The Cornell Lab Bird Academy › Discussion Groups › Nature Journaling and Field Sketching › Style Your Journal Your Way
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My inspiration for taking this course is my lifelong love of nature and a desire to learn to draw and record what I see. I think I was born with that desire but it was put on hold many decades ago when I was nine or ten and I was trying to draw a deer jumping across a log. My teacher looked over my shoulder and told me I shouldn't try to do that anymore because I couldn't. So I have motivation! I also want to use what I learn to show young people all the things there are to appreciate in the outdoors and that drawing and painting does not have to be frightening and intimidating. Love the ideas on how to compose pages and information, and to look at my journal as an experiment, not as something that will be judged, not by me or anyong else. I want to learn and have fun.
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Watching my daughter take her online art lesson at home due to Covid has reminded me that hey, I used to do that. I had many wonderful art teachers over the years in public schools but over time, I stopped creating with pencil and paper. I have never stopped making some kind of art; it just hasn't been on paper. I do sew creatively. For example, I make my kids' Halloween costumes, quilt, and do all kinds of needlework (embroidery, cross-stitch). My oldest son and I are both into nature photography and we take mostly bird photographs. Recently, I took up ceramics but that is on hold now due to Covid. Animals have always been a large part of my life as pets and as subjects for observation. I volunteer as a naturalist for a local Audubon Society and that has rekindled my love of bird-watching which I have alway participated into some degree but there have been highs and lows to that. I guess I have a bit of short attention span and like to try new things! Yesterday, my son and I participated in backyard bird count with our local Audubon Society and we counted 22 species. Not bad for not leaving the house! We were supposed to go to Peru and the Galapagos this summer. That may now be on hold. Regardless, I would like to try my hand at depicting some of the nature I see at home and perhaps in these wonderful wild places.
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1.) I've been drawing for as long as I could hold a pencil, and I've loved being outside, but I never really connected those two things entirely as a kid. I've been wanting to become a better nature journalist but haven't had time will being a student. These journals (and journals I've seen on social media) have inspired me! 2.) I like the idea of creating bounded boxes for works. I struggle with space and placement when journaling, and I like the look of the boxes. I think it will work! My work has often been an afterthought of birding. I predominately work in colored pencil which is difficult, if not impossible, work do in the field. I'm hoping this course will help me branch out of my comfort zone and explore my home with COVID rages on.
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I’m a Texas Master Naturalist and love exploring and learning about our beautiful world. I also started water coloring local flora and fauna during the recent quarantine. It’s been such an enjoyable experience so I wanted to learn more. I thought I could incorporate it through my volunteering as a Master Naturalist but also to keep record of my experiences and travels (I lead global insider trips, but those are all cancelled right now). I most resonated with the first and last nature journals in the video. I loved the mix of watercolor, sketches, and blocking with details. The last one was just beautiful and inspiring more as an artistic approach to nature journaling. Looking forward to this course. Thank you!
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This course is my gift to myself as part of a year of learning to celebrate a big birthday. I hope that once it becomes easier to travel again as COVID wanes, I will have had practice in my yard and neighborhood and can sketch as I explore new places. I am trained as a landscape architect and look forward to developing interpretation and representation skills that I really never grasped in school. The journals where impressions and experiences are recorded in little vignettes and text really appeal to me. I am awed by the beauty of the sketch a day/page a month journal, but also took valuable lessons from the fact that many journalers had drawings that were interrupted. One of the approaches that I think I'll adopt is capturing the colors present in swatches - even if I didn't get everything thought through on paper, those colors would help spark memories. For me, I hope to make my journal a collection of memory triggers that brings me back to the experience of the place and time.
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1- I have developed an interest for birds in the past few years and sometimes I sketch them on the field to document my observations and identify the birds back home. So I have actually been journaling without really acknowledging it... But the drawings I have done so far are awfull!! I hope to get better at drawing my observations after doing this course. (a photo of my horrible drawings attached)
2- I am also very curious about the vegetation that I find in the woods and I usually use photography to keep the memory of it. But I love the idea of drawing it instead. For this purpose, the first journal presented in this video is the model I would use to start. A square around the drawing and lots of notes. I like the scientific approach of it. (I attached a screen capture of my Instagram page on which I post my nature photography under the name 1xparjour)
3- I would like to start a herbarium as well, maybe as a side project to pair with my journal.
