Hello all, I just enrolled in the course and have yet to put pen to paper......but.......I look forward to beginning. I enjoyed watching the milkweed that had planted itself in my front yard (a small area in front of my stairway) and I watched the cycles of it through this summer as it broke through the earth, grew, bloomed its flowers, watched the bees pollinate, discovered a few monarch caterpillars (last year 2 chrysali), and now the pods have started to pop and spread their seeds. When I saw the pods open, I noticed all of the various textures, how the seeds were so precisely packed into the pod and how they released themselves when the wind blew. I brought some pods into my classroom to show my students and it was at that point I thought how nice it might be to draw them. I have enjoyed drawing at various times of my life but never had any formal training except the few classes I took in high school and college. I did consider becoming a scientific illustrator as I finished college but I felt it was going to be a hard turn after pursuing biology for 4 years. I didn't know how to begin or where to go to study at that late date so I went on and found myself teaching various types of biology for almost 20 years now. But when I saw this course I thought maybe I could revive the little bit of skill I once had and get some better training. I also thought if I knew how to go about it I might impart some of that information to interested students. I enjoyed watching the videos of the students who had completed their journals and I was very impressed with their collective skills. If I can get anywhere near that, I will be happy! I'm not sure how I will organize yet, but, most likely words with pictures on the same page or maybe picture on one and words on the adjacent page.  Happy journaling....Christine

1. I started journaling after my parents gave me this course as a gift. 2. I like the idea of mixing drawings with notes. I really want to get into color so I'm going to get some watercolors at my local art store and give it a try. 3. I'm going to try some journaling at the beach watching the surfers, seals, waves, etc. After the first lesson I grabbed a sketch book dormant for years and went into my backyard. It was pretty fun watching my bird feeders and the visitors I am so used to. I watched them more closely then I have been lately.

#1.)  Nature journaling will be a unique way to document places, plants and birds. I am very excited to give it a try.  I can recall many unique places I have been and saw something unexpected.  This will be a great way to record my experiences.

1- Hi, I think, like many of you, that a Journal with drawings and paintings is something that I wanted to do since many years ago. I love birds, nature, and travelling. I use to made a journal of each journey, but mostly with notes, or some drawings trying to make a sketch of birds songs. a few times, from birds colours. I find it very hard to draw, but I love to write so I can remember details of the trip years later. The advertising of this course inspired me to get started. 2-I want to try them all :)   I think that perhaps the idea of a monthly journa, while I'm at home, would be great. 3- No new ideas so far. I don't usually carry colors with me.

I hadn't ever thought of starting a nature journal. I have always loved birds ( I have three -a 20 year old male eclectus, 14 year old female cockatiel and a 3 year old India ring necked parakeet). I have been a bird watcher in southern Ontario Canada and in Costa Rica where I have a home. I also am retired and was a professional photographer so my first instinct is to grab the camera. Being in Costa Rica gives me an incredible opportunity to observe birds, insects and all sorts of wild life. I know I can draw but need to really work on this skill. Looking at the journals in the video it showed me all different formats and skill levels in drawing.  I found it  thrilling that everyone was able to capture the subject they were drawing no matter what skill level. I am just joining now on November 16 so am behind somewhat some of you. I think I will incorporate the boxes or circles in my journal and also some photographs (although I would like to move away from taking photos.) It will be a challenge to sit and sketch without the instant image through digital photography. Being visual I am going to try and incorporate written information as I proceed along... I have a feeling this will be a work in progress. With all the ways of electronically communicating we have , it will be nice to communicate through our own eyes revealing how you see nature and what catches your attention. And now it begins.... Cherie

1. I was inspired to begin nature journaling when I was looking for a topic to do for my (8th grade) capstone project. It took me forever to find something I wanted to do. It seemed like a combination of a bunch of my interests so I went for it. 2.  I prefer the style of journaling that uses both illustrations with watercolor as well as notes and small annotations. I think that having all of it down on paper will make it more memorable to look back on. I also like the idea of including colorful illustration as well as some in black and white. Some sketches I want to focus on color more, and others more on texture.

Starting a journal is hard for me. I stared at the blank page in my book for days making excuses about why I didn't have time to draw today before pulling out a scrap piece of paper and finally drawing the yellow warbler. The idea of a journal where all my drawings, mistakes and all, can be seen scares me so I procrastinate instead. I vow to start a journal.

1.Getting what I have done and will do in a presentable form. All those scraps of paper 2. I will try a formal approach to strengthen the illustrations. 3. No, I have scraps of paper.

