field sketching

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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.

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Toolkit tips: Power of observation

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The power of observation is one of the most important tools in your field arts “toolkit.” Sharpen it regularly!

Here’s an example, which I could have missed had I been just looking and not seeing what was happening:

I noticed recently that when pruning a little scraggly mesquite tree (Prosopis velutina) in our yard that the next month it had sprouted HUGE thorns.

I have to ponder: Do plants have genetic memory?

Prosopis species evolved with Pleistocene megafauna. Are the mammoth thorns in response to predation by mammoths? (Even if in this case the predation was by shears, not megafauna!)

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Introducing Chroma Sonorensis project

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In March this year I embarked on a yearlong project exploring the chroma—colors, from Greek khrōma for “surface of the body, skin, color of the skin”—of the Sonoran Desert by creating paint and ink from 10 plants and soil types of our region.

Some of the colors will be relatively easy to capture—ink from the magenta fruit of the prickly pear cactus—while others will involve expedition-level travel—using scientific survey reports to track down the elusive Mayo indigo plant, popular throughout the Americas as a treasured blue paint and dye.

Each color tells a story of culture and nature: purple ochre, a hematite (iron oxide) pigment formed through the fires of volcanic upheaval, was popular amongst the southwestern Trincheras Culture (A.D. 700-1100) and traded widely, where did it originate? My research has found one of the sources, in Tucson, near Tumamoc Hill, site of a Trincheras outpost (see below).

Tucson Mts. purple ochre (aka hematite)

Examples of Trincheras pottery from northern Sonora, Mexico (Douglas R. Mitchell, Jonathan B. Mabry, Natalia Martínez Tagüeña, Gary Huckleberry, Richard C. Brusca & M. Steven Shackley (2020) Prehistoric Adaptation, Identity, and Interaction Along the Northern Gulf of California, California Archaeology, 12:2, 163-195, DOI: 10.1080/1947461X.2020.1818938 )

For each color I will create an ink or a paint, and works of art as well as written stories of nature and culture—“the chroma, or skin of the place”—which will be compiled in a finished work, a book, and gallery show: Chroma Sonorensis. 

CHROMA 1: the jaguar and the Ochres

Iron (Fe) is the fourth most abundant element, by mass, in the Earth’s crust. As it ages in the soil, the iron oxidizes (a process in which a substance morphs because of the addition of oxygen—think rust) and changes colors. There are yellow, brown, red, purple, and even green iron oxides, also known as “ochres.” The differences in their hues are a matter of what the base mineral or minerals are and how much moisture was involved in their formation. For example yellow ochre is FeO(OH)·nH2O, a hydrated iron (limonite), while red ochre is Fe2O3 and gains its red from the mineral hematite, which is an anhydrous (un-hydrated) iron oxide. Purple ochre is the same formula as red but comprises different particle-size and light-diffraction properties.

Humans have been using ochres to paint cave walls, adorn their bodies, and decorate objects for more than 200,000 years. Archaeologist Tammy Hodgskiss wrote:

“People may say ochre is the earliest form of art and symbolism, but there’s more to it. Ochre shows how our brains were developing, and that we were using our environment. It bridges the divide between art and science.”

Ochres are still used today, as pottery slips and in paint: yellow ochre, burnt sienna, raw umber, vivianite, and many others.

And let’s not forget that human bodies—as with many animals—contain iron, 70% of which is carried in our blood via hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from lungs, gills, or other respiratory organs to peripheral tissues that need the oxygen for metabolism. When the hemes pick up oxygen molecules, the interaction (oxidation) turns the blood red.

I knew I wanted to include an ochre chapter in Chroma Sonorensis, and immediately thought of the similarities between the beautiful red and orange ochre cliffs so common in the desert Southwest with the colors of a jaguar’s pelt. Southern Arizona and northern Mexico are home to a handful of the northernmost jaguars on the planet. And there is no more famous jaguar in the Sonoran Desert than the male called Macho B, who was was snared in 2009 in a leg-hold trap by Arizona Game and Fish Department biologists so they could radio-collar him. The capture was ill-conceived (it was clandestine not to mention illegal to handle an endangered species and stupid to do so to a 14+ year old big cat) and poorly executed (he was given too much tranquilizer) and led to the death of this magnificent creature.

