I'm a naturalist, have been a nature guide in two different organizations but have relied on photo taking to capture my observations.  Recently I started studying drawing and watercolor, and I'd like to take these two disciplines into the field which should also enhance my observational skills.  I'd like to try the daily entry, paint in watercolor, and include in words my observations.  This I hope would help me to  be more focused and detailed in my learning about nature.

I wanted to get better at visual journaling for work and also for outdoor adventures and day-to-day strolls. I like the daily/monthly approach.

1. I already was drawing and painting various birds and animals, normally from birds in my bird or animal books, but almost never from observation, and thought it would be interesting to try a new way of capturing an image of an animal or bird in a different way. 2. I like the idea of bringing the drawings out of their boxes, because it seems like you are ‘freeing’ the drawing a bit more. 3. I like to add notes on my sketches, because if I think differently on a fact or even a photograph in one of my books (coloring off in the photo, a different observation that the book doesn’t cover, etc.) I can write it down, and it’s almost like I’m making my own field guide.

1. What inspired you to begin nature journaling? I love to spend time outdoors, sketch and watercolor. I also took a class with csumb and teach middle school science where we nature journal in the garden. I also saw a talk with John Meir Laws that was very inspiring. 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 really like the monthly 1 page or nature journals. To have a goal to keep working on art with a somewhat flexible goal. 3. Do you have a different journaling idea, not mentioned here, that you’d like to share? I've noticed that I enjoy sketch, watercolors, to just colored pencil. When I write with my drawings, I feel like it takes away from my art.

As an landscape architect and artist, site sketching is my favorite way to experience a space. I love being outside and capturing my feelings of a place in my sketchbook. They aren't always accurate and I definitely take a "creative" approach, sometimes making up things as I go in order to capture the feeling. I hope I can learn to practice a more scientific or observational approach to sketching while still getting creative and capturing the moment. I'm really looking forward to adding my nature journal to my sketchbook collection.  

I really loved how Liz was able to find the answer about bird incubation without looking it up, just by observation. I really feels like a good motivator to keep journaling! Nature journaling feels like a really grounding activity for 2020 and a great way to pay attention to the beautiful things in our world.

Hello fellow journal keepers. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about journaling and some your drawings in this chat box. Although I have kept a nature journal for many years, both during travel and in the backyard, I haven't mastered the art of the quick sketch to capture the essence of a subject. It is so much easier to sit with a plant than with a scurrying beetle or mouse. My goal for this course is to be persistent in skills practice to become a better sketcher and not such a perfectionist.  I am looking forward to joining you on this journey.

These past spring/summer months of 2020 have given me the time to explore my own backyard. The early visitors, their habits, their disappearance, the stalwart year round neighborhood birds and the persistent insects and even the hardy weeds have captured my attention AND my thoughts. Details emerge that were once overlooked. Putting them to paper will sharpen my observation skills. Dating each page and adding a quick weather note will give a time stamp that will be important years/decades later. Freeing up the hand on paper will give me the “flow” —-first impressions and organic thought aside from deduction will help generate creativity. Highlighting smaller details  that stand out, either box or circle form makes the pages cohesive. I may press a few small specimens from non-public spaces as this drying can bring out other details.

I love Nature and this is a new way to enjoy and learn more. I like the different ideas and perspectives. I want to see more of this course to decide how to make my nature journal.

I love spending time in nature and have always enjoyed sketching and painting. I am a K-2 STREAM teacher at an elementary school and began incorporating nature journaling a few years ago. I would like to do more of it with them.   I like the monthly nature journaling approach. I think it would be a nice way to track seasonal changes and document places I have visited. I would be sure to include the date, time, weather and then detailed notes along with my sketches.   I am apprehensive about the watercolors. I never thought of them as being easy to use while on the go but I am excited to give it a try.

I really liked Shayna's journal layout with the subjects breaking free of the boxes.  That seemed like a really effective way of framing the subject and organizing the page, and also was playful and flexible.  I am an elementary teacher and outdoor enthusiast, I am looking to build my own experiences documenting nature through journaling as a way of holding memories.  Also, I hope that as I build confidence nature journaling,  I can better support my students document their experiences, curiosities and learning in nature journals.  I love the idea of mixed media nature journals and am inspired by some older nature books I've read that read like nature journals: Rachel Carson's "The Edge of the Sea", David J. Carroll's "Swamp Walker's Journal: A Wetlands Year" to name a couple.

1. I love written journaling and I love art, nature journaling seems like a great way to connect the two. Also I would like to connect more deeply with nature and give space to notice subtleties. I tend to be a perfectionist, I am hoping that nature journaling helps me to loosen up my art a bit. 2. I like the idea of doing art while out in nature and using it as a way to document experiences in the moment (rather than looking at a photo reference later). 3. I really want to try integrating nature journaling and meditation. Not only documenting direct visual observations but also trying to communicate the emotional experience of connecting with nature or the behavioral personality of certain species.

Hello fellow journalers! Journaling is a way for me to slow down and observe what's around me and to look at nature from different perspectives. I like the journals that show multiple views including the setting, but also present at the detail level with some labeling or explanation about the weather or other conditions. I like the idea of using pencil, ink, and watercolor. I've kept journals on and off and thought this class would be a nice introduction back into journaling again. I look forward to learning with everyone.