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I've been wanting to improve my field notes and field sketching for years and this course came to my attention when I was in the Amazon rainforest in March. Two of my fellow travelers were enrolled in the course and their journals were amazing. I really like filling a page with a balance of notes and sketches in a blended sort of way. Not too formal and not to loose. Excited to get started!
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I am a nature photographer. I have been occasionally journaling in the past. I find exciting to capture the mood and impressions of a day's exploration in nature. I would like to include material from journaling to nature books and exhibitions. Drawing feels to me is like a meditation. The sense of time is other.
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A friend gifted this course to me after we spent time in Maine tracking lynx. What a sweetie! Each afternoon, I would come back to our cabin and I would write down my observations for the day. No sketches during the day, because of the cold. I would like to spend more time journaling outdoors, as I usually take a photo and then get to painting it later. I want to slow down, notice the details and describe them. Be present to the moment and capture it quickly. I also want to notice how I feel when I am out there, what messages come to me. What else do I notice while I sit there using my senses. Like what birds did I hear or see while I was sitting drawing skunk cabbage. Maybe a poem will come, or just a little phrase. I like the idea that the drawing will help me remember the moment, but I also want to notice how I feel and to record that.
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I want to move from the thinking about creating a nature journal to the actual work of journaling. I've dabbled here and there, but didn't always get the results in my drawings that I wanted. I so enjoy closely observing the world around me, it seems nature journaling would be a natural fit. Observing the work of these journalists, I found bits and pieces from each journalist that I'd like to try - Shayna's drawing causes thinking causes writing cycle and her "zoom in" sections in her drawings, Jewel's it doesn't have to be perfect, but feels like a sacred text, William's picture on one page, text facing page, Margaret's easy style of pencil with multiple attempts to go after the details she wanted to portray, D.J.'s concentration on impressions and behaviors, Holly's lesson to use smaller brushes to get the details she wanted with water colors, and Liz's combination of large scale using contour, and intimate scale using details. Liz's style is most natural for the approach that I'd like to take with my journal. I like the way images and text enveloped each other. She has a way of capturing the essence of the day or experience. Hannah Hinchman's journaling style is another one that I enjoy.
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A peer in my Master Naturalist chapter suggested this class. I want to become much better at sketching. Also, I'm hopeful that the close observation sketching requires will translate into helping me identify plants more easily. Also, I've never used water colors (although I paint with oils), so I'm excited to try a new medium. I really like the idea of recording the date, location, time of day, and subject of each sketch.
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I am eager to learn to identify more critters, and I am sure nature journaling will be a big help. And I have always wanted to spend more time drawing. I want to use my nature journal in the field to help capture memorable sights.
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- My daughter was kind enough to give the course to me as a gift; however, I completed my first watercolor class at a local community college this past fall, and we share a love of birds and the great outdoors making the gift not only thoughtful and appropriate but timely as well during COVID-19.
- I appreciated all of the journalers' styles but was particularly struck by Shayna Miller's and Holly Faulkner's journals. I gravitate toward outlining my art in black as in Shayna's journal, but I also love the crisp, artistic quality of Holly's pages. With that said, I also think something could be gained and used from each of the journalers' styles.
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Like many others I decided to pick up this course while I'm sheltering in place because of COVID-19. I drew so much as a kid and it's a habit I have been trying to re-establish for years. I'm an avid birder and nature lover so I figured this was a good way to merge several things I enjoy. I really liked the example of the journaler who had the daily and then monthly spread. Daily is definitely too ambitious for me but filling a page per month seems doable.
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1. The fact that I wanted to connect with the nature in a creative way. I am a lecturer on Innovation and Creativity and the recent radical change has given me time to reflect upon my life and to plan to write a book. 2. I have noticed that everyone has a structured way of journaling. All of them have changed their styles during the learning process. Clarity needs time. 3. I like taking photographs, I would like to add them too.