And so I decided to honor Macho B by making a pilgrimage to the tree where he was snared, hopefully collect pigments from the site, and paint his portrait with the wild paint gathered from where his own iron-rich blood was spilled—telling his story, keeping it alive so we may prevent this from happening again.

Heading into the yellow-ochre walls of Peñasco Canyon near the Mexico border.

In late April my husband Jonathan Hanson and I followed a rough four-wheel-drive track into the rugged canyon country of southern Arizona's borderlands, west of Nogales. The yellow-ochre hoodoo-spires of Peñasco Canyon greeted us as we hiked to the snare tree site.

This pilgrimage and project are very personal for me and Jonathan because we heard Macho B roaring in Brown Canyon in the Baboquivari Mountains in 1997, just weeks after he was first photographed on the ridge to the north of our house. I have the field note in my nature journal about it.

The tragedy of the snare is that not only was capturing and radio collaring not necessary—by 2009 he'd been non-invasively studied by trail cameras and scat studies for nearly a decade, and leg-hold snares are notoriously dangerous (two jaguars had already died in Sonora, Mexico, in these insidious traps ostensibly for “science”)—but after the Game and Fish researchers tranquilized him and put on the collar, a few days later he stopped moving. They found him in very bad health, airlifted him to Phoenix, and euthanized him.

The snare tree 12 years after Macho B’s death.

I sketched the tree, which has three very distinct claw marks and the diagonal slash of the snare wire. He fought and fought and fought the snare, ruining his foot, breaking a tooth.

It was very emotional to sit there knowing what happened. The entire story is told in Janay Brun’s excellent book Cloak and Jaguar: Following a Cat from Desert to Courtroom.” Janay, one of the contractors working for the researchers who set up the study, became a vocal whistle-blower about the ethics and illegality of the project. She was even prosecuted for being accessory to illegally taking an endangered species. None of the state and federal agency staff ultimately responsible for the project were charged or reprimanded. (You can also read much more detail on Janay’s blog: https://whistlingforthejaguar.wordpress.com)

I collected red and yellow iron-oxide (ochre) rocks from under the tree, and orange ochre rocks from upstream, from which to make paint to complete a formal painting for Chroma Sonorensis. My field sketch study-concept sits at the top of this article.

I'm calling the pigments "Onça Ochres" — orange for Macho B's pelt, red for his blood that coated the tree and soil where he tore his paw and fought for his life, and yellow for the canyon walls that look over his spirit.

“Onça” is Brazilian-Portuguese for jaguar, and the scientific name for jaguar is Panthera onza, North America’s only roaring cat.

Yesterday I completed initial processing of these wild pigments, crushing the rocks, grinding them, and sifting to 200 microns so I can mull them into paints with gum arabic. Curious about the volume of rocks I collected, I weighed them: 2.7 kilograms! No wonder I was tired after our long hike out—but the results were worth it. I love the three colors, they will make a perfect Macho B portrait.

Below is a gallery of images from the canyon, including of the small shrine where Macho B is remembered. I left a small piece of red ochre.

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Book birth – Master of Field Arts

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I am beyond thrilled that my next book, Master of Field Arts is finally finished and I’m expecting copies from the printer around February 9th! PRE-ORDER NOW FOR SPECIAL DISCOUNT AND GIVEAWAYS—save the date for February 19 for a virtual Book Launch Party (details below)!

Master of Field Arts is the next level for nature journalers and field sketchers—a deep-dive into becoming a dedicated master naturalist and field artist. A Master of Field Arts.

