Nature sketch ideas1/17/2024 ![]() This makes a lot of small sketches simpler to process, it gives an immediate structure to the page. You can draw boxes or lines around the elements of your page you want to group together. For this page, I was thinking of insect collections in museums – which is hinted at by the small tag I drew around the title. Give all elements the same weightĪ layout can look very balanced if you give each element the same weight, or roughly the same space. For this sketch, I wanted to arrange the central grass blade diagonally across the page, and then have the other flowers overlap and connect. You can do this with a small thumbnail sketch or in your head. Think about what to place where before starting to draw – make a plan for your page. I followed the same thought process for the page of mushrooms: Make a plan This approach makes it easy for the eye to grasp the entire layout at once. For this sketch, I decided beforehand I want to arrange different field flowers with similar length next to each other, with a bit of vertical text. ![]() You can unify the elements of your layout by deciding what you draw beforehand. You need to balance the parts that are filled with images or text with the parts that are left empty. This method works when you have several elements on a page, but also for one subject.Īnother important aspect of functioning layouts is the negative space – the areas that are empty. Adding text is also a great way to fill gaps. Connect them with your images by placing them around your subjects. Your notes are as important as the drawings, and they give valuable information. You can combine images and text at any point, that’s the strong point of a nature journal. Not every sketch needs color, and this will give your page a better overall balance. This is great for unifying pages that feel a bit scattered otherwise.Īnother example is this page of woodpeckers. By arranging the birds in a circle the eye will travel around the page without being led out of it at the edge – you want the viewer to stay in the frame. For the spread with the blackbirds, I consciously decided which birds I want to have render in color to pull the page together and lead the eye through the image. You can use color as an element of layout. The sketch was done after I got home, so I was able to decide on the most interesting sights to sketch. You don’t have to place them strictly where they belong on the map, you can use small arrows to show where you saw them. For this page, I knew I wanted a map in the middle, and sketched the landscapes and nature sightings around it. Arranging items around a centerpieceĪrrange items around one centerpiece. Here, I’ve divided a big rectangle (my page) into smaller landscape rectangles, and added a bit of text to balance the weight. Rectangles within rectangles always work. Here are a few layout ideas from my sketchbooks and my thoughts about them: Rectangles ![]() Of course it’s easiest when you have all your subjects in front of you and can compose the page. There are a few tricks that can unify such a page. ![]() Fitting all these sketches on a page and pulling it all together can be a challenge. The workflow for nature sketching often has to be very flexible: you see something interesting, sketch it, and then encounter something different, sketch it, and so on. It’s a way to visually organize information – one of the communication tools that illustrators and designers use all day long. Layouts are important to structure your image, and to give the viewer a way to be led through your sketches. Remember that your sketchbook is the best place for that. I don’t always strive for the most exceptional layouts, but I try to think of a compelling way to present the sketches on each page, and very often, I just experiment. Ideas for page layouts can be found everywhere, particularly in well-designed books, or in other the sketchbooks of other artists, so here are a few from me. There are a lot of ways you can arrange items on your page, and having a clear idea of how you want your page to look like before you start drawing can help you to better communicate what you want to say. At the end of the year I took some time to go through my sketchbooks and I thought it might be interesting to talk about different layout ideas. ![]()
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