Beth

I like blind contour drawing. The 1st one I do is always the worst one.  It's takes 1-2 for me to get the feel of things and keep the marks I make in perspective to the size/shape of the subject.  My results almost always both make me laugh, and then feel a little bit of skill coming in, when a contour gets pretty close to "right."

4/29/21 - I sat in my backyard and heard many sounds - neighbors, traffic, then the wind, birds (sparrows?), bees buzzing, a big fly.  It was sunny and breezy, 84. I smelled the roses and orange blossoms. Even in my small backyard, in a suburb, after about 10 minutes I had some visitors.  A tufted titmouse flew in, got an insect, flew out.  A hummingbird checked out some nasturtium. I didn't sketch or draw at all. My journal looks like a checklist.  And, that's OK for now.  I liked sitting and seeing and hearing and smelling.

The pandemic lead me to walk in different areas around my home, as where I usually walked became a lot more traveled by more people. So, I went to an area near a quarry close to my house.  There were many animals there, and birds, and I kept a written journal for the past year of what I saw and when, and some other observations.  It has been quite a year of loss, but I am drawn to document this year as a nature journal.  Those daily walks and observations kept me anchored in a good place, for at least part of every day through a difficult year. I do not think I have quite the skills for the task, but I think I will learn a lot by creating this journal.