Chapters are organized to build your skills and introduce you to new tools and methods, including:

  • Field Arts Méthode

  • Tools for Field Arts

  • Session 1 – Pencil: Humble Sketching Tool

  • Session 2 – Ink: Elegant Linework

  • Session 3 – Cartography: Visualize Your World

  • Session 4 – Vintage Tint: Ochres & Natural Pigments

  • Session 5 – Weather: Read, Record, & Predict

  • Session 6 – Animal Sign: Read & Record Clues of Passage

  • Session 7 – Word Pictures: Natural History Writing

  • Bonus Workshop: Make Your Own Ink & Dip Pen

  • Projects, Templates, & Tools

  • Fieldwork Studies

  • Removable Charts, Tips, & Reminders

178 pages

Spiral binding to facilitate workshop-style learning.

$35 (see below to secure a $5 off coupon)

also available bundled with Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, Field Journal Sketchbook, Field Arts Discovery Kit, or all of the above! Click the PRE-ORDER NOW button below.

This book is a perfect sequel to Nature Journaling for a Wild Life as you grow in your nature journaling practice, as well as for field researchers and expedition leaders who want to ensure their field notes are meaningful, accessible, and useful for their work.

Join us for a Book Launch Party

Saturday, February 19, 2022

10 am MST

  • Selected reading and sneek-peeks of the content

  • Attendees who already have ordered their copy will be eligible for special giveaways during the event—see below! (if you are on our email list you will also get a $5 off code; if you didn’t get it, contact me, or sign up for the email list for instant access (below)!)

  • Giveaways—book customers will be eligible for free cool kit from the Field Arts shop (Discovery Kits, Mini Plant Presses, mini microscopes, and Field Arts Sketchbooks)!

  • Special preview of upcoming exciting new projects

Length:  45 minutes (maximum)

Start time: 10 am Mountain time / 9 am Pacific time / GMT - 7

(Having trouble figuring out time zones?Use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)

Format: online via Zoom

Access: Registration not required for this event. Please use this link HERE to join the event!

Email list subscribers and current customers received a $5 off code for pre-orders in the launch party announcement. Not on the list? Sign up now to get your code instantly!

 
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“Master of Field Arts is a welcome companion to Roseann Hanson’s 2020 book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life. In this second book in her Wild Life series, Hanson gives us an accessible and practical guide to advanced naturalist and field journaling skills. The lessons provide the structure and details to enable you to think and see like a naturalist, and take your observation and ability to investigate nature mysteries to the next level.

“These methods connect you with old traditions of exploration and promote learning from experience. You will learn fundamental skills for journaling and recording, and ways to make your own art materials, a process that more deeply connects you to place. You will also dive deeply into reading the sky and tracks in the dust. As a bonus, Hanson gives us templates and field tools she uses in her own work. This book will help you take your nature discovery, inquiry, and journaling to mastery.”

– John Muir Laws, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (Heyday Books)

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Three Field Arts offerings this fall

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Virtual Field Trip: Explore the Alaskan Arctic with Roseann [FREE with registration]

Virtual Field Trip: Explore the Alaskan Arctic with Roseann [FREE with registration]

Fearless Watercolor for Field Sketching, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with Roseann

Fearless Watercolor for Field Sketching, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with Roseann

Introduction to Digital Nature Sketching on iPad with Procreate App, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with artist Bill Singleton

Introduction to Digital Nature Sketching on iPad with Procreate App, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with artist Bill Singleton

Are you ready for some great skills workshops and a virtual field trip?

  • Saturday, October 16 at 9 am Pacific: VIRTUAL FIEL TRIP: EXPLORE THE ALASKAN ARCTIC with Roseann. I just returned from two weeks exploring this amazing landscape; I’ll take you there virtually! See my field journal pages and narrative, here. For more details and to sign up (required, free), click here: https://arizona.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqdeCvqjkrGt2LJyrjXViL0Ztj-B1UlpQU

  • Saturday and Sunday, October 23 and 24, starting 9 am Pacific: FEARLESS WATERCOLOR FOR FIELD SKETCHING, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with Roseann. This is an expanded version of a workshop I offered earlier this year, with the addition of more teaching time and a 2-hour live in-person session at the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill; if you aren’t in Tucson, you can dial in on Sunday remotely for consultation from your own field location! For more details and to sign up ($75 fee, with optional supplies to be mailed; you can also opt out of either day for a lower fee), click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fearless-watercolor-for-field-sketching-tickets-181232299687

