I am inspired to begin nature journaling because I like to record things about my life and I like to spend a lot of time in outdoor spaces. I am a photographer and writer. As a child, I drew a lot. Drawing and writing were my earliest passions. Weeks after my mother died when I was in high school, I had a negative interaction with an art teacher, and I quit drawing after I was finished with her class. The desire to draw never left me, though. Although it has been more than 20 years since I gave up on it, I want to re-learn how to draw and enjoy the experience again. I look forward to this course helping me get back on track with that. I think my approach will be more about combining notes about what I observed and felt alongside my drawings. I do plan to give my drawings priority and fill in with words around them. I want to capture my experience of nature more than the technical details.

I started nature journalling because I bought a book called Keeping A Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles Roth; I bought some colored pencils and started sketching; I was on an island and had a lot of time and I found it so calming and meditative and it gave me pleasure so I started doing it every day I was there. In particular, I liked Liz's journal because it had a lot of landscape in it and I spend a lot of time looking at landscape and the light on it; she also was concerned with texture and she used the word "beautiful" to describe a sunrise and sometimes I want to record the beauty I see. I don't have any journalling ideas from the ones shown; I find that it is now, as Autumn. approaches, a little too cold somedays to capture the sunrises over Lake Michigan as they happen. So I suspect I will use some photos and work from them later in the day.

My world narrowed somewhat during the pandemic. My walks in the park and my backyard observations of wildlife and plants helped me navigate these months. Each observation and sometimes a drawing or painting of my interest were like little vacations from the news swirling around me. I took the Identifying Bird Songs course and practiced on my walks. It was so rewarding to actually be able to identify a call or a song. I decided that as the fall approached I wanted to have some focus on learning. I found this course and The Biology of Birds course to help me through the winter months. I have a love for botanical painting which is a slow process. I want to be able to draw and paint birds from nature and sketches. I have done some paintings from photographs, but I really am looking forward to drawing and painting from nature. Now I just have to figure out how to keep the raccoons out of my bird feeder. The visitors to the feeder in the winter are a constant entertainment during the winter. I think it will provide me with many subjects to draw when the weather keeps me in.

I began keeping a garden journal 18 years ago, when I moved to a house with a beautiful, established garden.  There was so much to see, to keep track of and to do!  There were animals and birds too and I loved chronicling it all.  Now I live in a city and I want to try a new kind of nature journal.  I hope this program will help me develop some new observational skills and learn how to illustrate some of what I see.  The journals gave me some great ideas...jump right in and start with the drawing, look for the geometric shapes, think about the palette of colors, capture an interesting moment or behavior, think about how this scene or animal or plant makes me feel, ask questions, go back and find out more about what I have seen.

1.  I find inspiration in nature, but I don't always remember those inspirations specifically.  I want to be able to record my experiences in nature in a more effective way.   Also, I'm a 7th grade life science teacher, and I want my students to be intrigued and inspired by the world around them.  We made our own nature journals last year in our life science and life science/STEM classes, but I feel the need to broaden my ideas.  My students sometimes feel intimidated by the art part.  I want to get better at explaining that to them so they can feel proud of their own accomplishments.  Science and art are both about observation.  It's an advantage to have an understanding of both.

1. What inspired you to begin nature journaling? I kept a field journal the summer of 2009 when I was in school for landscape architecture. The memories of that summer (journeying along the Trail of Tears and then to Costa Rica) are more textured than more recent travels. My colleague Teri Nye, an avid nature journalist, has also inspired me with her work. I've fallen out of the habit, and would like to get back into it. Thanks to my mother for enrolling me in this course :-) 2. Now that you’ve heard from several other journalers about their processes, and had a peek at their journals, which ideas or approaches do you want to try? I liked the way the first journaler framed her drawings, but then allowed them to break out of the box. I think that animates the page in a way that I would like to try. 3. Do you have a different journaling idea, not mentioned here, that you’d like to share? I'm going to try and keep a phenology journal of observations here in Atlanta. I do lots of work outdoors, and it will be good to record my observations of natural events in a notebook that is organized chronologically by week - so, one spread per week. This is something I can return to year after year. The images are from my 2009 field journal.

Hello fellow nature lovers! 1. What inspired you to begin nature journaling?  A friend shared the link for this course with me a week ago.  She is an amazing artist and I have always admired her journals.  I love to journal when I am traveling and filled pages with my words and recollection of each day of each trip I have been on.  I am taking this course to gain the confidence in drawing what I see/experience and to add beautiful images to my journal pages.  I am a naturalist and have a business guiding  folks at Mount Rainier National Park and have had the desire to write a book of my experiences.  Adding drawings to my journal will help add more emotion and clarity I believe.  I take lots of pictures and am excited to feel and see the difference in my connection to each trip through the act of drawing. 2. Now that you’ve heard from several other journalers about their processes, and had a peek at their journals, which ideas or approaches do you want to try?  I appreciate each of the techniques shared and had never thought of using a certain style.  I really enjoyed Shayna's style with the boxes and like the idea of going out of them as an expression of space and life expanding.  I like how the journals used different colors and had the swaths of each color used.  Perhaps this is part of the technique we will be learning. ?? I am completely new to anything like this and am soooo excited to gain the skills to add more dimension to my journeys and go beyond stick figures at age 59:)! Thank you for making this available!

