I think my favorite moment of this experience was when we had to draw the fox or one of the other animals from one of the lessons. It turned out much better than I had thought it would. It was a huge confidence booster for me.

I have spent the last ten years gardening for wildlife and transforming 1/2 an acre around my home into a wildlife sanctuary - which is one of the scientific prompts above for project ideas. I started with a small garden and native plants especially attractive to monarchs. I had a 'wow' moment when they first arrived, seemed to be dancing in delight around all the flowers, and then one monarch came careening right at me! It was so bizarre I entertained the idea for a moment that maybe just maybe he/she was thanking me! (LOL) More and more monarchs came that first summer and then I was amazed to discover cute little baby caterpillars all over the swamp milkweeds. I brought one in to raise it through chrysalis to adult butterfly in a terrarium. I had another 'wow' moment when I named him and released him into the sky. He kept flying around me in circles before leaving! So, that was it, I had a new passion, and now, 10 years later, the 1/2 acre around my home is radically better for wildlife. In particular, I have a large native prairie garden based on recommendations for southeastern Michigan by the North American Butterfly Association. In the beginning, I saw a lot more butterflies, but soon I noticed a lot more birds and backyard wildlife in general. All this led to another one of the science-based prompts listed above - participation in citizen science projects.  I love counting birds for Project Feeder Watch and taking birding classes with the Bird Academy, as well. Last and not least, I'd like to thank Liz for a terrific class! Liz is a very gifted teacher - kind and motivating, with excellent skills and the ability to instruct very clearly. The class was very interesting and well organized. I'll be continuing on my own by finishing a journal of drawings and paintings of my backyard wildlife. I'm filling a 9x12 portfolio with 48 pages (each page has an acetate sleeve to insert art). After that, I hope to work on another journal - collecting poems and poetic prose about nature and doing illustrations.

I participated in the Zoom, Bird Anatomy Class today, 3/27/21 and this would have been impossible for me to do with out having completed this Nature Journaling Course a year ago. This is my Bird Anatomy Cheat Sheet that we made with Liz today.  

This journal entry was my favorite moment of the course. I had just begun experimenting with watercolors and it was warbler season, and I just had so much fun on this day playing with the colors and quick sketches of some warblers that were coming back into our area after a long, stressful winter and the beginning days of pandemic shutdowns. It was just such a joyful moment. I have tried doing some sitspot drawings and documenting the seasonal activities of birds at our feeder. I’m very excited to continue journaling and trying many of the suggested activities, especially incorporating some mapping into the entries and experimenting with different styles of journaling and embellishments. Thanks so much, Liz and Cornell for bringing this course into my home and giving me so much enjoyment and hope during long days of confinement. And thanks to all the students who shared their drawings and inspired me to keep going when I was struggling.    

This course was so thoughtfully put together and great for those, like me with very little drawing skills. It took me a year to finish this, mostly because I was spending time practicing the lessons, and I got about 3/4 of the way through the lessons and ended up on a hiatus for a few months before picking up my pencil and paints again. Starting a blank journal page still is a bit intimidating but every once in awhile, I'll do something I'm really happy with. I know I'll get better, the more I practice so I'm trying to draw on a more regular basis and practice things I'm still not very good at, such as value and shading techniques, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting lessons as I continue to practice my renderings and as I venture out more as the weather gets better. Thank you, Liz for this course. It's been an invaluable learning experience for me.  

I learnt a lot how to improve my drawings watching and listening how she drawn. I enjoyed and learnt very much how to paint with watercolors.

Thanks to Liz and Bird Academy for this simply splendid course. I learned so much and enjoyed it tremendously. I am sad to be at the last lesson. I had many great journaling experiences. I picked three: the spoonbill, one of my first entries in color, and a recent sit spot. After "Refine a Gesture Sketch," I sketched this spoonbill from a reference photo. We saw it in January on a pre-Covid trip to the Texas coast. I was happy how he turned out. This was one of my first color attempts. I forgot that I added some lines of poetry to the sketch but I'm glad that I did. This was from a recent Sit Spot on a dock on an island in Lake Michigan. I so enjoyed drawing these birds from life. I was especially delighted to have plenty of time with the snow bunting. because I so rarely see them. The gull did have feet in case you are worried. He flew away before I could draw them.

