Description
Autumn Abundance: Celebrate Fall in your Nature Journal
Session 4 of the Zoom Drawing Workshop Series · Botanical Sketchbook for All Seasons
Sunday, October 4, 2026: 1pm – 5pm ET
✏️ Instructors: Pam Thompson, Vern Fannin, &/ Sam McWilliams
✅ Level: All levels
🌱 Botanical Subject(s): Autumn-friendly plants you can easily forage near home, including:
•Colorful fall leaves in all stages—fresh, mottled, curling, and dried
•Fungi and mushrooms with distinct seasonal shapes
•Small gourds and decorative autumn fruits
•Rosehips, milkweed pods, and other seed pods
•Autumn flowers such as mums, zinnias, clematis, and goldenrod (even when fading!)
•Nuts and seeds
•Revisit plants from earlier seasons to observe their transformations
•Any local fall botanicals you gather from your yard, garden, forest, or neighborhood
Workshop Description
Celebrate fall’s abundance with our joyful and relaxed approach to botanical sketchbooking, perfect for documenting the changing landscape and deepening your nature journaling skills. Whether you’ve been with us since winter or are joining for the first time, this workshop is open to all. Each session stands beautifully on its own, and autumn is a wonderful place to begin.
🍁 A Meaningful, Relaxed Approach to Fall Journaling
Fall is a time of transition, perfect for reflecting in your sketchbook. Whether you follow one plant across the seasons, study the seed pods popping open in your garden, or explore the fungi tucked under fallen leaves, your sketchbook becomes a place to notice, appreciate, and celebrate the season’s final burst of beauty.
🍂 Why Autumn Is an Artist’s Dream Season
Fall offers some of the most varied and expressive botanical subjects of the entire year. From brilliant leaves to curling dried ones, sculptural seed pods, earthy mushrooms, and autumn blooms at every stage from fresh to fading, there’s endless inspiration for your sketchbook. And the best part? You don’t need hours and hours to create a beautiful fall journal page! Autumn plants have strong silhouettes, bold shapes, and dramatic textures that lend themselves beautifully to quick, satisfying sketches.
✏️ Skills You’ll Build in This Workshop
- Capturing the Colors & Textures of Fall: Learn techniques for mottled color, layered hues, and subtle transitions found in autumn leaves and seed pods.
- Drawing Shape Variation & Seasonal Decay: Explore sculptural forms like curling leaves, dried flowers, and split pods, excellent subjects for practicing proportion and details.
- Inking for Texture & Expressive Line Work: Use line variation to add character, depth, and personality to fall botanicals.
- Quick Sketching Techniques: Discover stress-free, time-friendly methods for sketching beautiful pages without long hours of drawing.
- Designing Autumn Sketchbook Layouts: Compose pages with warm color notes, date stamps, plant names, and seasonal observations.
🍃 Join One Session or the Full Year
This workshop is one part of our four-session Botanical Sketchbook for All Seasons series. Each session is available individually, or you can enroll in all four at a discounted rate to stay motivated and creative throughout the year. (Enrolling in all four gives you unlimited access to the recordings so you can catch up before the next season’s session.)
Why Join?
Our workshops are not just about learning but also about community and collaboration. Here’s what makes our Zoom Workshops special:
👩🎨Friendly Instructors: Our experienced and approachable instructors are passionate about botanical art and are dedicated to helping you succeed.
🎨Live Demonstrations: Watch and learn as we demonstrate each technique, making it easy for you to follow along and practice.
🖼️Constructive Feedback: Receive personalized feedback to help you improve and gain confidence in your artistic abilities.
🤝Interactive Environment: Engage with instructors and fellow participants, ask questions, and share your progress in a supportive and encouraging space.
🎥Session Recordings: Miss a session? Want to rewatch a lesson? No worries! After each session, you’ll get the recording delivered to your inbox, available for you to review anytime.
📹Pre-Recorded Videos: Access to pre-recorded videos to supplement your learning and practice at your own pace to help you feel prepared before we begin.
📧Email Support: If you watch the recordings after the live workshop has ended, you can still receive personalized feedback! Just send photos of your progress to info+images@drawbotanical.com, and an instructor will reply with compliments and constructive critiques.
IMPORTANT: Add info@drawbotanical.com to your email contacts! All workshop details will arrive in your inbox, including links to the Zoom meetings, pre-recorded videos, and slideshow.
After purchasing this workshop, you will receive an email with Registration Details. If you don’t see this email in your inbox a few hours after purchasing, search your inbox for our email address and check your spam/junk/quarantine folders. If you still can’t find it, email info@drawbotanical.com, and we will assist you.
Recommended Supplies:
What materials do I need for autumn botanical sketching?
In addition to our “Bare Necessities” supplies, you will need:
- Your favorite watercolor or mixed media sketchbook. We recommend a Stillman & Birn Mixed Media (Zeta Series) Sketchbook. Some manageable sizes are: 8.5 x 5.5 inch Landscape, or 7.5 x 7.5 inch.
- Waterproof ink pens like Sakura Pigma Micron Pen – Black 005 (0.2mm) And 05 (0.45mm) (Or other sizes, but one thick and one thin is best).
- Travel water brush like Pentel Aquash Water Brush – Small or your favorite watercolor brush.
Find all of the supplies that we recommend here. Feel free to follow along with any supplies you have (your result may just end up looking a little different). Our lessons are about a combination of fundamental 3D art concepts and colored pencil and watercolor technique, so you can skip the supplies-specific tips and still learn a lot about art basics including perspective, light source, composition, etc. One of the main points we teach is colored pencil and watercolor technique for slow, continuous toning, but as long as you are able to achieve the same blending result with your chosen materials, you can still benefit from our course lessons.
FAQs
Q: Do I need to take the other sessions before joining the fall workshop?
A: NO, each session works on its own, and fall is an excellent season to start nature journaling. You can create your botanical sketchbook in any order.
Q: Can I receive feedback from instructors after the workshop ends?
A: YES, if you watch the recordings after the live workshop has ended, you can still receive personalized feedback! Just send photos of your progress to info+images@drawbotanical.com, and an instructor will reply with compliments and constructive critiques.
Q: Will there be a recording of the workshop?
A: Yes. All participants receive access to the workshop recording so you can review the demonstrations, pause while sketching, or revisit techniques anytime.
Q: Do I need any experience to join this autumn sketchbooking session?
A: NO experience is required! This workshop is beginner-friendly and also great for experienced botanical artists who want to refresh their skills or begin a yearlong nature journaling habit.
Q: Do I need to spend hours to complete one drawing?
A: NO! This workshop emphasizes quick, satisfying sketching techniques that fit easily into your schedule. You can create beautiful fall pages without long, labor-intensive drawings.
Q: What kinds of autumn plants will we draw in this workshop?
A: We’ll sketch fall leaves, fungi, dried and curling leaves, seed pods like milkweed and rosehips, gourds, autumn flowers, nuts, and any other local fall botanicals you collect.
Q: What if I can’t find the same plants you use in the demo?
A: No problem—autumn offers plenty of options everywhere. You can sketch any locally available plant materials or even indoor houseplants.
Cancellation Policy: Due to the virtual nature of this product, we cannot issue a refund. You will still receive all recordings from the workshop, and you can watch them at your convenience.
By purchasing this workshop, you agree to the following Media Release: I hereby give permission to Draw Botanical LLC to use photographs, videos, and/or audio recordings in which my picture or image appears for all purposes and in all media and formats now known or later created including, without limitation, all promotional materials. I hereby waive any right that I may have to inspect or approve the finished product or products or advertising or printed matter that may be used in connection with this video, audio or photographs or the use to which it may be applied.
I hereby irrevocably release and discharge Draw Botanical LLC and personnel from all claims, demands, and causes of action that I now have or in the future may have relating to the permitted use of my likeness.
I agree that Draw Botanical LLC will be the sole owner of all rights in the above-mentioned recordings. (Note: I maintain all rights to the work I create. Draw Botanical maintains all rights to the recorded content.) This release is governed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York.