Wow! I am so excited to learn to draw the amazing scenes, or details and bits I see in Nature.  I am captivated by even the smallest fungi and in awe.  I want to be a part of it and find myself taking photos, but it's not enough to 'feel' what's happening. This is what inspires me to journal. I want to share what I see, and somehow until that manifests itself into some thing to share besides my exuberance - I will learn to draw. Every person and their journal was great.  I enjoyed all of the styles and could certainly place myself in the scenes, that each observer talked about. It seems like the action of drawing it (the scene), puts the emotion into the moments captured. No-one criticized their own work, but used all the lines as reference points to discuss what they saw. That was my favorite aspect of all the journaling.  If I were to pick a style I like, or would even like to emulate (I dare say), but not copy, is the first 'journaler' that used boxes.  Maybe the boxes made a reference for the language or verbal observations for her to connect - but if that was a book, I would be attracted to the feeling it gave me, and want to buy it to reinvent that feeling each time I opened the book.  I want to learn to do that for myself and how I feel when I'm in Nature!

I love to be outdoors and am an avid photographer (just for fun).  We recently moved to Arizona and I'm loving all the different cacti and birds.  We've discovered the Hassayampa River Preserve and have been there several times.  I usually just take photos but thought it would be neat to learn to nature journal, especially in that area.  Initially, I plan to keep my journal simple and try to get over the intimidation of a blank page and my tendency to perfectionism.  I enjoyed seeing all the journals and different approaches.  I'm not sure which style I will try so may just experiment initially.  I hoping to improve my observation skills which I think will also help my photography.

I am an artist who loves nature and birds.   I get excited all over again whenever I see someone's nature journal, or travel sketchbook and want to be more intentional about my observations and recordings.  When our kids were little we took the time to stop and watch every ant, spider and bee and I want to feel that wonder again.  I'm trying to slow down while I find my balance between loose watercolor, and detailed line.   I'd like to add more words into my pages, and I love the way the boxes look, so I'm going to try that to unify my ideas.  Here is a page from last year - what I really like about it is that my dog walked on the book and left a pawprint.  It really looks like a smudge, but the note makes me smile and remember sitting there outside, drawing with my daughter, while our dog bounced around.   Pen and watercolor.

Hello to all nature journalists! I'm new to nature journalism; I took a watercolor short course a couple of years ago and then started to draw in nature, but in non organized way. And without writing, taking notes, ... So, (1) I'd like to learn new techniques, and try them also in drawing birds (2) explore new ways of using the page (for now I prefer not to fill it in with lots of details; I like the idea of drawing in one side, and writing in the opposite page... although I admire Liz and those journalers in the video that draw amazingly and use so much of the space!) and (3) I sometimes use a separate sheet of paper to test the color (because I have doubts if it's what I'm looking for).

When I go out in nature I often take my camera.  While the camera allows me to capture the moment w/out much delay, it doesn't give me the wealth of detail that journaling forces me to notice.  I feel I get much more of what I see by journaling than by simply looking at something or by simply taking its picture.  I was most attracted by Shayna Muller's method; I believe I'll try to follow her example.

I was inspired to start nature journaling by thinking about how I could unite my desire to explore drawing more with my habit of being outside.  I love how nature journaling can travel with you to different locations, and it is a hobby that can transition across seasons - it really is a little time capsule!   It piqued my interest that nearly all of the journals shown here had small "bite size" entries.  The entry was bite size in how it filled the page, in the time it may have taken to complete, or even in the skill that was being explored.  That was really eye-opening for me.  I am hesitant to dive entirely into my journal because I want it to "look nice."  But really I am doing a disservice to myself and my exploration - I can keep my entries brief and my self-reflection forgiving!   One additional journaling idea I have is to play with the orientation of the page.  Instead of always working with the same horizontal orientation, for example, you can work vertically or upside down!  Break the page into 3's or 4's.  Don't limit yourself to a standard orientation, because then you'll be taking what you see and trying to force it into that space or habit.

hello! 1.I am an art major, but I work as a field biologist. A profession I randomly fell into. I love the outdoors and the natural world and I love art. I do not let my artistic side out as much as I think about and should. I am hoping this will motivate me to look that much deeper into my surroundings and capture the moment.  I also want to become better with watercolor-a medium I struggle with.  I paint mostly abstract with oil. 2. I like the idea of putting something on paper everyday. I have tried that, but life gets in the way. So maybe being more realistic with a few times a week. Really focusing on that time. 3. Adding feathers or pressed leaves or flowers.

