Texas wildflowers

The first explosion of native wildflowers has begun, the first I found up close being the blanket flowers growing on a street corner in Somerville, Texas. Yesterday I stopped to get a closer look at the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and tickseed blooming near highway 36 and FM 1948. Washington county will soon be covered in glorious color — this year, the peak bloom time is expected on Easter weekend, though they will continue through next month. And summer varieties will soon follow . . .

Lately I find myself not sketching every day, but just adding bits here and there to my journal when the mood strikes, whether text or drawings. But I just can’t let the first wildflowers of the season get by without trying once again to capture their likeness.

John Muir Laws' Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling

The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling by John Muir Laws is a don't-miss-it book for your studio

I am so delighted to have had the chance to preview this book--thick as a city phone book (312 pages!), covering every nature-drawing subject you can imagine in John Muir Laws' inimitable clear, encouraging, and inspiring fashion, this one will stay in my collection of essential art books forever.

John covers using pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, gouache and more, and the variety of subject matter is a nature-artist's delight.  

But it's not simply a book on technique.  It includes chapters on Observation and Intentional Curiosity, Projects that Focus Awareness, Methods of Deepening Inquiry, Visual Thinking and Displaying Information, as well as materials and supplies, notes, and exhaustive references.

 Take a peek at these pages: 

If you've been fortunate enough to have seen John's previous book, The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds, you KNOW how good this one is.  It covers birds and much, much more.

Pre-order John Muir Laws' amazing new book directly from John HERE (and get a signed copy and personal attention!)