Julie

  I normally focus only on the bird itself, so adding the leaves was different and actually I think they are the best thing here. I tend to try and capture the overall 'feel' rather than details so it's a bit naive in execution, maybe because I'm lazy or impatient. I didn't quite get the bird right - in the photo he is angled toward the camera and in my picture he's more flat and 2D - capturing depth is something I want to be better at. I think this lacks personality because of that. Also the yellow really isn't right but I have a very limited palette of watercolours. I did enjoy doing this though. And I love seeing other people's pictures.

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.