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Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - My Favorite Sketches

In my previous post with underwater sketches, I shared results of my oil pastel experiments and mentioned that I enjoyed using a tip or sharp edge of the crayon to add details or even write in some instances, but I found a better way to do so. And what I share below is probably my favorite combination of materials so far: I used pastels to make larger shapes, add texture, and differentiate value, and then I added details with a much more precise and predictable tool - pencil!

All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:

1. What I Packed for a Trip (An Interesting New Brush)

2. What I Packed For A Trip (Underwater Sketching Kit)

3. Trip to Bonaire: Plants
4. Trip to Bonaire: Underwater Sketching - Turtle City

5. Trip to Bonaire: Almost Domestic Animals

6. Trip to Bonaire: Sketching and Scuba Diving - Oil Pastels and Salt Water Mix Nicely

Post-Holiday Feelings

The holiday decorations are packed and back in the storage. It was a nice year with many cards which we put under a tree (and a few of them ended up on a tree this year!). We connected with many people, and I am grateful for the chance to do so. We did not add any new decorations to the collection this year, but I have a feeling we will make some for the next one. As always, I wish I had drawn more, and yet what I drew is what the holidays were like: lots of tiny moments of light.

Recent Forged Bouquets

My friend Jennifer Gaskin is a talented bouquet artist (among many other things - for example - have you seen her recent pastel works??). And Jennifer is a professional forager for those bouquets (if you are interested in what it means ti be a professional forager - let me know and I will gladly draw you a picture!). Jenifer's works are always multi-layered and intriguing (where did you find that plant that works so well with this one??). And she pushed my natural interest in foraging into bouquet making too. Here are some sketches or recent bouquets my family put together:

Trip to Bonaire: Sunsets and Bioluminescence

Here is a thing about sunsets - there is one every day, people generally agree that they are gorgeous, and looking at them is a good way to spend your time. But we rarely see them. So during my trip to Bonaire, I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to see some sunsets - and it worked - but not 100% - and for a good reason! I missed a few sunsets because I did a few dusk-to-night dives. There is no good view of the setting sun underwater: everything gets darker and less colorful, and that's it! But that is the time when new animals emerge. After the sun is gone, you can see bioluminescence in the sea, and that is one of the most amazing things to look at, in my opinion. Bonaire has a prominent bioluminescence (when you see light by moving the water - clapping or swimming) but it is also famous for its predictable twice-a-month show of ostracods - tiny crustaceans that emit light to communicate with their potential partners (think underwater fireflies). I tried to take my sketching tools with me to these dives, but quickly discarded the idea of drawing. For one, we dove without lights, so it was really dark (don't worry - we had lights with us, but turned them off on purpose). And keeping track of your air supply, position, and buoyancy, where your diving buddy is - all that was a big enough load without light to keep me completely occupied. But also the view is incredibly unusual, and for me it was a much better experience to look at this fantastic show of light than think where my tools are and how to draw something... quite undrawable :) I found this video to show you something that might explain my thing about ostracods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6R4lWIZSw4