8 - SE Asia [FREE WORKSHOP]

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Inspired by Jonathan Drori’s wonderful books Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World Plants, we’re going to travel around the globe by region and sketch interesting, weird, iconic, or beautiful trees and tree-like plants.

No. 8: Southeast Asia

What you’ll need: a multi-media sketchbook or an accordion booklet (see the versions I did for the other sessions, links below), pen and / or pencil for our base drawings, and then watercolor or colored pencil to quickly bring them to life.

TIP: I used a strip of heavy watercolor paper folded into four squares to create an “accordion” booklet to record my trees (8 total, 4 on each side).

Prepwork: have on hand a simple outline map of Australia (don’t forget Tasmania!) so you can sketch location points for each species.

When: Saturday, April 22, 2023 at 9 am Tucson, Arizona time (use a time converter to make sure you pick the right time for your time zone: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html )

HOW: Zoom link. This session is free but for security, registration is required. Sign up > > HERE <.

Wild Colors of Baja

Wild Colors of Baja — one of my favorite things while traveling is to collect local pigments and make paint onsite so I can depict the landscape in its own colors. Here are three gorgeous colors I made in Baja during our Field Arts Bootcamp, using rainwater, binder made from Bursera (elephant tree) resin, and a little honey . . . All are iron oxides: Orange Ochre from north of Punta Bufeo, Red-Purple Ochre from the Sierra la Giganta, and Black Magnetite (with mica sparkles!) from Bahía Magdalena where the whales have their babies. Fish vertebrae and seashell containers.

Do you make wild colors? Paint or ink? I’d love to know!

If you are wanting to dive into making your own paint or ink from nature, I offer two online workshops that will get you started!

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Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp – August 19–25, 2023

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Image: Joris Beugels / Unsplash.com

Join me and Jonathan on a unique Arctic journey as we experience the beauty and magic of Alaska’s vast interior, from the Alaska Range to the Brooks Range, crossing the mighty Yukon River and the Arctic Circle in between.

We begin in the legendary gold rush city of Fairbanks on the Chena River, where we’ll get oriented at a local museum and enjoy the Sandhill Crane Festival. The next day the adventure begins when we depart by small planes to a bush airstrip at the Wood River Lodge, where we spend four days and three nights nestled in the huge roadless wilderness of the Alaska Range.

We return to Fairbanks and next day depart for the North by van on our optional Arctic Circle two-day extension. We’ll cross the mighty Yukon River and then the Arctic Circle on our way to the quirky roadhouse camp of Coldfoot, at the base of the Brooks Range.

Photos: Jonathan Hanson

Why August? It’s our favorite time in Alaska: it’s fall in the high north, with willows and alders and birches turning golden and red; blueberries, cranberries, and mushrooms are abundant; snow is often already dusting the dramatic mountains; and best of all, the mosquitoes are pretty much gone.

You will experience a full range of classic interior Alaska habitats and wildlife and seven days of pure immersion in field arts: nature journaling, field sketching and watercolor, animal tracking, birdwatching, reading the weather, using field optics, found pigments and inks, and much more.

Imagine the luxury of doing nothing but exploring wild nature and journaling in a cohort of like-minded fellow journalers . . . and with customized one-on-one feedback and skills-specific tutoring throughout the whole experience. No excuses. Just pure nature journaling growth and mindset.

Suitable For:

  • All journalers, from beginners to advanced, as your Bootcamp experience is tailored to your appropriate level: nurturing, inquisitive, and expansive. Not suitable for non-journalers, so please consider carefully if your travel partner is not a journaler, field sketcher, or nature photographer.

  • A moderate level of mobility, fitness, and health. We’ll be walking up to half a mile on flat sidewalks or dirt trails in Fairbanks; the trails around the Lodge can take you as far as you like within your ability; and we’ll be walking on uneven and potentially difficult terrain around the Koyakuk River and at various stops on the Arctic Extension. We will be in very remote locations away from quick emergency medical help; we will have a satellite phone but keep in mind, response and transport could be a significant wait.

    You will be required to secure trip cancellation and medical evacuation insurance. Trust us, it’s worth it, and very affordable.

What’s included:

  • One-on-one attention in areas in which you would like to improve;

  • Skills-specific mini-tutorials in field arts such as sketching, watercolor, nature writing, animal tracking, reading the weather, and using optics;

  • Orientation day in Fairbanks (museum and Sandhill Crane Festival) and accommodation and meals (lunch and dinner) at the Marriott Springhill Suites on the Chena River (Saturday, August 19);

  • Four days and three nights at Wood River Lodge in the Alaska Range south of Fairbanks (August 20–23);

  • Small-plane flights from Fairbanks to the Lodge and back;

  • Wine and beer happy hour each evening;

  • Use of Swarovski Optics binoculars throughout the Bootcamp;

  • Field kit gift bags;

  • Accommodation and dinner on return to Fairbanks (August 23) at the Marriott Springhill Suites. Fly out on the 24th or join the Arctic Extension, below.