  • Saturday, November 20 at 9 am Pacific: INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL NATURE SKETCHING ON IPAD WITH PROCREATE APP, a Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill workshop with artist Bill Singleton. This is a rare opportunity for a live, online class with one of the masters of field sketching, either traditionally or on an iPad. For more details and to sign up ($55 fee, with optional supplies to download), click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-digital-nature-sketching-procreate-and-ipad-tickets-181333873497

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Alaska Explorations – Reflections on "pencil miles"

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We recently returned from the high and middle Arctic regions of Alaska—a research trip for Jonathan’s next fiction novel in his Clayton T. Porter series.

For two weeks solid I was able to explore new habitats, learn new species, and sketch and write extensively from early morning until late in the evening—a whopping 27 pages worth! And I can confidently say:

  1. Alaska is a superb natural treasure, as vast and wild and full of wildlife and rich cultural history as anywhere we’ve been in Africa . . . and . . .

  2. “Pencil miles” work, even in the short-term (thanks, Jack Laws).

I’ve posted below all the pages in chronological order.

It’s particularly interesting to note the changes from day one at the natural history museum at the University of Fairbanks, where I jumped into live sketching after several weeks hiatus from any journaling at all. I dove in (after writing the metadata, of course) with the 8-foot-tall stuffed grizzly . . . and it just went all wobbly wonky on me. Too many people around, too many people watching over my shoulder, I just couldn’t find my sketching ju-ju.

But I stuck it out. Then I took a deep breath and centered myself and concentrated on the walrus . . . and after zenning it out, I got it. My sketching started settling.

Over the course of the next 11 days watch how the quality progresses. I even tackled quite a few live-in-the-field animal sketches where I only saw the critter for a very short time. Into the second week, after struggling a little with pen-only live animal sketching, I adopted a purple-leaded pencil* to do these initial one- to two-minute gesture sketches, and left them as-is. Then later, using photos my husband shot as reference, I completed more detailed sketches in camp, using my gesture sketches as baselines. I really like the peregrine and muskox gestures.

I returned completely energized and excited to complete my next book (80% done), Master of Field Arts. I also will be offering several workshops:

* I don’t like graphite pencil for journal sketches because the soft pigment can smudge terribly on my pages. Jack Laws likes a non-photo blue pencil, which I tried but found I didn’t really like, perhaps because the blue pigment is rather hard and unexpressive. Recently I saw Jack using a purple-colored pencil, so I ordered purple refills for my mechanical pencil—and I really like it. Soft and expressive, light enough to not overpower the gestures but with enough character to create really pleasing gesture sketches.

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New series: Lessons from the Field

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One of the joys of field sketching in our nature journals are those moments when things just “click” and you love your notes, your sketches, the harmony of the page . . . and then . . . there are the times it just feels like a struggle.

These pages from a recent trip to a wildlife area in southeastern Arizona—an agricultural “wetlands” (it’s artificial) called Whitewater Draw—were the latter.

It was a beautiful day, and like most of the people visiting, we were there to see the Sandhill Cranes, which overwinter in the surrounding valley in the tens of thousands. I was looking forward to some great practice live-sketching birds—and ones that are mostly stationary, my favorite kind!

It was crowded, which is always a challenge to me whilst sketching. But the main challenge was just that my initial sketching felt stiff and difficult, a real struggle.

After a few moments I noticed a possible reason: the first bird I had chosen to sketch was facing to the right.

Thinking on it, I realized that I often find it really hard to sketch animals in that aspect. Going back over some of my other journal pages after I got home, I found many examples of live-sketching where the subject was facing right, and yes, those sketches were definitely a struggle. Hmmmmm…is this a real “thing?”

I did some preliminary research, and there was plenty of chatter on art forums of others who noticed the same thing . . . mostly beginners. So it’s not just me.

Thinking some more on this, I realized my crane sketch was the hardest, but the duck was easier—it started out hard, but then I quickly got it.

Why?

I now know why:

  • I was rushed when starting the crane drawing.