1. Reflecting on what I enjoy. Yearning for a way to grow my naturalist skills and document nature's gorgeousness. 2. I especially like the idea of documenting what was actually seen. To quickly, yet elegantly, show the subject, note behaviours and include other interesting snippets. I like the approach of lots of images and sections to accompany text. The pencil work in DJ McNeil's journal really inspired me. 3. I'm thinking about including natural material samples in my journal such as pressed plants and feathers.

I’m a professor and will be teaching a seminar course to first year students this fall and the theme for me will be about nature.  I’d love to have students nature journal but need to learn more about it myself.  I really like the idea of making nature journaling a regular process - I was intrigued by the woman who did a daily journal and then a monthly journal.

I am still in high school, and am absolutely set on pursuing ornithology in college. I am also beginning to take up photography as well, but I think that a journal would be way more fun, and really help me connect more with nature, or even the subjects that I am trying to photograph.

Hello everyone! I'm a science teacher and am excited about honing my nature journaling skills so I can share ideas with teachers and students. We use science notebooks at all grade levels. They are such a great way to inspire curiosity, creativity and learning! I love using Mod Podge, tape, or contact paper to add pressed leaves, bits of sand, flowers, etc. into my notebook. (A great, easily-accessible activity for kids too!)

Hello All.  My name is Ellen (there seem to be a few of us I see).  I have recently retired settling on the New England coast.  I spend a good deal of time exploring my new environment and wish to chronicle my sights and feelings.  I hope that by doing so I may inspire my children and grandchildren to take time to see more and and take more care of our natural world.  That being said, I am thinking I will take the approach of dating, weather observations and location hen add sketches and pertinent observations.  I want to go back and remember those moments that has me stopping to watch a bird or snail, see an unfamiliar flower and more.  So I believe I will incorporate ideas from the first and last journal examples.

I just started taking this course, I am a photographer and videographer and I spend most of my time outdoors recording nature. I also paint tropical birds in watercolor, but my painting are very detailed and I put a lot of time in them. I think this class would give me another perspective of what I see, and it will also give me the opportunity to take notes of my feelings or maybe to add some details that I might not be able to capture with my cameras.

1.  What inspired me to begin nature journaling was the John Muir Laws website and I took one of his classes.  I was hooked.  I loved the idea of documenting our experience in nature.  I would have hundreds of journals by now.  But, there is no time like the present!  2. I want to try to journal daily, even if it's a 5-min sketch.  I want to put my daily experience on paper and make it into art and inspire others.

M (9-years): my mom. Mom:  I have two (2) goals: 1) my wish is to strengthen my bond with my daughter through a long-term,  conflict-free activity (nature journaling)  in a conflict-free environment (nature) that we can share through the ebb and flow of our relationship, and 2) to connect my daughter to her natural environment by engaging all of her senses (sound, smell, sight, touch, etc.) so she will eventually discover quiet moments of solitude without loneliness. M: I want my dates to pop out in blue just like Holly Faulkner's. M: Draw a chipmunk and add the moon cycle to my journals.

Love birds, drawing, and learning more about nature. Nature journaling is the perfect marriage of the three!

The last woman’s journal blew me away! The crispness and colors of her drawings made my heart leap, and I realized right away that I want to zoom in on these details as she did. I love the micro nature of her drawings and am now inspired to REALLY study not only nature but drawing as well. She is a wonder!

Hello, my name is May. During my studies, I was introduced to journaling in general. Out of curiosity, I researched about it and came across fascinating journals that document so many topics. When I watched the Bird academy video by Instructor Liz Clayton Fuller, I liked the idea of nature journaling which resonated with my interest about nature. I've always collected leaves, feathers, stones and spring flowers to keep. Sometime I sketch them, add colour and write a note about them. I never thought of keeping a nature journal that document the date, time and weather, nor explain and write about them as the course shows. That's why I decided to join the course and learn about nature journaling. I’m glad I did. After watching the nature journaling approaches in the video in lesson 1, I was amazed of the ways we can document our observations. I can’t say that there is one specific journal that captured my attention to adopt its approach, as each had a process that could be looked at and combined with others then add few touches to come up with my own style. Below are the processes I would like to try in my nature journal: Shayna Muller documentation style of zoom and detailed drawings along with notations. Jewel Alston process of depicting different tones of colour. William Nnuro Jr process of capturing the moment. Margret Corbit of thinking about subject through drawing. D.J MacNeil process that tackled behavior by drawing simple shapes with few detail. Holly Faulknor style that evolved into monthly sheet that contained her observations. Instructor Liz Fuller organized journal that incorporated so many techniques that turned the nature journal into a nice documentation of visual experience. So I might try and give it a go putting it all together to fill the pages of my first nature journal. I haven't done nature journaling in the past. Yet, I have few drawings here and there. The thing that I would add to my journal is a sample of the flower I’m sketching. I attached one of my drawings that included a sample of the flower which I pressed and kept with my drawing as a reference to look at and observe the changings that occur to the dry flower!

I am terrible at drawing and have avoided it since childhood. Almost fearful of it. I am going to give this the college try and see how it goes. I’d really like to be able to keep a nature journal, hopefully those skills are learnable.