  • OPTIONAL ARCTIC EXTENSION:

    • Van to Coldfoot, driving up the Dalton Highway, crossing the Yukon River and the Arctic Circle (August 24–25).

    • Stopping along the way for sketching and wildlife viewing.

    • Overnight at the classic “haul road” roadhouse Coldfood Camp in the tiny hamlet of Coldfoot (this is the only accommodation on the Dalton, and a true rugged worker’s accommodation, built in the 1970s).

    • Visit to the Koyakuk River and the BLM Interagency Interpretive Center.

    • Return to Fairbanks and stay at Pike’s Landing (or similar) on the Chena River (August 25). Fly out on the 26th.

Pricing:

  • Base cost Aug 19-23 only, one person, sharing room – $3,250

    • Single supplement (4 available) – + $580

  • Optional two-day Arctic Extension Aug 24-25 – +$725

    • Single supplement, Coldfoot Arctic Extension (4 available) – + $580

  • A deposit will be required to secure your space. Final payments will be due in June. See FAQ for refund policy (below).

Wild Wonder Nature Journal Educators Workshop

John Muir Laws

Have you considered teaching nature journaling or leading a club or group in your region?

Join me and John Muir Laws, co-author of How to Teach Nature Journaling, along with Rob Wade, and other experienced educators on June 9-10, 2023, for a fun, informative, and empowering two-day online workshop offered by the Wild Wonder Foundation.

This workshop is for anyone who is teaching in any form—or wants to teach. This includes formal classroom educators, but also homeschool parents, park rangers, adult education instructors, nature center staff, scout leaders, environmental educators, club leaders, and more. Beginners are welcome. Even if you haven’t taught yet, but you love nature journaling and would like to teach, we would love to have you join us!

It’s affordable—only $70 with opportunities for scholarship grants, and will include six months of access to all the video recordings and resources.

You will come away from this workshop inspired with best practices and practical tools for teaching nature journaling, and you will be prepared to put them into practice with your students.

Roseann teaching basic watercolor techniques at the Baja Field Arts Bootcamp in February 2023.

Baja Field Arts Bootcamp Recap

We returned Thursday to Arizona after spending nearly three weeks in Baja—including a full week with a group of fellow naturalists, nature journalers, and adventurers who joined us the first Baja Field Arts Bootcamp.

We spent three days at a private whale-watching camp on Magdalena Bay at the mouth to the Pacific Ocean, where we had whales and their babies greet us right offshore as we sipped our morning coffee. We spent several hours each morning and afternoon in open boats called pangas—the captains are all fishermen in the local coop and are excellent guides; we even witnessed pretty epic whale sex (several times), including some eye-popping views of the male’s member, which the guides call “Pink Floyd.” Suffice to say I never thought I’d sketch a whale willy!

Returning to Loreto, we then spent a magical, calm and cool day cruising out to Isla Coronado to snorkel with sea lions and test out the underwater sketch kits I made (see below). Conditions were very difficult—really cold water, ill-fitting and malfunctioning PFDs causing serious delays and difficulty swimming—but six brave souls joined me for our attempts at drawing underwater!

The next day we heading up into the Sierra la Gigantic and more adventure, this time to climb up to “Cueva de la Serpiente,” Cave of the Serpent, a 4000-year-old rock art site on a private ranch. Jonathan and our guides took the main group up the very steep, difficult ascent over large boulders, while I lead a small group on a nature hike up the road where we had some great wildlife tracking and bird life.

The last day was mostly a free day, and some of us visited the Eco Alianza de Loreto, a community-based conservation group that has been building strong programs in the region for over ten year. Executive director Carlos Posadas Solano hosted our group and we joined a program for 40 grade schoolers who were learning that day about mangrove estuaries and birds. We brought three Spanish language copies of John Muir Laws’ Guide to Nature Sketching and Journaling for the Alianza’s environmental educator team, and we brought 40 journals and art supplies for the kids. Our group had a fun half-hour journaling with the kids as they decorated them with nature stickers and drew their favorite animals.

The team from ROW / Sea Kayak Adventures—Rafa Escalante, Mario Escalera, and Dianna, the primary guides, along with the camp support team (Amaranta, Kellee, and the amazing cook, Shelly)—made the whole experience enriching, fun, and deeply rewarding.

Our most adventurous bootcamp yet, we practically need a vacation to recover from all the experiences!

Photo Gallery: All images by Jonathan and Roseann Hanson unless otherwise noted.