New Contributor Introduction - Sandy

This is my first contribution to the Sketching in Nature group and I'd like to introduce myself. The main medium I've worked in for many years is gouache. For a full size painting (a full sheet of watercolor paper) I spend anywhere from six to ten weeks. For some of my botanical studies, done strictly from life, I work off and on during the plant's life cycle and if I happen to miss a phase I put the painting away until that phase comes around the next year. Needless to say, after doing that for many years I began to look around for an alternative way to record the things around me that didn't require such a committment of time. That's when I was lucky enough to run across Kate's watercolor pencil workshop in early 2008. I will never give up gouache because I'm an addict when it comes to detail, but I've also developed a love of watercolor pencil and pen and ink. I had to give up art entirely for well over a year because of near blindness, and as my vision began to return and I reconnected to the internet, what was one of the first things I ran into? -- Kate's Journaling class! What an inspiration she and my classmates have been. Starting January 1st, 2010, I began a journal dedicated to nature subjects and these three images are selections from it. I've enjoyed browsing through all your posts here and I'm looking forward to seeing more.