Hey friends, It’s Katie here! Let’s talk about Nature Sketching! As summer begins to wind down, it’s actually my favorite time of year. It’s the perfect time to go outside with your art supplies to soak up those golden hours and reflect on your Summer adventures, or upcoming Autumn Adventures. I live in Florida, so it can be a bit hot out here in the Summertime for me to want to be outside, so I look forward to Autumn, when I can start going out and hiking or create art outside again!
This week, I took Tombow’s new MONO Drawing Pen colors on a field sketching trip to capture the details of nature. I love simply slowing down and sketching things, like little mushrooms around my yard!
Supplies:
Tombow MONO Graph Mechanical Pencil
Tombow MONO Drawing Pen Colors
Step one:
I started by just sketching some of the mushrooms and leaves I found around my yard, and then I just had fun and doodled a hiking boot with tall trees sticking out of it, combining my imagination and love of nature with some field sketching!
Step two:
Next, I just started inking in my sketches with the MONO Drawing Pens. They come in 8 different colors, so I just alternated colors in my designs! I also love using them to add texture by scumbling, cross hatching, or just adding little dots for texture.
Learn more about the different drawing techniques in this post!
The new MONO Drawing Pen Colors are such a fun twist on classic black ink and I’m loving them. The rich tones like sepia, blue, and green—give your sketches an earthy, expressive look that feels perfect for nature journaling. I love how the different colors let you subtly shift moods or emphasize certain parts of a drawing without overwhelming it. You can also layer them to kind of blend the colors, yellow over top of red looks orange!
You can also add patterns to your doodles!
A few extra nature sketching tips:
- Use a pencil to sketch your designs out first, before committing to full color.
- Don’t be afraid to layer colors—it’s a fun way to add depth without paint or markers!
- Keep your strokes loose and playful. Not every drawing needs to be perfect to be meaningful.
Whether you’re capturing real life or blending it with imagination (like my hiking boot forest!), the MONO Drawing Pen Colors bring a fun pop of color to your art. So grab your pens, head outside (or by a window if it’s too hot still!), and say goodbye to summer creatively.