1. An instructor at the New York Botanical Garden's Botanical Illustration program suggested keeping a nature journal. I was inspired by her motto that all sketching was good and the practice (always in ink) served to make you better at "seeing" the world and improving your skill. That was 1995. I have kept one ever since. I find the practice meditative and forces you to be in the moment. 2. Over the years, especially when my children were young, the journal served like a diary. Looking back at those pages brings back lots of memories. At some times, the journal is more of a field journal with illustrations and descriptions of particular specimens. In the hopes of keeping up the practice, when life got in the way, I have tried to vary the subject, from backyard flowers to cityscapes. On most excursions, even a museum, I will try to bring a journal and a pen. 3. I like Liz's style and my style is similar. I like to use ink pens. Sometimes I add watercolor washes and/or colored pencils. Recently I purchased a set of tinted graphite pencils and look forward to experimenting with them.  Sometimes, I have included bits of writing or quotes that pertain to the subject or the times.

I love all the journals, yet I am intimidated, because I have no art training... no background in sketching, painting. And very little background in biological sciences. So, this is opening a brand new door for me.... In the past, I have tried to use books and videos to teach me drawing... I was a teacher and a mom, so my time for drawing was quite limited.  I am retired now, so I hope to give it another try. I like the boxes in the first journal examples....

1. I first kept a nature journal in 2012 as part of a master naturalist course. I did some limited sketching, but focused on photography and specimen collection due to my insecurity with sketching/painting. I am now in a phase of life where I have worked in the conservation field for awhile and have young children and feel that I never stop moving and have been so burnt out that I don't spend as much time outside for pleasure and with no agenda. I want to take time to really observe in a more artistic way, rather than the sterile analytical way that I do for work or in the distracted way that I often spend time outside with my kids or doing work around our property. I also want to create a habit in which I can include my daughters at a young age. 2. I like the approach that they all took with a mix of sketching/painting and writing/descriptions. I like annotated sketches a lot and I liked the idea of using as a way of essentially creating your own field guide. I have never been strong with ferns or wetland vegetation and would love to use nature journaling as a way of strengthening these abilities. I would also love to use it as a way of documenting the species at our home and the surrounding 3-acre forested wetland that we own in rural Maine. Not only creating a sort of species catalog, but also documenting it zoomed out as a habitat throughout the course of a year would be very cool. 3. I would love to start a family nature journal that everyone could use to document their experiences at home in the woods to show different impressions/interpretations/perceptions of the same place.

I am a writer who loves to be outdoors. I was once a newspaper reporter, briefly a poet and then a high school writing teacher for 25 years. Now, I am retired, and trying to get back to my writing. I'm afraid to begin, not sure what I want to write. But I love plants and birds and creatures of all kinds--and have a huge garden and backyard chickens. I like hiking and camping. The idea of a journal seems safe and intriguing to me. I can begin by documenting my beautiful garden..not only the plants, but the caterpillars and butterflies and the little frog I found. I can take a walk into the woods with my dog and sit down and document little things on the trail. I would like to learn more about what I see--to be a naturalist in training--and I think this project will help me with that. I like the idea of writing and images mixed, so that you can write about the images and in response to the images. I like the poems of Mary Oliver, who has written a lot about the natural world in Provincetown Massachusetts. I always wished I could see something like a nature journal for the things that inspire her work. If Mary Oliver had kept a nature journal wirth images and words--how precious that would be! I love Annie Dillard's essays about the elements of the natural world. I love the way she can slow do2n one moment observation and have so many ripples of meaning spreading out format. And Virginia Wollf's essay, "Death of the Moth" is such a large work, morally, philosophically. Imagine a sketch of the moth! I like the nature journal style of Shayna Mueller, because she has a few drawings in squares and the some text about the experiences and observations. I also like that she uses her journal for studying. I hope I can do that too, to be a notice naturalist and maybe a poet or essayist who writes with authority and specificity. Pat

What inspired you to begin nature journaling? I live in the mountains and love the hummingbirds, blue jays, woodpeckers, among other birds that come to eat at our feeders, as well as bald eagles, red tailed hawks, buzzards, and others who cross our paths, that we encounter on our hikes. After my friend who enrolled in this class told me about it, I decided that it would be so cool to keep a field journal that would document dates and times and types of birds that I encounter through out the year.  As winter nears, many of our birds will be moving on to warmer climates since we get snow, but it will fun to notice the feathered friends that I encounter on my travels. 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 like the idea about drawing boxes but I also like the freedom to write my notes around the drawings.  I am afraid of ruining my drawing with the box, or making it so that my box doesn’t fit or is awkward.  I think I will have to try different ways until I find my style.  I am new to this, and I hope to learn about drawing.

