An Outdoor Sketchbook Challenge

+ a 5 minute sketching exercise with bonus tips!

Sketching and Painting outside is one of life’s great joys, and can be one of the most inspiring, fun and freeing things to do - but it can also be one of the scarier things in an art practice too!

In my latest youtube video I wanted to take things back to basics with an outdoor sketching exercise you can do in 5 minutes, and I’ll be sharing three tips to help make getting started sketching outside even easier for you too.

I’ve written out this 5 minute exercise + 3 bonus tips below the video in this post, for you to read & try out for yourself!

Making art outdoors is great for helping slow down, relax, spend time with ourselves and to connect with nature - I’ve been taking my sketchbooks outdoors for years now, and it’s become such a creative reset for me, and a reminder to really enjoy the process of making, for making sake.

Ideas, memories, feelings, beauty, all of this goes in to your sketchbooks when working outdoors from life, and you’re able to capture these moments in your sketchbooks, and really slow down and look at the world around you in a new light. No matter where you are in the world - from remote island to built up city - there’s always nature somewhere to inspire you.

I’m going to be sharing a wee exercise + tips to get you started or back into sketching outside when you’re short on time in this post: but if you want to learn more and learn how sketching outside can help you get back into your creativity and to notice and appreciate more in your local nature - accompanied by gentle encouragement and community - I’d love to invite you to a one-month outdoor sketchbook challenge on my Patreon community, The Outdoor Sketchbook Collective!

We are running the challenge live in June, but you can take part at any time of year or season - simply watch the weekly videos back and go at your own pace. It’s a four week challenge to help you to begin sketching outdoors, or to get outside sketching a little more often - delivered in four weekly bitesized videos across the month, to guide your sketchbooks week by week. This is essentially a one-month deep-dive & demonstration of how I sketch outdoors and abstract the landscape, sharing my favourite focuses & exercises!

If you watch the video below or read this post, and want some extra guidance to help start or re-ignite an outdoor sketchbook habit, then definitely consider checking it out. I’ve been wanting to run a gentle, low pressure sketching month for ages, and I am really looking forward to sharing these demos, tips and tricks, and to know I’ll be sketching remotely, in good company.

I’m even more excited to see what everyone creates on your sketching adventures. We’ll be sharing our sketches in our new sketchbook share chat, so it’ll be inspiring to see everyone’s approaches and interpretations. If you’re interested to join us or find out more, and ease back into your sketching outdoors, you can find the info linked below:

Anyway, let’s get into it: a short and sweet guide to help you get sketching outside.

At it’s heart, sketching outside is really, really simple.

A pencil and a piece of paper is all you really need to get started.

I like to think of my outdoor sketching trips as if I were a forager, looking to collect the most delicious treats nature has to offer - collecting only what I need, rather than everything I can see. It’s mostly about enjoying the practice itself: I’m looking for pockets of ideas that I’m drawn to, to fuel my imagination and inspiration later on.

The 5 Minute Exercise…

is a simple value study! (If you’re new to these, check out this video explaining it in-depth here.)

We are looking for the lights & darks in nature/landscape.

1. Start out by sketching the darkest areas. I think these are the easiest to spot!

2. Use the white of the page as the lightest areas - double check you have left enough of the white of the page to represent these spots.

3. Go back in with your drawing tool of choice, and mark out the mid tones - anything between the darkest and lightest areas. You can make lovely mid-tone values by using your tool lightly, making cross-hatches, lines or dots. In the image below, I played around with ink, using a dry brush or simply less ink to create my mid-tones.

My top tips for simplicity are:

1. Keep your kit simple!

The idea is to get sketching more often, and to make that as realistic as possible, let’s keep it as simple as possible. In the video in this post I demonstrate sketching with:

• an 8b jumbo pencil

• an indigo inktense block

• a water-brush filled with ink

The only other things I use for this exercise are bulldog clips to keep my sketchbook pages flat (a bonus, not necessity) and my sketchbooks. The ones I use in this video demo are pocket sized ‘art creations’ by royal talens.

2. Focus on Just One Thing - 1 technical focus, 1 inspirational focus

The technical focus I’ve suggested to start off with is our value study! For the inspirational focus, I have two ideas to share:

1. Zoom in and focus on a little detail in landscape: rocks, shadows, bark, the path, leaves etc. Looking at a full vista can be too much to capture, so let’s make things feel lighter, and pick one little spot to zoom in to.
   

2. If you want to go for more of a view, then try and create a window of focus; rather than the entire 180 degree view, let’s focus the eye on one spot and sketch that view. This is what I demonstrate in my sketches, in the youtube video in this post.

3. Try the 5 minute sketch with a timer

Yes, sketching outside can be about slowing down - but when we feel overwhelmed, it’s so easy to tighten up with our sketches. I like to tackle this with a timer, which once it rings, I stop sketching. This helps me keep working quickly (one of my personal keys to loosening up) and not take the sketch too seriously!

PLUS if you’re like me and easily loose track of time, this can help bring a wee sketch into that lunch break or pocket of time, without worrying about becoming late for the next thing.

For bonus help with loosening up in your landscape sketches, check out this youtube video here.

If you have any questions about our one-month outdoor sketchbook challenge, do let me know in a comment below! As always, I hope these ideas help to encourage you to get outside a little more, connect to nature near you and make a little time for creative play.

As always, thanks for being here, and I’ll

Orla ☀️