Nature Notebook – Billy Idyll

I don’t know the types of clouds and at this point I’m too afraid to ask

October 23, 2024 by Billy Idyll

I love skies: painting, photographing, and observing them. Clouds are a big part of what makes skies look so dramatic and cool. You would think I would be all over learning the types of clouds, yet every time I try to, it kind of goes in one ear and out the other. The closest I … Read more

An Artist’s Guide to Sunrise & Sunset

July 11, 2024 by Billy Idyll

This month’s Landscape Art Club theme is Sunsets, which works for me: I love sunsets! Painted by Natalia has a great feature this month on sunset technique with lots of reference photos, and looking through them got me thinking about the science of sunsets – and for that matter, sunrises! Why are they the way they are? And can that knowledge help to paint them better? I had fun learning about the moon for my Artist’s Guide to the Moon, so I thought I’d put together some info on sunsets.

Easy Watercolor Painting Techniques for Specific Northeastern Evergreen Trees

December 30, 2023August 3, 2023 by Billy Idyll

I used to think of all evergreen trees vaguely as “pine trees,” but since getting more into plants, and since starting to observe and paint them, I’ve come to realize how different they are! You don’t need to have specific species in mind when you paint trees, but I think specificity is helpful even when … Read more

An Artist’s Guide to the Moon

December 30, 2023May 23, 2023 by Billy Idyll

In my Nature Notebook series, I take a look at natural phenomena and try to explore the science & nature facts behind them in order to improve the accuracy of my paintings. I am not a realistic painter by any means, but still, I feel like a grounding in natural reality is helpful even for … Read more

Nature Notebook: Shrubs of the Northeast

August 23, 2022 by Billy Idyll

I recently took a class called Native New England Shrubs at Native Plant Trust, and as part of the class we were assigned to find certain shrubs in our area and make guidebook pages for them, including dried leaves or other plant material (if we found any) and any original images or writing designed to … Read more

Nature Notebook: Oak

March 31, 2022 by Billy Idyll

Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra): Sketches of winter tree, fall tree, leaves and acorn

Nature Notebook: Pine

March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Billy Idyll

Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus): Sketches of tree shapes, pine cone, bundle of needles

Pine is the classic conifer, and where I live, the mighty towering Easter White Pine is king!

Nature Notebook: Elm

March 4, 2022March 3, 2022 by Billy Idyll

Welcome to a new feature here on the blog! In an effort to learn how to paint trees, as well as to learn more about them, I’m going to do a series of tree profiles, where I attempt to paint a tree, and provide fun facts and identification tips about that family of tree. I also love taking pictures of trees, so I have a large back catalogue of tree photos in on my phone which I can use to help illustrate the points.

I’m keeping the title general (“Nature Notebook”) to allow me to explore other plant or animal species as I see fit!

My first tree is Elm!

American Elm (Ulmus Americana): Winter silhouette, summer silhouette, leaf detail