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This course was a gift from a friend during this COVID life that we are living. I was inspired to begin nature journaling because I have always enjoyed watching animals. I am an elementary teacher. Trying to get my students to try something, even though it seemed so foreign to them, has always been a challenge. Understanding that, made me realize that even though this course is a challenge, it should be something that I try because I have this interest in drawing and nature even though I also have a belief that I can't do it! I liked the journal that used more shapes to talk about how to draw. My college art professor taught the same way. It was the first time in my life that I could actually get something on paper that was remotely identifiable! She talked about using lines and shapes for everything that we are attempting to draw. I also like the journals that included writing about what they saw. I think this will help with the journaling by adding a hook into the memories of that day. I am so excited to try nature journaling!
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I love being outdoors and am an avid birder and although I have made a couple of brief attempts of self expression related to the natural world, I never pursued it. After documenting my goals for this course and thinking about the approaches I appreciated in the journals we saw, I realized I have a lot of ideas but they go in many directions. I'm looking forward to see where in the world this course takes me.
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I am a longtime nature observer and lover, and a retired cartographer. And I keep a personal daily diary, so I am practiced at writing. Before my hand began to shake, I could draw straight lines with ease but although I have dabbled in drawing and painting ... I have animal painting in my family heritage ... I do not feel confident of my ability to capture natural forms. This course will help me to turn my observations of nature into a record and I hope to learn to create simple drawings and paintings. I liked Shayna’s style for its combo of text/thoughts with image and I thought it was very rich in ideas in both elements and they were successfully integrated on the pages. I would like to emulate that. I purchased the course some weeks ago but have been waiting for spring. It is still a little chilly outdoors but as everything else is on hold while we isolate, this seems a good moment to start. I have been collecting “earth treasures” for many years and I am wondering if it will be possible to include some bits in the journal ... they would need to be flat, pressed leaves or flowers or perhaps spores or feathers, little bits of reality alongside artifice.
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<p style="text-align: left;">Started getting serious about birding this year, but have always love the outdoors, whether it's hiking, fishing, or bird watching. I've also flirted with art on and off over the years and even went to college for it, LOL. I think it would be cool to combine the two and create some lasting memories, but I'd also like to work on cleaning up my style a bit and doing more realistic illustrations. I liked D.J.'s simple pencil drawings and Holly's clean, isolated subjects the best. My wife surprised me with this course for my birthday. Pretty excited to get started. I should be working. (shhhh!)</p>
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Just as I was bemoaning how poor I am at drawing and beating myself up because its so hard for me to identify birds, a beautiful huge bird flew by and came close enough that I could clearly see he was a bald eagle. I think maybe he winked at me. Greetings to other COVID shelterers.
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I enjoy sketching stuffed birds at the Slater Museum of Natural History. I also enjoy sketching flowers from my yard. This seems like a good way to pursue these interests. I have had a life long interest in sketching and I have plenty of art materials. The idea of adding the writing is new to me but seems useful.
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My sketches tend to be from photos and I always feel the need for them to be perfect. Although I have always loved art this need for perfection leads to it being stressful. So, I have decided to put these goals on the inside cover if my sketchbook. Perfection isn't necessary, just relax and enjoy. Draw what I actually see, not what I think I know. Learn more by taking time to really see and then research later. Record so I can be reminded of God's beautiful creations and happy moments.
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1. When I bird I always have a camera, sometimes I think I miss out on experiencing the bird and the other birders because I'm focused on taking a picture. Slowing down and really looking at the birds and the landscape is something I'm looking forward to. 2. All the journals were so different, it was good to see them and have the person tell you what they were thinking and what they captured with their sketch.
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I am working on a naturalist training course, and I want to be able to draw my observations to help me remember and learn more about them, and because drawing can be go gratifying! So I will be using my journal on outdoor outings.
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I liked the style of the first one, that felt quite me, but I also like the bird drawings which focussed on capturing specific details rather than the whole bird. I started birdwatching around 18 months ago, as something to do on dog walks, and I quickly started to notice a lot more than just birds by slowing down and spending time looking - I'm seeing insects, butterflies and plants that I have walked past a thousand times, but never notices. And a few months ago I started drawing birds that I'd seen, once I got home, or just birds from pictures online. And I'm really enjoying both, so combing the two into nature journalling really appealed to me.
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