Beatrix Potter is well known as the author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit which she illustrated herself with beautiful watercolors. A lot of people don’t know that she also painted scientific nature paintings. She created hundreds of detailed paintings of fungi. She even studied them under microscope!
Watercolor of fungi by Beatrix Potter
We talked about how Beatrix Potter mixed realism and fantasy in her illustrations and then we painted some Easter cards to mail to our family. Since we are all staying at home, now is a great time to send some mail out. It’s always fun to get an actual letter!
Here are a few pictures of the bunny and mushroom cards we made.
Then we studied nature and made our own nature paintings!
Watercolor Nature Study
Materials:
An item found in nature (mushroom, plant, flower, pinecone, shell etc)
Pencil
Paper or Sketchbook
Watercolors
Brush
Water
Magnifying Glass (if you have one)
Instructions:
1 - Find an interesting piece of nature in your yard or home and study it closely. Look for little details you might not notice if you didn’t pay close attention.
2 - Lightly sketch the object on paper. Try to get all the little details! You sketch the entire object and then sketch a magnified view of a section of it if you want.
3 - Paint your sketch with watercolors. If you water down the paint, you can paint nice and light so that you don’t cover up your lines. Watercolors bleed into each other when wet. If you don’t want colors to mix, let one dry before you paint another right next to it.
4 - When your painting dries, go over your lines with a fine tip pen. Make sure to add your name and the date so you remember when you drew it. You can write a description at the bottom if you want. If you enjoyed it, keep going and start a collection of nature paintings! I’d love to see pictures. Tag me on Instagram or Facebook.