  • People all around, feeling “pressure” to get going, not taking my time.

  • And most important: I was drawing a bird. I should have been drawing shapes. By trying only to draw a bird, I was failing.

Look at the duck sketch. Much better and I did the overall shape really quickly and confidently. It just worked. Because:

  • I was drawing shapes, not a bird.

Going back to some of the art forum chatter, there are all sorts of theories about why some of us find it hard to sketch subjects facing right . . . one of the best theories was that if you are right-handed you have to draw the most important lines towards your palm, into it, and your fingers are cramped inwards—instead of the simple wrist motion to the side when drawing a left-slanted line.

I think it’s a combination of that plus the too-intent focus on the subject rather than shapes. With the duck I proved if you are just drawing shapes, you can overcome that cramped tendency by loosening up and drawing the shapes in a wrist-motion rather than obsessing on a beak or an eye.

Lesson from the Field: take your time to think about the act of sketching and consciously look for shapes rather than obsessing on the subject itself. Those few extra moments—maybe even just one minute—to find the shapes and talk yourself through them as you sketch will make it so much easier to be successful.

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New free Field Arts classes and virtual field trip!

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How are you doing with your New Year’s resolution to improve your nature journaling and field sketching skills?

Here is my lineup of free workshops and field trips in the next few months, I hope you can join me!

  • JAN. 23 – DRAWING WITH GRIDS - 3D Cube Landscapes & More (FREE, online): How to draw “3-D” landscape cubes — in which you envision taking a giant cutter and pulling a cube out of a landscape, showing the sliced edges and details such as soil and creeks and roots. They are challenging—but with a fun new tool ( the new clear Perspex Palette-Easel ) I will show you how to easily capture a very fun view of a landscape. Make your own (I’ll include instructions), or order one from my shop ($13 with a dry-erase marker or $12 without). For information and to sign up click >HERE<

  • FEB. 06 – VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP – WINTER WONDERLANDS (FREE, online): Join me on a virtual field trip sketching winter wonderlands around the world! Experiment with different ways to represent snow and ice . . . from the comfort of your warm studio! We’ll explore using blue for shadows, how to represent animal tracks, and sketch some icicles. For information and to sign up click >HERE<

  • FEB. 20 – Nature Journaling Best Practices – Check-in for beginners (or anyone) ( FREE, online): The hardest part of nature journaling isn’t the sketching and painting—it’s maintaining your practice.

    If you are. new to nature journaling, or struggling with an ongoing practice, join us for a check-in session to share our experiences and frustrations making nature journaling a regular part of our lives.

    The aim of this hour-long session will be to talk about success or struggles, and our community will help find solutions and suggestions.

    For information and to sign up click >HERE<

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Simplify! Learn to paint with three primary colors – January 9, 2021

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Adding watercolor to your field notebooks and nature journals need not be an elaborate exercise in juggling dozens of colors and six different brushes!

I will introduce you to the simple technique of mixing any color you need from a triad — three primary colors (a cyan, a magenta, and a yellow) plus my own preferred “bonus” colors of burnt sienna and a dark blue.

It’s not hard, and it’s fast, simple, and fun!

Use your own paints (I’ll send you recommendations) or order my Minimalist Paint Kit or one of my paint tins with sample paints and paint along.

Length: 2 hours

Start time: 2:00 pm Arizona time (Phoenix) / GMT - 7 

(Having trouble figuring out time zones?Use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)

Format: online via Zoom (you will receive a log-in link)

Cost: NOTE: free shipping has ended as of 1-4-2021; in order to receive paint kits, please also add Priority Mail shipping when you order.

  • $45 without any paint kits

  • $65 with mini paint tin and 5 paint samples

  • $82 with small paint tin and 5 paint samples

  • $90 with Minimalist Paint Kit with mini paint tin and 5 paint samples, water brush, micro-fibre rag, pen, Clear Perspex Palette-Easel with Magnet Strip and dry-erase marker

Access: You will receive log-in instructions after purchasing the class.

SIGN UP HERE: https://www.exploringoverland.com/shop/feral-watercolor-workshop-3356h