Drawing Nature: The Creative Process of an Artist, Illustrator, and Naturalist

A visually stunning exploration of the artistic process by an award-winning nature artist

Drawing Nature presents the creative process of an acclaimed nature artist, guiding readers from field sketches to finished art and demonstrating how science and the close observation of nature can be integrated into the artist’s work to create dynamic, meaningful images. With chapters that flow from drawing basics to more advanced methods and concepts, this beautifully illustrated book is like a look inside the artist’s sketchbooks to discover their secrets.

Linda Miller Feltner demonstrates how observation and recording are sparks to creativity. Her journey from loose sketches and drawings to a completed work begins with observing a natural process, object, or interaction between organisms. Her curiosity generates scientific inquiry that, when researched, helps her to answer a question or make broad, often surprising connections. Blending examples of her stunning artwork with invaluable insights into time-honored art techniques, Feltner illustrates how sketching, developing an image, and scientific accuracy are essential to her art and encourages each of us to cultivate our own powers of observation and discover anew the world around us.

Drawing Nature enables us to look at nature through an artist’s eyes, draw inspiration from a place or a moment, and give expression to its beauty.

Linda Miller Feltner is an award-winning artist, naturalist, and educator. Her books include A Haven in the Sun: Five Stories of Bird Life and Its Future on the Texas Coast, Brittle Stars and Mudbugs: An Uncommon Field Guide to Northwest Shorelines and Wetlands, and Alaska: The Ecotravellers’ Wildlife Guide.