Jane

I've been a casual birdwatcher for years. This course and the Nature Journaling course have heightened my interest in paying attention to the variety and seasonality of the birds in our area. I'd like to get better at identifying birds by their calls, because sometimes I am too rushed to take time to find it or don't have binoculars with me but am curious if it's a bird call I don't recognize. Will finish that course, which I'd started some time ago.

Thanks to my fellow students for your suggestions on nature writers that you enjoy. I had not heard of Mary Oliver before - I don’t read a lot of poetry, but will look for her work. I’ve enjoyed Peter Matthieson, Bill Bryson, Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, and just finished Terry Tempest Williams’s The Hour of Land. I’d like to read more of her work. I have started journals many times before, but never with the intention of also connecting it to observing nature and actually illustrating it. My journals have tended to be about what I “do” not what I “feel” and I hope I can bring in more of the latter. One of the positives for me of having this coronavirus lockdown has been a chance to more intently observe the natural world around me. Lots of walks, hardly any driving, and really noticing the changing from late winter to early/mid spring. Also, to contemplate what changes seem to be happening all around us due to the “built world” and climate change. In the Chicago area, we’ve just experienced our wettest May on record and Lake Michigan and surrounding waterways are at all time highs. How will this affect our area going forward - both from a human standpoint and for our natural world? Will this time of “stay at home” have any longer term impact - maybe not on our environment, but perhaps on our attitudes towards it, so we appreciate and will fight harder to protect it? All things to continue to observe.

Advantage of a rainy day - I decided to attempt to use the metallic/florescent watercolors that I received when I first ordered to see what I could do. Others have mentioned they also got this pallet by mistake - it doesn’t contain a black or any flat color. Our only local hummingbird is the ruby throated, and it has iridescent colors, so that was my pick. This was from a photo in Stokes Field Guide - I found I could add some darkness with my pencil which I wouldn’t have tried if I’d had the regular color palette. So a good experiment.

Nancy, I ordered my supplies on line and I got the same set the first time around. Decided to keep it for poster painting or kids projects or something, but I was able to go to another site and specifically order the standard color set. I think there’s a lot of people ordering water colors - the standard colors are harder to find! Lucky for me, I’m in Chicago and able to get another delivery. Anyone who’s still purchasing supplies, make sure you get the black box, not the one with the Asian fish on the cover!

I think the negative space and seeing the shapes rather than trying to capture the whole form at once has been most helpful. And being willing to erase and start again to get it right!

On the last few exercises, I am finding I need to keep my images smaller, quicker and not to spend too much time on any detail. The red fox with kit was hard-I think mammals seem to have more moving parts than birds. Yet the duck preening had a lot of action. Since it's a cold day outside and I had limited time, I turned on the Cornell Lab bird cam to do a little more practice on a live scene. That was fun - still hard but in the comfort of my home!

I decided to compare these two plants in my back yard. It’s an unmanicured bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Some of the vegetation was intentionally planted by the prior owner, but most is native happenstance. I think these two plants are natural inhabitants of the land. I have no idea what either one is, but am now curious to find out. The comparison study caused me to think about qualities that I might not have noticed if I were just looking at one plant by itself.

It's a challenge for me to take the time to observe, sketch, come back and observe again. By drawing, I took more time to see the picture, beyond the beautiful colors. Still waiting for my own watercolors/sketch pad to be delivered, so just pencil for now.