Sit spot #1 was on the National Forest. I ended up seeing the tail end of the autumn colors but it was still real great to be out. I noticed some Sub Alpine Fir trees and thought i would give it a go at sketching these trees. I kind of developed a method for sketching these trees. Not that it's right or wrong but they relate to my experience at my SS. I love trees. I think that certain animals or birds may be easier than trees, grasses, and brush so i would say that was out of my  comfort zone. This was Sit spot #1 ~It looks like i have a lot to learn.

I really enjoyed this exercise!

I really enjoyed diving more into a sit spot practice  As an outdoor educator it’s something I lead with my students often, but always forget to do myself  

I love drawing landscapes, I love going to a Lake near my town, there I can draw the water and the plants that grow on the shore and a lot of ferns under the trees. I feel more confident drawing plants because they wait for you all day long! For me it is difficult to draw moving things as insects ans birds. Sometimes I find difficult to concentrate on writing before drawing. I just want to draw first, I think I have to get used to it. I need to practice a lot more on keeping a journal.

Enjoying this course and that it is stretching me to "take risks"with my drawing and even better, hone my seeing.  On a short vacation and haven't been able to get away to sit, so I collected a few things from our walks.  Seeing others' entries and comments has me excited to sit in my own backyard and begin to see it in new ways. 

I've used Prof. Fuller's idea to use a 'spot' to try for years to appreciate and capture the small portions of nature that are visitors or natives to my property. Sitting on the edge of my property I've worked with pencil & paper from my 'collapsible, sling over the back chair' and arrange what I saw, with what I was thinking and felt.

I have been drawing all day, and really enjoying it.  It is cold outside, so most of the time, I was inside.  I finally managed to bundle up and you sit by my pond.  It was lovely out there.  The birds were active in the distance, as the sun was dropping.  It was sweet to have a new bird friend show up for me.  A little Pine Siskin was happily sitting next to the pond for a number of minutes. 

I visited our New Mexico backyard for this exercise on a beautiful fall day (my thermometer says 80 degrees in the shade). I've observed the birds at our feeders many, many times and sometimes tried to sketch, or usually photograph, them. Today I just sat and listened and watched until they decided it was safe to return to the feeders. It was mostly the usual suspects - doves, house swallows, house finches - and the highlight was an answer to a question: are the hummingbirds still around? We left the feeder up for migrants and towards the end of my session, two chased each other into the yard. One left and the other perched at the tip of the tree to rest and rejoice in his victory. But, unfortunately, he didn't spot and visit the feeder. I mostly wrote notes about my observations, but did sketch a finch at the feeder and do a quick sketch of the hummingbird to try to remember his markings, as best I could see them, before he disappeared. My challenge will be to get more sketches and fewer words into observations!

My sit spot was at a botanical garden.  I have always loved tree bark and decided to draw the trunk of a Magnolia tree.  I have tried this in the past but feel a lot better about the drawing this time due to the technics I have learned in this course ie: contour, cross hatching, stippling, scribbling and blending.   I can see that I need to work on Chiaroscura more and dimensions.

One of my best observation spots is my kitchen window. It looks out on our back yard and bird feeders with an unobstructed view. Since is was 32 degrees this morning in WI I was not very keen on going outside so I was lucky the turkeys came to me. I don't get the sounds but my hands can still function. I was reading Claire Walker Leslie's book "Nature Drawing, A Tool For Learning" and one helpful hint was to make a start sketching your subject and if they move  add another sketch and come back to the others after observing their movements and markings you want to capture. That's what I've tried to do with the turkeys since they kept moving and reforming groups. I wish I could capture the irridescents of their feathers. Watercolor doesn't really capture it although if I do a larger study could do more highlighting.

I went to one of my favorite sit spots yesterday afternoon. It was windy and a bit chilly, but I was able to observe and sketch for about 45 minutes. Because of my training as an academic biologist my nature journal is always going to look more like a field notebook than a personal journal. I'm trying to learn how to let go and be more relaxed with the journal. Making observations comes easily to me. Getting them down on paper in a sketchbook is a whole other kettle of fish.

I really enjoyed this exercise. I think it is so important for us to stop and observe things because sometimes the most beautiful things we just pass by. This is especially important to recognize and appreciate the nature around us because it is going away. For my sit spot, I went to my backyard. I found it easy to list out noises that I heard, it was hard for me to list out what I saw because I see those things every day and I don't think of them as interesting or different anymore. Although, I don't ever really stop to look deeply into them, and this exercise really helped with that. I'm excited to go somewhere other than my backyard to try this exercise. It will be interesting to see all of the other cool things in nature. I saw a bird oh, I think it was a chickadee but I'm not sure. It kept wanting to come to our bird feeders, which we had put away for the snowstorm that recently hit us. I felt bad for the thing, but it eventually flew away probably to someone else's bird feeder. This exercise was actually really calming, and I am definitely going to try it again. If I do do it again I will try to add some sketches to my pages.

I really enjoyed this lesson.  It has been a while since I have been out to my reading spot in the back yard.  I noticed the effects that the drought has had on the plants and the trees.  I noticed how the trees were losing their leaves without going through the brilliant color change they usually do.  Hopefully we will get some rain soon.

I really enjoyed this activity. I felt very relaxed and refreshed afterwards. I haven’t walked this path in awhile. Normally if I didn’t see any bird activity I would have walked right by this area. I liked all the questions that came up and plan to do a little research for answers.

We had a number of rainy days so sitting outside wasn't easy.  Finally yesterday we went to a car show.  The field of cars was surrounded by trees.  It turned out to be COLD, so I sat in our hot rod to observe from there.  I noticed colors and movement in the trees.  No birds were around due to the cold and wind.  I suddenly noticed a birdhouse and decided to draw it.  All went well until I tried to draw the fir trees.  How the heck does one draw a fir tree????  I have a lot to learn.

This was such a lovely activity. I sat in my backyard and ended up noticing more than I expected I would. For example the bark of one of my maple trees is actually far lighter in color (and contains some pink!) then I ever realized. Almost on cue, bird, squirrels, and insects were far more noticeable right around 15 minutes in. A small fly landed on my finger and I attempted to draw it, but I'm kind of wishing I had taken a photo to try identifying with iNaturalist since I can't figure out what it is now that I'm back inside - there are benefits and drawbacks to both photographic and drawn observations. I'm hoping I get more comfortable drawing. I wanted to capture the texture of tree bark and didn't really know where to start.

I sat inside because the mosquitoes are really bad outside at the moment. But I sat just inside a sliding glass door with the glass door open but the screen door closed. I found it easiest to notice the sounds- wind in the trees, birds singing, frogs calling, fish jumping. I tried to draw the landscape but ended up concentrating on just a few elements of the landscape.

Have so enjoyed purposeful opportunities to slow down, observe, and record!

I work so my opportunity to get out into nature is the weekends so I decided to find my "sit spot" in the backyard by our New England Aster patch which is in full bloom and attracts lots of bees.

I went to a near by stream along a road.  It was very breezy.  There was a Nor'easter off the coast.  The trees are turning color and I want to start exploring color with the water colors.  I don't have any resources for identifying the wild plants in my area.  Anyone have any recommendations?

well i only had time to sit in my front yard, which was way quieter than usual. but i observed a hummingbird fight, young turkeys establishing a pecking order, and some goldenrod with some beautifully colored leaf fungus(?) usually the yard is alive with Towhees, white-crowned and gold-crowned sparrow, oak titmice, bewicks wrens, and goldfinches, but it was very very quiet.