A colorful illustration featuring various types of bumblebees, including a yellow-faced bumblebee and a black-thighed bumblebee, surrounded by blossoms and plant sketches. The background includes watercolor swatches and handwritten notes detailing the species.

Art Toolkit Workshops

Pollinators in Ink

Explore Contrast and Color in Nature with Robin Lee Carlson.

Pollinators in Ink

Live workshop with Robin Lee Carlson.

Choose your level of participation:

Workshops are not eligible for discount.

In this recorded workshop, Robin will guide you in creating a brush pen drawing of bumblebees and manzanita flowers on toned paper using water-soluble pastels and paint. Starting with brush pen practice, we’ll learn how to make the most of the sketching tool, drawing with lively, expressive marks. After some warm-up exercises with watercolor and pastels, we will apply all of these skills to the buzzing activity of a bumblebee scene.

This workshop invites you to explore the fascinating world of plant and insect relationships, with a special focus on bumblebees and pollination. This workshop teaches sketching techniques and serves as an introduction to nature journaling—the practice of observing and documenting nature through sketches and notes. We’ll conclude by sharing tips for taking your newfound knowledge of bees and pollination into the field!

We hope to see you there!

A sketch of a Western Mountain Aster flower with intricate details, featuring blue petals and a honeybee. Surrounding the main flower are color swatches in various hues of green and red, along with watercolor brushes. The plant's scientific name, Symphyotrichum spathulatam, is written at the bottom.
A detailed watercolor painting of a Dark-eyed Junco, featuring its characteristic dark head and brown plumage. The background includes warm orange and brown hues. There are small paint squares and color swatches above the bird, with a note dated April 23, 2024, in the corner.
Sketches of various bees with detailed drawings, including a large face and floral elements. The background features watercolor paints and a water brush. Notes describe bee species and characteristics.
A sketchbook page featuring various drawings of Killdeer birds in different poses. The sketches include annotations with observations about their behavior. Watercolor paint swatches are displayed in the top right corner, and a colored pencil rests above the sketches. The date "14 MAY 2023" is noted at the bottom left.
A sketchbook open to a page featuring watercolor drawings of birds, including detailed illustrations of a yellow and gray Tyrannus verticalis. Nearby are art supplies like brushes, a water container, and a small palette with paint. Handwritten notes in the corner add context to the sketches.
A sketch featuring two bumblebees: a black-tailed bumblebee and a yellow-faced bumblebee, surrounded by delicate illustrations of flowers and plants. The date "17 August 2021" and the title "Echo Lakes Bandon National Project" are noted in one corner. Colored pencils and watercolor tools are arranged at the bottom.
A detailed drawing of an owl in red and blue ink, on an open sketchbook. The owl is depicted in profile, showcasing its large yellow eye and intricate feather patterns. Colored pencils and a water brush are placed next to the sketchbook, with the date "27 January 2024" and initials "RC" signed at the bottom right.
A sketch of a yellow-faced bumblebee, labeled with its scientific name "Bombus vosnesenskii." The bee is illustrated with a fuzzy texture, surrounded by colorful art supplies including colored pencils and markers. The background is a warm brown paper, adding to the artistic feel.

Registration Details

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“
Robin is an engaging instructor, and I appreciate how she used all the reference images during class. It helped me think how I could ‘break down’ what I might be seeing and capture different elements on one or two pages. I was encouraged by her demonstrations to not rely on pencil sketches first and use only ink and watercolor.
” —Judy, Nature Journaling with Robin Lee Carlson, 2024

About Robin Lee Carlson

A person with short hair and glasses stands on a wooden boardwalk overlooking a wetland, holding a notebook and pen. They wear a striped long-sleeve shirt and high-waisted jeans, smiling against a backdrop of tall grasses and a cloudy sky.

Robin Lee Carlson is an author and natural science illustrator, building careful observations of the natural world into deeper commentary on ecology and climate change. Her work centers on field sketching eco-reportage, living documentation of the ever-accelerating transformation of ecosystems by human activity.

Her first book, The Cold Canyon Fire Journals, was published in 2022 by Heyday and her work has also appeared in The Common, the literary journal of Amherst College, and in Arnoldia, the magazine of the Harvard University Arboretum. She has taught workshops that combine drawing, painting, and natural history at the past four Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conferences, as well as up and down the Pacific Coast.
An artist sites on a rock, dipping a paintbrush in a Pocket Palette.

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