Hi everyone! I've enjoyed reading emails from you all and can feel how rich are the experiences, gifts and resources among nature journalers gathered here. 1 What inspired me to begin? This course came along at a perfect moment for me, when I am ready to slow down and give myself time and space to explore and appreciate whatever is right in front of my nose in nature. When the invitation arrived, I was  attracted by Liz's enthusiasm and giftedness, and I felt intuitively that I can learn from her and enjoy doing so. As a small child I was given two books of a women called Edith Holden, including 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. They were things of such beauty that I loved owning them, and they inspired me to look closely at plants and creatures on my walks and rides around my home. It never occurred to me then to try my own hand at nature journaling. I want now to develop my eye and observational skills as well as to learn drawing and painting techniques at my own pace in my own style. I'm slow starting the course because nature has served up a lot of fire around my home recently - I did not want to begin and have to evacuate immediately. 2 Ideas and approaches I'll try: I enjoyed the variety of journals and was specially attracted by Shayna's work. The mix of writing and art anode different subjects; the way she evolved from closed to open box organically; her 'zoom' style of focussing on detail. I'm a perennial learner so imagine I too will be going to internet to research what I have just been observing and recording. 3 I'm excited to explore whatever comes up in my path and want to stay open to new and different ideas. I write and I aspire to be able to illustrate my own stories. I sense that journaling will give me the raw materials and practice to begin. Here's an example of Edith Holden's genius that once so inspired me:

1. I have been a journaler for decades--but only with words! I have always been more engaged with words than images. I never learned to draw. In the last few years I have been wanting to expand and learn how to draw and sketch. I have taken a couple of very basic adult education drawing classes, and I have learned a lot, but I really have a long way to go! The more I've thought about it, I realized that my motivation for wanting to draw is that I want to draw nature in my journal. I want to keep memories that way. So when this class was advertised, I was really excited! 2. I really appreciated the range of journals in the videos. Some of the journalers were so talented with details and the "final" product of the pages they included was amazing. I really liked the journals that to the naked eye just looked like awkward pencil drawing on the page. What I liked is the stories that the artists told were just as vivid as the stories as the stories from the more detailed and colorful drawings. I liked that those journalers were able to document hours worth of an experience with pencil drawings. Seeing that made me feel less anxiety about being a beginner. My goal will be to have a variety of pages--some pencil, some color--all labeled with date, time, weather, and location and all of the with words to describe what I was seeing. 3. Do you have a different journaling idea, not mentioned here, that you’d like to share? I think I will likely include some photos too.

1. It's thirty years since I attempted two adult evening course [when I tried to learn about photography and about H2o painting]. I've always loved birds and growing up in central MA where my dad & I fed the birds all year round [and the squirrels when they robbed the hanging  feeders]. I learned a great deal about gardening and its importance for the birds and the bees. I want to improve and stretch whatever skills I learned initially. A journal could solidify memories. 2. I've kept journals since I was a teenager. I never drew in any until after the evening art classes. Hearing Fullers other students speak and show on line their own journals reminded me more about my need to remember beautiful things I see, but can't trust my mind to remember. I was reminded also after looking at others field journals of something a grandmother always told me:"Always write the names & dates because you might not remember when you see them when you're older. 3. I like Fuller's positive attitude and encouraging ways to teach us all more. I'd remind people to never stop looking up!. You have to be able to hear in the field and look around. But look up to see shadows, spider webs or birds in thermals. When I was a soloed student sailplane pilot I learned to watch clouds for clues for areas to soar or look for the birds who thermal.

What inspired you to begin? I was required to nature journal as part of a naturalist program I took. It started an addiction. Combining verbal observations with visual sketches brings a depth of understanding, or questions, that simply walking through the woods cannot. But my skills need improvement. We were left to our own devices, and I am eager to approach journaling with some training and help. This class seems ideal. Which approaches do I want to try? Watercolor. It keeps calling me, but I keep resisting. Hoping this class will calm my fears. Love sharing ideas  and work with others. It is both reassuring and inspiring. Journal ideas: this was touched on, but I would like to incorporate hand lettering to call out key observations. And mixing media, perhaps gluing seeds and bits into journal as well as drawing and writing. And I would like to answer this question: should all pages have the same personality and style, or can I mix it up without becoming chaotic?

