Beautiful! love how you make the fur appear soft. How did you achieve the glint in the eyes? I did an apple and while the light and dark areas show the way I hoped, I could not capture the glow of the apple in the light.
1.Easier to draw from photo because you can check shape, proportions, colour and note details. Challenging because it is flat, how to incorporate 3-D aspect, keep small enough(tended to enlarge while drawing) and wanted to keep making corrections.
2. In drawing you are focusing on the shapes and proportions, with photos the colours. When journaling I would have to write notes of the details: colours, shades, types of plants, location and activities. It would be harder in the field.