When I am out in nature, or just in my backyard, I often feel that a creature or maybe a tree or flower is speaking to me - of stability, endurance, life cycles, and I just want to try drawing so that I can recall some of these wordless conversations and observations.   I so appreciate the journalers sharing their journals, and I loved how much was included in each page.

1. I actually have been nature journaling since I could write, I never knew it had a name :). Recently, I have been in a walking boot due to a foot injury and have been staying home. I live in a mountain town in north Phoenix and am surrounded by beautiful desert terrain. I started sketching in my writing journal for fun. My colleague sent me the Merlin App and as I explored the website, I found the nature journaling course and got so excited, I bought it right away! 2. I like Liz’s approach because I enjoy writing so much. I will write down thoughts that come up as I’m sketching and tell a story with both.

I’m going to be an ornithologist, and want to be able to draw the birds.  Feels a lot more personal than cameras, connecting with nature.  And Birds are FUN to draw!!

1. I live in a wooded area with many different trees, shrubs, a running (small) creek, and a couple of little ponds nearby. Birds and insects abound. I keep asking what species of trees and birds I see. So, the best way to learn them would be close observation, and for a close observation, drawing would be a good start. 2. Each of the journalists has an individual style and method. There is no "rule" or "format" to this practice. 3. I do not have any idea yet. Perhaps I will start drawing what I see.

I came to nature journaling because I wanted to explore a different approach to expressing myself besides photography.  I felt nature journaling would draw me in closer to the aspect of nature that I was exploring.  It would give me the opportunity to improve my drawing skills and combine researching the topic I am working on and exploring.  I would like to try the style by Shayne Miller of incorporating illustrations and text.  Her work was not over complicated.  This leads me to believe that this is something that I could achieve.  I also liked the closeups that she did and her use of both watercolor and I think pencil. I liked Jewel's use of placing the range of a particular color that she was exploring on the page.  DJ's insight into exploring birds body shapes geometrically gave me a new way to look at birds and other animals as well.  I have a long way to go before achieving  Molly's depth at using watercolor. Her work was beyond my current ability.  I so admire it. I will have to explore my style in the way I want to present what I am illustrating since I am very much a the beginning of nature journaling.

I came to nature journaling after years of bullet journaling, and I'd like to make a hybrid journal. It would be a great reminder that being in nature should be something that happens every day. I loved the peek at the journals! Two things that stand out are all the sketches, some incomplete, that make up some of the pages. I noticed that more than one sketch of an animal gives a more complete view of it. After all the black and white, the watercolor journals just popped! I admire the control with the paint. I can't wait until I get to that level someday!

1 - I love nature, and nature loves me! 2 - Line Drawings, Shapes, Questions, Colors 3 - Huh?

1. I'm inspired to begin nature journaling because I am happiest when I'm in natural surroundings, and I would like to capture some of what I see in my garden and on trips to gardens and arboretums. 2. Seeing all of the different nature journals helps me to see that there are many ways to create a nature journal. I want to try the field guide journal with writing and sketching, but seeing all of the different styles shows me that there's no one right way to do this. 3. I don't have a different journaling idea yet, but I'm excited to see how it will evolve as I continue exploring how to do it.

I went on Pinterest to look for some more natural journal illustration inspiration. I saved images that resonated with me and inserted them into a notes document, I reflected on each and wrote down what I liked about it. I started recognizing a pattern. There are two types of nature drawing that I’m interested in: observational field sketches and reference study illustrations. The first, I think is the focus of this course. You are out in the field observing and drawing what you see. The focus is on being loose and present, capturing the feel of your subject with gesture drawings and pops of color. The second category is more purposeful and intentional, like you’re making a personal field guide. You draw several species together, point out similarities and differences. These drawings have a more “scientific” field guide vibe to them.

1. I started drawing birds this year out of necessity, more than intention. I've never been one to draw, or do anything artistic, but I started noticing birds last year and quickly became very facinated with all the birds I could find. This year I found myself drawing the birds and not being able to stop. I started out very rough and unrefined, but as I continue to draw several times a week, I am learning. I realized that drawing is helping me feel connected to the birds I see and helping me remember. So i guess I've started Nature Journaling on accident. 2. I think i'd like to try a monthly or weekly journal. I am very busy working full time and a mom to three, so I don't want to set a daily goal that I surely will not achieve. Monthly seems perhaps slight too little, but it might end up being just right in the end.

This course was a Christmas gift from my daughter. She knows that I have been enjoying using watercolors for the past several years. I have filled a number of sketchbooks with internet tutorials, and now feel ready to sort of branch out on my own.  I am interested mainly in painting  plant life..  I don’t think my vision is good enough to capture birds.  I like the idea of making a month by month journal of things observed in my yard.

1. I recently became disabled by a chronic illness and am no longer able to many of the things I used to. My therapist recommended nature journaling as a way to connect with my body, my world, and immerse myself in nature more thoroughly. 2. I love the color and adding a color palette to the entries to remind me of the colors I observed. I also loved the idea of capturing an event (i.e. birds in different positions or spider spinning its dinner) as well as still life. 3. I got something valuable from every journal that was shared. They are all so unique and there are several components from each journal that gave me so much insight.

I go for frequent walks in nature as exercise and meditation. Nature journaling allows me to notice things that I used to miss. It helps me slow down and be in the moment. I can share these moments with family and friends as well. I appreciated all the examples in the lesson. I sketch with pencil and add color later when I get back home, but I'm going to take watercolor pencils and/or watercolor with me from now on. I really liked the idea of recording the colors observed on the journal page with watercolor. I would also like to add detailed drawings of plants. My focus has been on birds so far. Here's a page from my journal.

2.  March 11, 2025:  I really appreciate the generosity of the journalers who have shared their journals with us.  I feel encouraged by all of them, and they all provided constructive information.  Shayna - with her boxes and allowing the sketches to escape the borders, the zooms with detail, notes with observations and questions.   Jewel - showing how she started, developed and advanced nicely.  William - with the blue-footed boobies in the Galapagos and motion or the boobies and the water by the rocks.  Margaret - the hummingbird sketches and handling motion as I have hummingbirds, and they are always moving very quickly so they require a lot of study.  D.J. McNeil - showing the use of geometric shapes and showing behaviors to accurately capture the bird or species is so helpful to me.  Holly Faulkner - I love the beauty and accuracy of your journal with the lovely illustrations, dates, notes.  I aspire to creating a journal like that someday.

1.  March 1, 2025:  Ever since I was a very small child, I have loved nature and studied nature - the birds, the plants, the insects, animals, sea and its creatures.   In some of the countries I grew up in complete nature guides were not readily available plus all the species had not (to this day) been discovered and identified.  Nature journaling would have been and is a way to portray in the most accurate and beautiful way I am capable of all that I observe and study.

1. My goal is to create the habit of drawing everyday. The act of drawing (and painting) is a joyful meditation for me. I hope the regular practice will help me to be more present and calm. (I made the watercolor painting last summer.) 2 I was inspired by the artist who created a drawing everyday.

#1. The love of nature was the inspiration begin nature journaling. I love to learn, especialy about nature, and I was intriguied with the idea of capturing nature on pages. Plus, I will have this course and the journals I create to capture a period of time that my chikdren and grandchildren can look back upon.  #2. Actually, all of the journalers processes inspired me and I would like to try to incoporate atleast one technique from each journaler into my own journaling. Yet, if I have to choose one, I liked the idea of boxing on the picture and label for each image, the date box, the scientific name, etc.

Today is day 1 of an activity called "The 100 Day Art Project". I chose to finally re-start this course. I started sketching last May and I really like it. In this Liz' course, once I got to the water color module, I shut down and put it away. This was probably 4-5 months ago, at least. I purchased this course about 2 years ago. So this 100 Day Art Project endeavor is helping me to take steps every day and once I get to the water color section, just go for it. don't worry about messing up pages, not doing it right, just allowing myself to be a beginner. I liked what all four people had to offer as far as their style of journaling. I really liked #1 and perhaps eventually will advance to this. For now, I'm going to be happy including anything, without judgement. Baby steps.

I have always been an outdoors person.  Started a nature journaling class with the local parks system in Jan 2022 and love it.  the pictures loaded were a weekly effort from last year, here are Jan-Mar and Oct-Dec.  Used the same tree for the 4 seasons (Jan-Mar, Apr-June, July-Sept, and Oct-Dec.)  Mostly outdoors pictures but some things that caught my eye.  This year is a bed of flowers through the seasons. art skills still lacking, better at photography then printing and putting in my nature journal.

I really enjoyed seeing all the different approaches taken in the Nature Journals video and I would like to incorporate elements from each style.   I feel most at peace when sat in nature with the sound of birds around me and hope to use this practice to be even more mindful everyday.  It will be quite a challenge for me though as I am not used to drawing nature, I am more used to photographing it.  I hope to maybe mix the pages up at some point with snippets of drawn, written and photographed subjects.

I practiced nature journaling with my children as a homeschooling activity.  I enjoy using watercolor and looking up tutorials on how to draw my own observations.  We also used the Seek app to help us identify flora and fauna.  My favorite thing to do is to keep a phenology wheel and track the moon phases as the focal piece of my nature journal spread for the month.  Then, I journal around it with sketches as I'm able through the month.

Nature journaling is a complete learning process. Each day we will learn something new from nature journaling as we observe and learn from the nature. I want to have a try on journaling the place I'm visiting with all the information I can gather about the ecosystem like weather conditions , species I observed etc...Im doing nature journaling of about a particular species everytime instead of full details I observed, so I want to have a try on what all things I can observe and journal it with full details. Here I am attaching a copy of my nature journaling I did a year back. It's about Blue Tailed Green Bee Eater, a migrant visitor to Kerala.

I love the ideas you provide for nature journaling, but I would also love to record and interpret the landscapes with watercolors. I am very excited to have signed up for this course. Although, I am just learning to paint with watercolors on my own, I would like to learn to paint animals, plants and landscapes. Here is my first attempt at a landscape with watercolors, although it is not a good one because the transparencies are not visible, I believe that practice makes perfect.