Hello. It has been many years since I picked up a sketch pencil, paints or brushes. Life has a way of throwing in a host of other priorities. I'm taking this course to bring my desire to journal to fruition. I've never stopped hiking or taking long walks. In the past it has been mostly photography that has supplemented my learning and love of nature and biodiversity. Reading books like The Forest Unseen, by David George Haskell or Birds by the Shore, by Jennifer Ackerman have helped me immense myself in nature during my walks. I take notes and some photos in the field, and also do some light sketches. Later at home, making entries into my journal will help me capture the day and my observations, and motivate me to research further. Never stop learning. Cheers, Steven  

Hello, getting a late start on this. 1. What inspired you to begin nature journaling? This course appealed to me as I looked to do something fun & creative after almost a year of chemo & a stem cell transplant for leukemia. Meanwhile I retired & am ready to start having some fun again! I paint & photograph but in 2017 I wanted to make a bird Christmas card after seeing some in Wild Birds Unlimited. I laid out about 50 photos of the blue jays who visit my porch everyday & chose several that had fun poses - these birds have such character. It was my first bird painting & I want to do more in a nature journal with notes and observations. A friend introduced me to a nature journaling group on facebook & I was so impressed with what people were doing. I didn't know how to begin until I saw this course. 2...which ideas or approaches do you want to try? I love the ideas/styles that all the video journalists shared & anticipate experimenting with a mix of the styles, especially boxing sketches & letting the subjects reach out of the boxes, magnifying details, the quick sketching of shapes & changes as the birds move, the detailed studies of different parts of a bird as you focus on each part. 3. Do you have a different journaling idea, not mentioned here? Maybe only where I want to journal. I'm a solo backpacker in the Pacific NW & can see taking some lightweight journaling materials would give me a way to sit still & capture things around me in the beautiful mountain & coastal hikes I do. Meanwhile as I get stronger for the next few months, I'll journal my bird feeders & around the yard :) I look forward to working with you all. Chris  

1) I’ve become more interested in birding and general naturalist-ing as a way to reconnect with my youthful passion for biology; I’m currently a molecular biology PhD student, and working at a lab bench all day can make you forget what you got into all this for. I also have recurring bouts of interest in art, so this course seems like an obvious outlet for that. 2) I really appreciated D.J. McNeil’s approach. It was lacking in color, but he was very rich in his observations. I liked that he wouldn’t try to “finish” a sketch if the subject left. I want to follow that mindset of treating the journal more as an attempt to catalogue nature rather than as a first draft of a coffee table book. 3) I recently picked up a 10x hand lens, so I’m looking forward to using it as a way of getting more semi-microscopic detail in my journal.

1. I have always enjoyed art but find that I need a prompt of some kind to begin drawing or painting. What better prompt is there than nature around us? 2. I liked the idea of taking a journal on a trip with you to make a memento for your adventure rather than just taking photographs. Clearly the journalers had memories deeply associated with each moment they took to draw a part of their trip. 3. I enjoy preserving pressed leaves and flowers, I'd like to incorporate some plant specimens when I can to my journals.

1.)  I have always loved to write and found writing outside was always fueled by the power of nature.  I eventually found that I wrote and sketched pictures at the same time, which evolved into a type of nature journal.  Now, many years later, I introduce children to nature journals as an educator, which gives me more inspiration to improve my own journaling! 2.)  I will try the journals with a particular subject per page, like the first journaler who drew various ferns, observed their similarities and differences and later researched unknown facts and names.  This is then a great personal reference!  I also am going to try to give my pages the finished look, as the journaler did by adding boxes around the pictures and questions. 3.)  I enjoying photographing nature and may include some photos in my journal.  This will actually encourage me to print my pictures, but also add an extra layer of interest to the journal.  I also think that I wouls also like to reaserch what I have seen and add some fun facts to the pages.

In response to question 1... I am what I call a frustrated artist...I want to increase my observation skills, my artistic skills and commitment to drawing. I feel that nature journaling covers all 3 and I’m very excited to get started. question 2 is not easy to answer and I can see that many approaches will be attempted...some will stick, some I’ll let go% I’m a biologist my training so am drawn to the addition of specific information, but I TrueType love the journal with more explicit drawings and less information. I will start in the opposite direction,the addition of more info, and see how I proceed.

1) I volunteer at a native medicinal garden with Extension Master Gardeners, but I rarely take the time to do observations. My goal is to have the luxury of time to sit, observe, and take notes, and improve my art and journaling skills so that I can keep better records of the amazing (often very tiny!) things I get to see. We are planning to add observation time to our work rotation this next year, and I hope that my notes will help increase our knowledge base about our garden and its inhabitants and visitors. 2) I really enjoyed the "boxes" in the first journaler's approach. I can relate to why she started using them, and I like the way they define the pages in her journal. 3) Since I already take and print photographs of our garden, I might include some of them in my journal along with my written and drawn/painted observations. What I paint and draw will be different from my photographs; I think they will both complement one another, though.