In addition to my online teaching, I have been preparing a collection of drawings for a one-woman show next January. I’m drawing natural history subjects (think birds and insects, and a mammal or two) in ballpoint pen on antique documents and old book pages. I love the rich detail and slightly mysterious look! My show will be at the Pascagoula Audubon Center, so most of my subjects will be critters who make the Gulf Coast region their home.
To see more drawings and stay up-to-date as new ones are added, visit my Instagram gallery:
BUTTERFLIES IN COLORED PENCIL 5 Video tutorials with illustrated printables
LIFETIME ACCESS $50 – Enrollment limited
Draw four of the most beautiful butterflies you’ve never heard of – each using a different technique, inspired by a woman naturalist from previous centuries. We’ll draw each butterfly with its host plant or nectar plant. An additional full-length video lesson, Butterfly Drawing Basics, is included.
All lessons are hosted on a password-protected website, and your access is permanent. Work at your own pace, and get instructor feedback anytime by email.
Watch for an announcement later this week! Hints: colorful wings, exotic habitats, beautiful host plants, and four women nature artists forgotten by history (until now). See you soon…
Just in time for Mother’s Day, my sister’s Retro Journals studio is giving away a lovely oversized sketchbook, repurposed from a vintage Beatrix Potter print and filled with heavyweight Bristol vellum. To enter, simply take a peek at her etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/retrojournals and then comment here with your favorite retro journal or sketchbook. A winner will be randomly chosen on Mother’s Day. Good luck, everyone!
A few years ago, wandering along the edge of an unmowed meadow, I found a strange display arranged along the top of an old metal fence. Enormous lubber grasshoppers — four inches long and glossy black — were neatly impaled in a row, upside down with their lifeless legs pointed at the sky. There were nine or 10 of them, each on top of a vertical metal post like a macabre architectural detail. What animal had done this? I wondered. Lubbers are toxic, so what was the reason to capture them and spike them on the fence?
I had discovered the pantry of a loggerhead shrike, a dapper bird whose small size belies his fierce reputation as a hunter. Blessed with a sharp, hooked beak but no talons, the shrike kills and impales his food because he cannot grasp it in his slender feet. Leftovers remain in place for a later meal.
Wisely, the shrike leaves the eastern lubber grasshopper on its spike for several days, waiting for the toxins to dissipate, and consumes them after that.
Today, we will use three tonal values in pencil to draw this beautiful bird. Watch the video and print the three attached pdf pages before you draw.
If you have taken online art courses with me, you may have heard some gentle snoring in the background of my instructional videos. That contented sound is made by my senior beagle, Jo, who naps under the drawing table. An enthusiastic sniffer of the great outdoors, she is a veteran camper and good company on sketching hikes. (She’s also great at preventing litter — she can detect tasty crumbs on a discarded food wrapper from 100 yards away.) With the passing years, Jo has developed some serious health issues and this week, in anticipation of a large vet bill, I decided to offer a special flash sale on classes.
From now through Saturday, ALL previously offered courses are $40. Two courses – Drawing Owls or 8 Flowers 8 Ways – are FREE with the purchase of any other course. The offer includes courses that provide you with antique postcards for painting projects, and I will happily send them anywhere in the world.
All courses are lifetime access.
Here’s the complete list:
Five Little Songbirds (painted on vintage postcards)
Birds and Words: A Joyful Course in Ink and Watercolor
A uniquely creative gift is as close as your email inbox — choose from 16 lifetime access online art courses, and I will email you a printable gift certificate ready to delight the artist in your life. GET A SECOND COURSE FREE to give or to use yourself.
The lessons within each course include full video demos and lots of beautifully illustrated printable pages. Classes include:
Birds and Words, a Joyful Course in Ink and Watercolor
Vintage Postcard Birds and Butterflies (antique postcards provided)
Drawing a bird can help you see and understand it more deeply. This tutorial from Journey Through the Natural Year will show you how.Â
The glossy-winged geniuses of the bird world, crows and ravens appear in folklore around the world: The clever raven is a trickster in northwestern Native American legends. Viking ships flew banners depicting ravens. Shakespeare used ravens as heralds of coming misfortune in his plays, the ancient Greek sun god had a raven messenger, crows were sacred in Celtic tradition, and the Mayans saw crows as bringers of lightning and thunder.
Both crows and ravens are completely black (the only two species among more than 800 in North America who can make that claim) but there are many differences, too. Be careful not to draw them the same way… or to accidentally use the wrong bird as a reference image!
In this tutorial, we’ll draw in a lively, loose style that fits well with our feathered subjects.
Watch both videos all the way through and print the four attached pdf pages before you begin to draw.
Here is the link to the first video. The password for both videos is journey
FIVE LITTLE SONGBIRDS: A simple painting technique 6 Lessons – 6 Vintage Postcards Included Lifetime Access $65
Using a simple four-step painting technique that mimics the effect of a woodcut, paint 5 beloved songbirds on vintage postcards (provided to you). I’ll also send along a sixth postcard for practice. Either gouache or acrylic work for this course — use the one you like best. Our colorful painted flock includes:
Wood Thrush
Summer Tanager
Oriole
Blue Grosbeak
Yellow Warbler
The complete course, including all 5 birds and an introductory practice video, is posted on a password-protected website. Your site access is permanent and will never expire. International signups welcome — I will send postcards anywhere in the world.
Also, this is a “drawing optional” course for all levels of art experience (or no experience at all). How to sketch each songbird is included in their video tutorials, but if you prefer to focus on painting only, I will provide optional patterns that can be transferred to your postcards.
Use your 5 Little Songbirds as uplifting gifts for friendly giving, or let them roost in your own home. Either way, I hope you will join me!
…asking for an extension of the Buy One Course, Get A Course Free offer, I am continuing it for now. Drawing is so comforting — especially nature subjects — and I know from my own experience how it can provide welcome relief from worry. Dear friends, thank you for drawing and painting with me.
valwebb.com 