1.) I really enjoyed this study.  These feathers have been on my mantle for six months, but I truly saw them for the first time tonight.  I learned that, although they have the same basic pattern elements, there are big differences in coloration, speckling, and contrast.

2.) I would like to try to add more numerical data because I have never thought to do it before.  It would make it more scientific.  I have only ever noted the presence of birds I hear while journaling so that I can imagine the atmosphere after the fact.  It would be interesting to count plants, flowers, insects etc as well.

I enjoyed this activity. I selected two specimens of Holly from my garden. It was interesting to examine the many differences between the plants. The Winterberry was new to my garden so a fairly immature plant while the English Holly is very large and over 25 years old. I thought the difference in the leaves were especially interesting. I took some additional time to read about both species. I learned a bit about how to distinguish English Holly from native American Holly.

Comparison study of two different maple leaves, with shadow and palette practice.  The sugar maple is not quite as dark as I expected, but the watercolors are very new for me.  Not much painting experience or even detailed drawing prior to this course.

Autumn garden makes for some good comparison of plants at the end of season.

Colorful leave are falling everywhere and I wondered what determines their colors. I drew an Northern Red Oak leaf which is reddish and a yellow Norway Maple for comparison. Checking on Wikipedia I found there are 2 pigments present after their the chlorophyll has left the leaves because of dropping temperatures and less sunlight. Carotenoids which are already present in the leaf come through as yellow, orange and brown. Anthrocyanins present as reds and purples. Thank you Wikipedia.

I started with the drawings and then added descriptions of the subjects.  I’d like to also use the journal to remember a walk or a special time with family.

The comparison study is informative and enjoyable. My second comparison of two very similar flowers, the vinca  and impatiens was rewarding.

Was able to finally go outside and devote some time to this. I was surprised at the differences in the 2 leaves.  I fear my drawings do not reflect that but perhaps in time...I am attempting photography and this course will help me see the small details I have overlooked so far. I think I need to work on ordering the writing so it makes sense when you go back to review. As others have said, writing with a pencil is taking me back...old school!

Simple versus Complex. I challenged myself by choosing a rather complex subject to draw, but liked the comparison of two different kinds of seed carriers, a pine cone containing  multiple seeds and a hickory nut containing only one seed. I wondered why the pine tree produces so many seeds and the hickory relatively few in comparison. I included the leaves because the hickory has a more complex leaf as compared to the pine.

I decided to work with elements that I found interesting in the lesson.  1) Demo is drawn so fast - I don't trust my skill level so I tend to draw slowly.  2) The details are suggested but not always drawn in detail.   3) ask and muse about answers - I tend to figure someone already has the answer so if I ask, why not look it up... but it could be kind of fun to muse first.   I sat in our front yard a bit away from the trees and tried a rough and quick comparison. Nothing fancy, but I was pleasantly surprised at how curious I became about the tree growth and trying to remember anything I know about leaf types (not much) so it could help to do a little research to remember complex and compound vs other leaf types.).

1. This is the first time I did a comparison study and I found it to be really helpful.  It helped me to observe the differences and similarities and guided some of my observations.  I feel that it helped me study to object in more depth, and will help to grow my observation skills.

2.  I think this is helpful to from time to time include all this information in my journal.  It will help later to identify certain objects and most definitely expand my knowledge of the variety of objects found in nature all around me.

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It rained most of today so I compared these two oak leaves working inside.

One new thing I learned is  that not only each lobe had a vessel, but each sub-lobe had one as well.  I wondered if the branched "veins" only carried sugars away from the leaf or if nutrients also flow back into the leaf.  It seems there are these types of oak species (rounded or pointed lobes), and oaks with no lobes.  The leaves reminded me of my own hand, especially the back.

I felt that I need to draw hundreds of leaves before I'll begin to appreciate the structure of leaves, and that's just the leaf!  The whole tree.  It's an endless journey.

The other student drawings are so interesting!

Inspired by the "lecture" and all the wonderful shared comments and pages by fellow students, I still gave it a few days before doing the exercise. I did several hikes the past week and came to realize that even a short walk in my city has me passing dozens of different types of trees and I'm woefully unable to identify more than a few very obvious specimens.  Long intro to: I chose trees.  Two oaks which are growing across the street from me and are beginning their fall color transition. I never knew their names until today, and the comparison of the leaves, trunk and fruit (nuts) upped my appreciation for the Gift of Nature so close to my very small corner lot backyard.  Taking the time to study the leaves, make the comparisons, then draw them and list observations has me feeling like I "got to know my neighbors."  A walk around the block was stimulating and challenging.  I located one tree ID book I had, and ordered another one right away.  Looking forward to the process of learning to ID trees using the methods presented in this course.  Hurrah!

I have lived in the same house since 1976 and watched the pines and the oaks grow in the front yard.  Many times we have had to cut low hanging branches off and two years ago had to hire a company to have a major tree trimming for all the trees in the front yard.  I have watched these trees grow and change over the years, so I picked to do a comparison of the bark in the trunk area of a pine and oak .

The weather has been too wet to go outside, so I collected these two seed-heads, and brought them inside. My handwriting doesn't make it easy... I suppose I need to remember how to print.

The comparison study helped me to look more closely and to use senses such as touch and smell. I'm still not sure how to balance drawing, writing, and numerical data. Hopefully I will  develop a style as a keep practicing. I still get "stuck" when drawing and it's hard to know how to imrove my drawings that are very sketchy. It was pitch dark this morning when I had time to journal, so I just went outside and brought in a couple of branches from trees in my yard. I agree it would be better to journal outside.

My plan when I went out this morning was to go to an area where I normally see a lot of songbirds and to compare the behavior of two species.  Unfortunately just as I sat down, it got very windy and the birds all went wherever they go to get out of the wind. While sitting there I noticed a stand of three Aspen trees but one of the trees looked very different than the other two. Aspens usually do better at higher altitudes so it wasn’t surprising that one of them was diseased.

I did this exercise indoors because the weather was very bad today, I think my observation would have benefitted from being outdoors and also comparing leaves, branch and bark of the two trees. Now looking at other submissions I'd like to include scale measurements in upcoming drawings as well.

Not a great time to be drawing outdoors, so I collected two flowers from my garden and did my comparison inside where it was dry and warm.  I know the Hummingbirds and Bumblebees enjoy the red flower. Not 100% sure about the white one.  I’ll have to make note next spring in my nature journal.

I enjoyed a lot this exercise because observing better each plant you find many different features in each specimen that you did not notice before.

After drawing the first specimen, I could find more features in the second one and started finding new ones in the first one too. Seeing things in one plant, makes you realize that the other does not have it.

I forgot to measure my specimens, but in order to write the measurements, we can start with measures and then with characteristics and after that drawing. After drawing we can notice more new characteristics we found during the drawing process.

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