On Saturday I held a “Nature Sketching with Watercolour Pencil” class at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Victoria. I had been invited by Friends of the Garden and held a class in February for Summer and this one was for their Autumn calendar.

We set the tables up in the courtyard next to Plant Cottage, where the Friends are based. After a light rain shower. the blue skies appeared and we were very fortunate to have two wonderful hours outside.

A lovely group of 12 attendees learnt about watercolour pencils, water brushes and sketchbooks before finding a place near the cottage to sketch. Some had not done any art since high school, there were a few botanical artists and one professional artist. Hopefully, they all took away something. For some people it is motivating and inspiration, for others it is techniques,

There is so much to sketch in the gardens and it is so relaxing to observe a piece of nature as you sketch it.

Below is a step-by-step process of using watercolour pencils to draw a red hot poker plant. Using the colours :

• Light Chrome Yellow
• Pale Geranium Lake
• Grass Green
• Chrome Green Oxide

The first is sketched quickly and quite heavily with watercolour pencils

The Second sketch is after I have added a little water to the pages, moving it slightly. You can see that the pigment becomes activated and you can move it around on the page.

The Third sketch is after I have waited for the page to dry and I have gone over the sketch with the colours. I add more detail with a sharpened pencil. I build up the density of the colour and add the impression of detail, with specific lines.

I probably could have done a fourth sketch to complete it, but I ran out of page and time.

This sketch shows how my sketches have the unfinished look. It is not a great scan. but you can see how some areas are finshed with water added and sme remain only in pasncil, and I have added the outlines of some cactus in the background,

I did another sketch just before class, experimenting with Pink Madder

The students did one 20-minute sketch before moving to another space and a different plan of scene and then one more move.

The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne & I hope to run another session in Winter and Summer. And there goes the year!

I hope this inspires and motivates you. Let me know if you have any questions about watercolour pencils or how you use them.