Wonder-Filled Wednesday No. 7: Lichen and Moss

Hi, friends!

Thank you so much for joining the livestream yesterday. If you missed it, I have a recap for you below plus a prompt.

It’s March! In many places, the trees are starting to leaf out, the peepers are singing their songs of love, and the birds are making “nestorations” to accommodate their expanding families. Where I live we are still in the depths of winter, but spring will soon be here. The sounds outside are changing. The crack of ice thawing, the song of new birds in the area, the chatter of a coyote pack by the stream behind the house in the middle of the night — these are the sounds I associate with an imminent spring.

I think I fixated on green for this week’s livestream because this winter has felt longer than most, and I’m ready for my beloved trees to leaf out, the meadow grasses to grow tall, and to be outside more.

What about you? What do you notice about the change of seasons in your area?

Today’s Livestream Notes

Mixing Greens

As you know by now if you are a regular here, I carry only four colors in my field kit (tour), so I mix all my greens from French Ultramarine and Quinacridone Gold and tone them using Quinacridone Rose or Moonglow (all Daniel Smith watercolors).

In the studio, I may use the other yellows on my palette to mix with the different blues I keep, or use a couple “convenience” colors that I either mix myself or buy premixed. In my journal, I do my best to record colors as accurately as possible, but sometimes that’s impossible since I favor a rather subdued palette when I’m in the field. So I include written notes about how the light and atmosphere affect the color, too.

Negative Space

Focusing on the negative spaces surrounding, as well as within, a subject helps to develop its shape and is a good tool for helping to simplify complex textures or groupings. I like to shade the negative shapes with a pencil, sometimes grouping small masses into a larger one, then go back over it with a pen to refine it.

I may or may not add a wash of color. I’ve been using this technique a lot in my studio work as I explained in this week in a Note:

It’s a useful technique for feathers, fur, bark — really any time you need to render textures in a realistic way.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter and livestream. Until next week, then.

xoSusannah

P.S. Prompt and Replay Time Stamp below.

P.P.S. What’s on my easel this week? Keep scrolling to find out!

P.P.P.S. Join this episode’s chat to share your journal pages, your thoughts, and cheer on others!

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March Prompt

1. Create a green “recipe” reference page for yourself in your nature journals, and if you are feeling adventurous a brown one, too. Grab physical references — leaves, lichen, moss, branches, sand, soil, etc — and start color matching. (Watch the video preview/whole video for my combinations.)

2. Use negative shapes to help you outline positive shapes and render complicated texture. Start with a pencil to softly shade in the negative areas around your main subject, then go over with a pen to refine. Add color, too, if you’d like!

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Time Stamp

• 00:00: Welcome

• 02:25: Greens — Mixing discussion

• 13:00: Drawing using negative spaces

• 01:05:30: Closing

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Housekeeping

I’m making some changes to the content and schedule in my ongoing quest to build a Substack that encourages a close relationship with the natural world, and inspires everyone to keep a nature journal.

Weekly Newsletters

For the foreseeable future I’m dispensing with the monthly newsletter and replacing it with a weekly one to share thoughts, adventures, news, and the replay of the Wonder-Filled Wednesday livestream. If you are a free subscriber, you’ll be able to read most of each issue, including a recap of the stream, and view a 5-10 minute excerpt from the replay. Paid subscribers can watch the full replay and view exclusive content. These will usually go out on Thursdays or Fridays.

Prompts

Each newsletter will contain a nature journal prompt/activity. Free subscribers will get the first one of the month; paid subscribers will see a new prompt each week.

Weekly Livestream

What started out as an experiment in January has become a beloved anchor point of my week! The Wonder-Filled Wednesday livestream is open to everyone, but the replays only go out to my subscribers.

Nature Journal With Me videos

Free subscribers will get an excerpt of these longer nature journaling videos, while paid subscribers will see the full versions. I send it out at the end of the month.

Tiny Owl Dispatch

Paid subscribers will still get a the Tiny Owl Dispatch during the latter half of the month — nothing changes here.

I hope these changes help support your nature journal practice and facilitate wonder/discovery!

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Wonder-Filled Wednesdays

Every Wednesday at 1:30pm Eastern US time (Time Converter), we marvel in our nature journals together — draw along with me or just watch, ask questions, etc. Livestreams are hosted on Notes for everyone, and recorded/archived for paid subscribers.

Download the app to join me live:

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Sneak peek at what’s on my easel…