Kirby

1. I have loved nature ever since I was a little boy. My parents have always encouraged me to explore our natural world. We would go on hikes, climb mountains, go skiing, traveling, and I was lucky enough to have a grandmother that had a beach house in Stone Harbor, NJ. Exploring the beach, catching sand crabs, going fishing with my dad, and just being in the salt air every summer inspired me to go to college for Marine Biology. I currently have my bachelor’s degree in marine biology from Stockton University and work as a naturalist/marine biologist and first mate on a whale and dolphin watching boat. Both of my grandmothers have also enjoyed feeding the wild birds in their backyards and they passed this love of birdwatching on to me. My grandmother on my mom’s side of the family is currently 97 years old and continues to amaze me every day! She loves to paint, do crafts, play with our dog and still keeps feeding the birds. Her father was an artist and my great great uncle, Prosper Louis Senat was a famous French Painter with some of his artwork currently in a few museums. I feel like I have to have some type of artistic skills if it’s in the family right? Nature journaling to me, will be a way of connecting myself not only to nature but also to my ancestors in the same way that they expressed themselves through art ☺️ 2. I really liked the watercolor journaling. I definitely want to incorporate watercolors over top of pencil sketches like the girl in the final part of the video. I just really like the bold colors that pop out using watercolors. I would also like to try out some colored pencil sketches too as a personal challenge, since i’ve never done detailed sketching with colored pencils. 3. I’m also really into photography and my father has been a professional photographer for the last 35 years. I would like to maybe include a few pages in my journal that include some of my nature photography taken with my Canon 40d DSLR camera. I think it would be a neat way of learning how to sketch/paint using a still photograph, and then work my way up to sketching wild birds, whales, dolphins, sharks etc. that are moving ☺️🐧🦅🐋🦈🐳