Get started with a garden journal
Have you ever seen the shine on a ripe blackberry? Did you think “I want to stop everything and paint it?” Then, an illustrated journal might be a place to start feeding your creativity.
Kelly Sverduk, a teacher and an artist, says “I used to only keep nice sketchbooks when I went on a trip somewhere, but eventually I realized that I wanted to treat my day-to-day life with the same level of appreciation.” The process of studying a plant or object and carefully re-creating it feels especially therapeutic in our fast-paced world, she says.
This type of journal usually incorporates text as well as pictures or sometimes bits and pieces, like a scrapbook, such as seed packets or pressed plant material. Whether the content is observations on temperature, bloom time, seed types, or planting notes for next year - or more personal reflections on your own life, remember that your journal or sketchbook is for you.
Do what makes sense for you. Don’t put too many rules or expectations on yourself, just to fill up pages. Your style will begin to emerge as you become more confident with practice. Keep your supplies handy so you can work whenever you have some spare time.
“Often the amount of time I have is a factor of what I paint. If I know I only have about 30 minutes before my kids wake up, I’ll choose to paint just a single leaf rather than tackle an entire plant,” Sverduk says.
Sverduk’s basic journaling kit includes:
• A pencil and a kneaded eraser.
• Black Pigma Micron Pen (waterproof ink).
• Small travel set of watercolor paints and brush.
• An 8-by-5- inch landscape-format journal made for wet media (such as Moleskine or Hahnemuhle watercolor journal).
• Hot tip: Keep a large index card in the sketchbook to use as a straight edge, or to quickly outline a box or border around a subject.
• Hot tip: For on-location sketching, a water brush is great - Pentel or Niji are popular brands - you can fill the barrel with water and just squeeze out enough to paint with.
“One tip I learned is to use the first page to draw your supplies - it helps get over the fear of that intimidating first blank page,” Sverduk said.
Her journals aren’t specifically one subject or another. “But since they reflect my interests, they revolve around found objects from nature, my garden, my kids’ things, travel scenes, and food. So it just becomes a matter of coming across something I want to paint and grabbing the time to do it.”
Kelly Sverduk has a certificate in Botanical Art and Illustration from Brookside Garden School and majored in Studio Art at Messiah College in Harrisburg Pa. She currently teaches at Adkins Arboretum in Ridgely Md., Mispillion Art League in Milford, and Del Tech Community College in Georgetown.