My moment of greatest inspiration was when I was able to paint this bird in watercolor. I love the watercolor techniques in this course. I admire scientists from past centuries such as Alexander von Humboldt, who also made drawings of his observations. The experience of drawing outdoors is invaluable. Thank you Liz for your teachings I want to keep filling more pages with drawings and paintings.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your wonderful journal pages, successes and challenges, and reflections. Thank you Liz for a great learning experience, and your kind and gentle way of guiding us. I will return to these lessons to see what new things have been added. I came across this little poem which described the place I want to be when I am drawing and wanted to share it.

Quetzal, :)

I put two nature journaling styles in here. One is small quick sketches of different locations while feeling inspired, just like the nature journal-er we saw the first day of class that did daily then monthly entries. The other style is work on color matching to paintings. I notice when I take the time and the weather is right, greatness can occur on my page!

These images show how the course has wound its way into my life. The photograph was taken today because I love the colour of the cardinal flower and am still trying to capture it and paint it. Besides the book used for the course I now have one dedicated to wildflowers. This picture shows the information that I have started noting or researching about the flowers. Both painting  and journalling were new to me but are becoming something I love to do now. So thank you to Liz for teaching us ways to improve our skills and to awakening me to journalling. This was a wonderful and enriching course.

1) The wow moment I felt was during the “Capturing Behaviour” session. When we were asked to sketch as much as we can from the behaviours of birds/animals while watching them for two minutes. Then, drawing a quick sketch within one minute. After that, an extreme sketch of photos within 30 seconds. It was striking to see my 30 seconds then pick one of them to sketch a piece for “Giving Your Drawings Depth” assignment. I was amazed to see the differences between the quick 30 seconds sketch and the proper drawing of more than two hours work. 2) Yes, I have tried two things: A. Imagine your natural subject could talk to you. What would it say? A Conversation between two Sand Bubbler Crabs. Arguing who should leave the hole first.. and one doesn’t want to step out cause he was afraid of the reflection of the sunlight on my iPhone; I placed it there to video the moment it comes - happened for less than 2 seconds only. B. Collect natural items, draw them, and write why you chose each object and where you found them. Collected several types of leaves from the planted trees surrounded us. Printed them on cards to keep a record of what is there by the house. Also, I collected several fallen nests to see what they were built of - guess wha I found! Humans’ hairs, tissue papers, some thin coloured plastics, plant’s roots, feathers, dried leaves, dried grass and extremely thin branches ^_^; ______ Enjoy every moment of while observing the nature , there is always something new to learn ;D

At some point, a long time ago I convinced myself that I couldn't draw--that art just wasn't my thing. Thanks Liz for helping me rediscover the innate artist that has been dormant for years. I recently read that in times of transition and struggle, humans naturally turn toward creative pursuits. It is a way of feeling the life force. Out of chaos something beautiful is created. I am so grateful to have another creative outlet and a way of expressing my profound appreciation for nature. I will use the tools and techniques and simply keep practicing to develop my skills that I know will continue to enrich my life.

My favorite nature journaling experience was to learn the watercolors techniques and experiment with them the combination of colors. I truly enjoyed and even if I haven't understood completely how to make colors I love experimenting and mix the white, grey and black with other colors. I liked very much when Liz suggested us to mix a bit of green in the black to have a different type of black. I enjoyed the course very much. I have learnt that observations is important to explore and discovery

  I have really enjoyed this course. It has encouraged me to keep journaling and learning more about nature as well as working to improve my sketching and watercolor skills. My suggestion for myself and all students would be to listen to Liz's advice to "be gentle with yourself".    Thank you Liz!

