Sketching, Illustration, Design and Everyday Life.
Copyright by © Nina Khashchina except where noted.
I made a little video of the Bonaire part of the sketchbook - you will be able to see how all these sketches fit together and tell the whole story of the trip:
And here are some of the sketches from the article in the wonderful Sketcher Press publication "On the Spot": Underwater sketching in the balmy blue sea
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
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!
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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
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
I wrote about my experiment with bringing oil pastels of different brands with me to my underwater sketching adventures on Bonaire. And below are several sketches which will show you how I:
Bear in mind that all the colors look very different when you are looking at them under 60-70 feet of water, so most of my color choices had to be "blind". I tried to limit the number of colors that I took with me, and remember the overall shape of the crayon, and remember how the hue would shift (from the theory that red color disappears first and so on), and from previous experience.
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
Bonaire has a large population of donkeys that descend from the animals brought by Spanish settlers many years ago. Now they are feral, and you can see them everywhere. In fact, there are so many of them that there is even a donkey sanctuary. But I met this cheerful burrow as it was passing our place of residence.
Bonaire also has lots of feral goats that I saw, but somehow I did not sketch even one. However, a bunch of cats visited our house. One of them had an ear clipped, and based on the fact that all other cats would run away as soon as this gorgeous blackness with whiskers appeared on the fence, I thought that the ear was damaged in some important war. Later, I found out that Bonaire has a program for Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR), and as a result, cats get the ear clip. We observed daily people-watching and bird-catching activities, but for me, the best part was the impression this character left on other cats.
Apart from these two visitors, we were regularly entertained by a small flock of brown-throated parakeets (prikichi in papiamenu) who, in their endemic to Bonaire version, have a very radiant yellow head. My problem with drawing these birds was the fact that I did not bring a bright enough green pencil :)
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
The east side of the island of Bonaire has an amazing spot for diving. I accessed it via shore once before, but this year, a boat ride allowed a much more reasonable approach to a very cool underwater location where one can see multiple turtles at once. During an almost an hour-long trip underwater, I tried to capture both the turtles and the landscape.
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
All Posts re: Bonaire 2025:
