We're a homeschool family. I'm doing nature journaling with two of my boys. I hope for my artist son to get more comfortable drawing/painting outside and for my bird-loving son to enrich his study of birds. As for myself, I have worked mostly in oils. I am looking forward to developing my skills in watercolors. They will be so much less complicated and more portable for painting in nature.

I want to build a daily drawing practice to improve my drawing skills and I love birds and spend a lot of time outside, so nature journaling seems like a good way to combine these. Since I'm fascinated with bird behavior, I find the narrative aspect of writing about what I observe compelling and it seems like a good way to go beyond just focusing on the thing I'm drawing to include aspects of the whole experience of what I'm observing.

I live on a lake and have recently started birding. What better way to learn birds than to sketch them.

I retired a few years ago and set a goal for myself to learn how to sketch and paint. Before I could get "started" Covid-19 hit! We live in a condo community, and I love to be "with nature," so within our 20 ft X 30 ft patio, I have five feeders offering various goodies for the birds we have in the area.  I wanted to take my communing with nature a step beyond just watching to sketching and painting the variety of wildlife we see in our neighborhood.  I can't wait to go traveling within our city to see other species at other parks in the area when Covid-19 is more under control. I am a novice to sketching/drawing and painting and I want to learn as much as I can and practice as much as I can to improve my skills. I loved the unique nature of each of the journals...  I aspire to be more creative and free with my journal, but will include the stats to help me keep my work organized and make it easier to remember when I look back and think about a particular day.  I don't know if I can sketch every day, but that's how I want to start out! Sharon

I am so looking forward to this class and adding sketches to my vacation journals. I too prefer being outside than cooped up indoors.  I am a beginner for sketching and never have worked with watercolors. My mom and aunt were very good/great artists. Somehow I didn’t get under their wing to practice and learn their mediums. I wish I had.  I quilt and garden enjoy nature hikes and vacationing.  I think this class will help with the art and improve observation and being in the moment skills. As far as journal styles I want to combine the art with notes on my thoughts and allow space for me to record facts that I learned from what ever I am sketching. I plan to include the date and location and like the idea to include the weather of the day. And if possible include both common and scientific name of the drawing. Adding watercolor I hope will bring my things to life. What are my goals?  Use the techniques learned for my vacation journals. And all my vacations include nature experiences.  I would love to say I would sketch something daily, but I don’t think that is realistic so for now I want to keep up with class lessons and sketch at least one thing with each visit to this site. Do the homework. Last year we were to go to AUS and NZ but COVID  hit and that dream ended. So I want to be ready to nature and travel journal should this trip ever come.

I am a writer, photographer, watercolorist, bird enthusiast, gardener, and nature lover who is interested in nature journaling. This course seems to be a good place for me to start.

After a year of covid 19 secluded life I am always looking for some new activity that can be done alone , especially outdoors.  I received the e-mail describing a course about drawing birds.  As I read along, this course drew my attention as it included more about nature and would be perfect in spring when new buds are blossoming all around.  Although, at 83, I no longer climb mountains, backpack trails and make long canoe trips, I look forward to nature journaling at my slower pace. I hope to improve my sketching and observation skills while outdoors.

I ran across this course when I was looking up a bird and I thought it sounded like a great way to develop my sketching and drawing skills, as well as get into a journaling habit. I made this first yellow warbler drawing according to the instructions. I used what I had on hand, an HB pencil and some pastel pencils. I spent about 45 minutes on this. Based on the journals in the video, I hope to improve my drawing skills and achieve some realism in my work. I am interested to try watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil techniques to start out. I would like to make pleasing journal size watercolor mini-landscapes as Liz showed from her journal.

I want to take my birding to a new level and journaling seemed to be the obvious progression. I enjoyed all of the journalers and appreciated each style. I will definitely record the date, time, location and weather and combine sketching and written descriptions/notes. Sketching will help me pay more attention to detail and I can also write write down observations to ensure I capture the moment.

I love being out in nature hiking & experiencing all of the plants, animals & birds.  I have been increasingly  enjoying birding and recently took Liz's bird sketching class.  Now, I'm hooked!  I like the journals that combine the illustrations with verbiage - observations, feelings, questions.  I expect my style will evolve as I learn more and actually start working on my journal.

I used to draw when I was a child.  Now I am  71 years old.  When walking with others I have always been one of the first who would notice a bird, plant or animal, proclaim out loud, look there's a hawk, a chickadee, trillium etc. I took the class Drawn to Birds, loved it and felt like I wanted to learn more. It seems my drawing skills are not gone and are better than I thought they would be.  It was nice to see the different journaling styles and how talented everyone is. I like the idea of drawing what I see even if I may not know what it is and looking for identifying information later.

1. I love the seasons and want to learn more about the different species of plants, animals, and fungi that thrive in each season. I also have always wanted to document the memories of vacation travel in a more meaningful way than just clicking a photo. 2. I loved the ones with water color that brought the photos to life. The last field journal showing one one species in detail per day then switching to monthly collages was cool. I also loved the landscapes captured in the Galapagos by Jewel. I'd like to try combining the ideas of these two journalers. 3. One thing I might like to add would be to attach physical items such as pressed leaves or a fallen bird feather found that day to give the journals a 3-D presentation with physical links to the memories of that day.

I used to draw and paint as a kid and haven't done much at all since high school. I'm looking for a way to get back into art and looking at things more thoughtfully and appreciatively. I'm hoping that having a journaling practice like this will bring more mindfulness to my day and a greater appreciation to the natural world around me.

I am an avid gardener, nature lover and native plant enthusiast. I believe nature journaling  as well as photography will encourage me to take time in nature to really observe and record my experiences. I believe nature is so restorative to body and soul.  I don't feel like I got much of the artistic genes like many in my family, and I am hoping to learn and practice through this class.  I feel like the more we understand nature around us, the more we humans will protect and sustain it.

For years I’ve enjoyed photographing birds and landscape.  Nature journaling will be a whole new experience for me.  I’m looking forward to drawing and painting in the field and improving my drawing skills.   I think nature journaling can  be a peaceful meditation that has its rewards as you record the details of the subject matter whether it is an animal, plant, or a vignette, etc.  I enjoyed seeing the different journaling styles presented by class participants.  At this point I’m just going to let my journaling style evolve on its own and I might want to include a tangible object now and then , ie. a piece of grass , a pressed leaf or flower or a feather.  I am looking forward to what’s ahead in this class.

I am doing a Master Naturalist class in Minnesota and really wanted to develop a style for my weekly journaling. I have no formal art training and have long wanted to learn how to capture particularly birds and get tips on how to draw and paint them. I love the interspersing of sketches and words and the thought that what I observe links to my experience in the world - so have been adding quotes and poems to mine alongside the scientific facts of species and behaviors observed. Loved seeing all the different ways of expression demonstrated in the different journals and am conscious my journey will be an evolving process!!

1. I started nature journaling with my children to hopefully make them more aware and appreciative of the nature all around them. 2. I love the look of the watercolour, monthly summary pages but I think I am too regimented and probably tend more toward the daily summary, everything-in-boxes style.

1. I am looking forward to connecting with nature more by expanding my art skills. Nature journaling looks like it will allow me to capture my experience in a way for others to see the way I see nature.
2. The approach of drawing my observations each month is appealing. I also like the design element of text incorporated around the drawings.
3. Not yet!

• 1.  I am looking for a different way to interact with nature. I take photos now, but find that I don't revisit them near enough to appreciate what I was seeing. I also enjoy being creative in many different forms so nature Journaling could combine that for me. 
• 2. I love to combination of photos and descriptions. It is appealing to see and have some more descriptive pieces.
• 3. I am thinking of a summary of the month and day by day pages.

I love to observe and study plant, animal, and mineral forms. I'm curious about what I see and also love to look for patterns over time and from season to season. Sketching what I observe seems a natural extension of something I enjoy. I like the idea of using a journal to capture and remember special moments, or to answer a question. It also makes sense to me that something you've observed closely enough to sketch is something you'll remember, something that becomes a part of you.

I have always loved bird watching, gardening, plant identification and art. I’ve loved the idea of a nature journal, have a ton of empty journals. Now, as I’m thinking of retirement, it’s time to start putting it all together.

I like the idea of writing and drawing to remember the experience. I think what will be hard is to find time to journal while I am in the moment and to resist the urge to go back and finish drawings or add a drawing later. I didn’t hear anyone mention that they did that. But I guess that’s the thing with journaling. There is no wrong way and plenty of different ways to journal!

I've always enjoyed being outside, watching what was going on around me.  I initially picked up Clare Walker Leslie's book, The Curious Nature Guide, and was drawn in by her sketches.  Someone shared that she was a naturalist and nature journaler.  I had the opportunity to take a teachers' workshop with her at Clark University in Massachusetts, followed by a weekend retreat.  That, combined with my long interest, but little action on my part of developing my artistic skills led me down this journey.  For awhile I was very diligent in recording in my journal, but I got out of the habit, and I'm working to re-establish that practice.  I like Jewel's approach, of using her nature journal to capture her observations and then share them with others so they can experience what she saw and experienced.  I also like Holly's idea of shifting from a daily  documentation to a monthly page, where she's added to it through the month.  It allows for flexibility, but maintains the practice.  I haven't been one to add much writing, beyond the observations that I note, but I do find poems that I like, and often keep clippings of writing that speaks to me tucked into the journal.  I'd like to find a way to incorporate those into my practice.

I enjoy getting outside and taking pictures of nature and asking myself "what can you find?". I love to look closely, look at what's different, what's going on, who made that, etc. Once the ice melts I'm in my kayak most days, watching the loons, observing their behaviors, seeing what else is on or in the lake. I gave myself an art tool kit for Christmas so I can take it out on my kayak, or on walks and begin to get in the habit of nature journaling. I've only had a couple of entries so far, but hope to get inspired to do more.

1. I have always enjoyed art and nature. I have dabbled in nature journaling and have always dreamed of making it a regular practice. Time to make it a reality. 2. I particularly like the idea of the art moving outside the bounds of the frames / boxes and the close up views. I also really liked the hummingbird study. The pure observation was great and shows it is not always about a pretty picture.