1. My most inspiring session/lesson was learning I was using some of these techniques but didn’t know that I just needed to keep practicing daily to see improvement. Also while doing my latest nature journaling of some of our calves, it really helped to use the layering technique and wait for the paint to completely dry between putting the colors on. I’ve learned that I need to just relax, take my time on some journaling sessions and that sometimes a quick sketch is just as good as a detailed complete drawing. 2. I have yet to try any of the suggested journaling projects, but I have read quite a few that I would like to do. Thank you 😊 Liz for the valuable lessons, encouragement, and guidance along the way. To the fellow classmates/students thanks for sharing your opinions, suggestions, artwork, and comments. This was a very interesting course that I will continue to comeback to for refreshing my skill, continue learning and definitely recommend others to try.

This Nature Journaling course was wonderful. I learned so much and the timing was significant. As many weeks were spent around home due to the virus, it was great having something new and fun to do. I really appreciate the way you taught the art concepts, breaking them down and explaining each segment. I learned so much listening and watching you talk us through your observations and sketching as you were doing it, Liz. Your encouragement and guidance made doing something new feel possible.  Thank you very much! Chris Bennett

I love to draw and paint, usually still life, so this course gave me a new direction, nature as my subject, especially birds. Many members of my family are birders, but I had resisted until now. Instead I watched the bird feeders in my backyard. Once I started this course, I realized how interesting the details of wild life around our feeders are. I am now drawing and painting all the birds that visit our yard: cardinals, sparrows, finches, blue jays, cat birds, hummingbirds, chicadees, robins, starlings, butterflies.  Now I see the variety and am inspired. I really appreciated the self-pacing, opportunities to return to previous lessons and try again, and the constant encouragement by Liz.

I really enjoyed seeing how other people organized their journals.  It gave me ideas on how I want to do mine. Watercolor painting is something I have wanted to do for a very long time.  This course got me started!

This was my little project of sketching and painting a photo of this Brazilian toucan. For the first time I was super proud of something 'artistic' that I made, since I was never one to consider myself capable of drawing something good. I only appreciate Liz's work of teaching us how to succeed, and her delightful notes on having fun made this quarantine so. much. more. worth. it. Thank you Liz!

Since started this course I've been staying at home, just going out to the garden in a dense urban area. Even so, I'm doing a diary about the "true" nature I see. I'm not drawing the plants and flowers in the garden because they aren't wild. House Sparrow and Blackbirds probably don't agree with me. Some of the suggestions in the list are very good. I hope I already start doing some of them. My final words about this course are:

• I enjoy very much.
• I started my project and I share some pages
• My lastest wow moment happened a couple of days ago when I saw a Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) in my backgarden an event that at least has 30 years.

I think I improved my painting technic in the last few weeks. Although I'm starting using standard A4 (letter size) for my paintings which is kind of big to take pictures of...

Here’s my final project for the class. Being such a strange time I thought I would do something different, which is to create an entry for my office desk which has become my classroom. As I teach remotely I have started to collect science tools and devices that I use in my video lessons. Fortunately I still have access to my classroom. The lack of definite schedule has been one of the strangest things, along with being able to use one of those screen-bearing devices to reply to students anytime anywhere. Anyway good luck to all.

Hi all,   I’m taking photos of things I see on my nature walks and painting them later, due to cold.  On this particular walk, I went into an arboretum.   Under a cherry tree I found a rustic chair with a copy of “Anne of Green Gables” on it.  Magic!

Today I went for a drive. My favorite park, The Smokies is closed but I knew this one road with a pull off where I could get close. From my car I sat next to a mountain stream and just started to sketch. I thought I would concentrate on just one tree instead of the entire hillside bursting out into color. While sketching I noticed a butterfly go buy and a black crow that thought I had a snack for him. But what really caught my eye was a pair of Canada geese that fly by. Honk, honk, honk. In a split second they were there and gone. Thank you for teaching me to be patient and observant. My color technique will improve because I have a lifetime to work on it.