Ink and Watercolour in nature
Step outside, slow down, and discover the landscape through sketching.
Join me, Matt Dampier for a gentle 3-hour outdoor workshop exploring the art of sketching trees, plants, and the natural world around us using ink and watercolour. Set in one of the beautiful green spaces or parks surrounding Hamilton, this relaxed workshop is designed to help you look at nature differently while developing the confidence to capture what you see on paper.
You don’t need to be an experienced artist to take part. Whether you are completely new to sketching, have always wanted to try ink and watercolour, or simply want to spend a few hours drawing outdoors, this workshop is about observation, experimentation, and enjoying the creative process rather than producing a perfect finished painting.
All materials are provided, so you can simply arrive, settle into your surroundings, and start drawing.
Learning to See Through Sketching
We’ll begin with the fundamentals of sketching with ink, looking at how simple lines, marks, and shapes can be used to describe the world around us. Rather than trying to draw every detail, we’ll explore how to identify the essential elements of a tree, branch, leaf, or landscape and translate them into expressive marks.
You’ll learn some of the basic principles of observational sketching, including how to simplify what you see, build confidence with your line, and use different marks to suggest texture and form.
We’ll also look at ways to create a sense of depth and distance in your sketches. By considering scale, overlapping shapes, line weight, contrast, and the relationship between foreground and background, you’ll begin to see how a relatively simple sketch can suggest a much larger landscape.
Understanding Composition
A good sketch isn’t necessarily about drawing the most impressive tree or the most detailed scene. Sometimes it’s about deciding what to leave out.
Throughout the workshop, we’ll explore some simple ideas around composition and learn how to choose what to include within your sketch. You’ll experiment with framing a scene, finding interesting viewpoints, and creating a balanced composition from the natural elements around you.
The aim is not to create a technically perfect drawing, but to develop a way of looking at the landscape that allows you to make creative decisions with confidence.
Bringing Ink to Life with Watercolour
Once we’ve established our ink sketches, we’ll introduce watercolour as a way of adding atmosphere, light, colour, and depth.
You’ll receive a gentle introduction to the basics of watercolour and explore how transparent washes can be layered over your ink drawings. We’ll look at how to choose and mix colours, control water and pigment, and use washes to suggest foliage, sky, shadows, and the changing light within the landscape.
Rather than covering complicated watercolour techniques, the focus will be on using colour to enhance your ink sketch without losing the character and spontaneity of the drawing underneath.
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have created your own ink and watercolour sketches inspired by the surrounding landscape, along with a better understanding of how to continue sketching outdoors on your own
Three Hours Outdoors, Observing and Creating
This workshop is intentionally relaxed and welcoming. There is no pressure to produce a masterpiece, and no previous drawing or painting experience is required.
The three-hour format gives us plenty of time to slow down and become immersed in our surroundings. We’ll work through guided exercises and demonstrations, but there will also be time to explore independently, observe the landscape, and develop your own sketches at your own pace.
Sketching encourages us to notice things we might normally walk straight past—the structure of a tree, the pattern of branches, the way light moves across the ground, or the subtle changes in colour within a landscape.
Hamilton and the surrounding area are filled with beautiful green spaces that provide an inspiring setting for this kind of work. The exact location will be selected to provide a peaceful natural environment with plenty of opportunities to explore and sketch.
3-hour guided outdoor workshop
All sketching and watercolour materials provided
Ink sketching exercises and demonstrations
Introduction to observational sketching
Guidance on creating depth and perspective
Introduction to composition and framing
Gentle introduction to watercolour
Guidance on combining ink and watercolour
Plenty of time to experiment and create your own work
A relaxed, supportive environment suitable for beginners
What’s Included
No previous art experience is necessary—just bring yourself, comfortable clothing, and a willingness to slow down and look at the world around you.
Come and discover the landscape through line, ink, and colour—and leave with a new way of seeing and sketching the places around you.