Luise

I have always liked to write and kept travel journals on family trips as a kid. As an adult I've kept an intermittent nature journal, spending my most focused time with it when I'm on vacations or in unusual areas for my work. I enjoy the time spent outside observing and trying to capture what's before me and also the details I'm able to observe through the focused attention drawing requires. The descriptions in my journals have always brought back memories I didn't know I had; my drawings, however crude, have taken me immediately to particular times and places, bringing back how I felt as I drew. I really want to get better at keeping my nature journal--better at capturing in art what's before me, better at using color, better at making time to observe and record. I thought that this class might help me learn and practice these skills in a way that merely reading a book about nature journaling cannot. There were things I liked about all the journals, especially the various ways people used color. Shayna (the first journal) is probably closest to my current style. I'm especially excited to learn about incorporating watercolor into my nature journal!