I have several reasons for taking this class on nature journaling.  After my daughter gave me The Naturalist's Notebook for tracking changes, I started my own journal.  Like the last journalist I wanted to enter something every day but it was to difficult so I ended up not doing it at all.  I then started to paint birds with acrylics and have finished several nice paintings but what I really want to be able to do is sketch nature and then put it into my paintings. My second reason is to help me create a bird identification book for children.  I am presently working on Warbling Warblers.  Studying warblers was a Covid-19 goal because I could do it from my own yard.  I am hoping that I can learn to observe and listen more carefully and be able to draw the birds for my book. I am so excited about taking this class because it combines many of my interests in one class.  I love birding, nature, drawing, painting , and journaling.

1. This was a gift from someone who knows I like nature. 2. I want to incorporate drawing with written comments. 3. I would hope as I get started my style will become unequally my own.

Until I improve, I thing trying to draw something everyday might be good.  I liked color on the page, boxing and writing around subjects.  I'll need to remind myself that it doesn't need to be perfect.

I live in St. Petersburg, Florida. A favorite walk is Weedon Island which has boardwalks among the mangroves.  I've always had a little difficulty identifying red, white, and black mangrove.  A a former project manager, I constructed a spreadsheet and listed their attributes.  No wonder I can't remember which is which.  Drawings will be so much more fun!

I like Holly Faulkner’s approach with filling a page, or pages, each month. Nature Journaling is different than what I thought it would be, but sure I will enjoy anyway. As I was listening to both Liz and the other journalists, I jotted down some notes, some simple sketches, goals, and emotions or adjectives . Joanne

• Out of high school i wanted to be a science  illustrator but found at the time it was hard to make a living doing it
• I turned instead to biology with a minor in art
• I taught college biology at a junior college, but since work as a railroad engineer.
• I have always loved nature and now find the time to feed this joy. I have done things still in the field of biology; owl prowls, nature walks and gardening.
• I like the style of boxed in art with wording surrounding it.

 

The pandemic has "forced" me to enjoy my immediate surroundings. I've never spent so much time in my backyard to observe nature (rather than plowing through a list of to-do's like lawn moving, and cleaning garden beds). My husband, son and I have spent hours walking in the woods trying to enjoy the moment, but also to identify birds, trees, shrubs, mushrooms.  We started buying books, then applications to help us in this journey. Then one day, my son asked me to paint a blue jay for him, and I was so pleased with the result, I feel that documenting this process that came naturally to us is the next thing for me. I absolutely loved the realness and movement of Holly's journals (both 2016 and 2019), her use of colour but also how she placed the dates beside each element in 2016, or how she used a gradient of yellow and green to write 'March 2019' in her second journal. 

I was inspired to begin nature journaling because I felt like it would be a way for me to connect to the environment and wildlife around me. I have dabbled in photography, mostly of birds, but I felt like if I was too concentrated on getting the perfect shot, I couldn't concentrate on watching the birds' behavior. So I feel like taking the time to draw or paint a bird (or plant or other animal) would allow me to connect with it more. I have started sketching without any instruction and I realized after watching the videos that I may have been sketching too many things. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get close to the birds (or they moved away too quickly), so right now I'm just trying to get the shapes. I'd like to get to the point where I can slow down and capture the subject from many different angles. Watercolor is also of interest for me, but I haven't tried that yet. I would like to try to capture the colors, though. With practice, I'm sure my confidence will build.

1. I am more of a nature photographer, but want to expand my observations beyond a single image.  I think the detail of journaling will provide a more fulfilling experience. 2. I like the idea of boxing images after completing them.  I also liked the idea of the journal calendar, though I am hoping my journaling will be more detailed text to complement the image so that I am going beyond what my photography currently does for my observations.  I liked the idea of different angles of observations, like as the environment changes or the bird moves, adding art to match the evolving observation.

My favorite place to go has always been the woods, fields and anywhere outdoors, throughout my life.  I have an artist and naturalist personality and enjoy the process of creating, more than the product, although that is nice, too.  I like how the journaling is an ongoing process and that inspires my creativity.  The combination of sketching and words, and being in the present is appealing to me.  Nature tells me as seasons and time passes and whispers her majesty to us everyday.  I can’t wait to start my journal and listen to her whispers and record her creations.

I was inspired to nature journal after installing bird feeders on our property and, having more time on my hands due to COVID-19, gave me a way to pass the time. Two days ago a baby fox squirrel fell from a palm tree, so here’s the image I drew to remember him since he is now recovering at a local rescue organization.  I plan on incorporating weather conditions and very much like the boxing idea for organizing.  Knowing that some sketches will be unfinished and mistakes will happen are also helpful tips.