Patricia

Neat! You sound very organized, and determined to learn more about birds.  That's great!

@Coral Thank you, Coral!

A life-long love of nature and appreciation of realistic art has often nudged me toward drawing from the natural world outdoors.  However, I have relied on copying from my photography much more than sitting outdoors to copy from living nature.  It feels like the right time, now that I am over 70 and have more leisure freedom, to begin this effort in earnest. I love the idea of including a little box of information about time, place and conditions, and the style of making boxes that are not confining of the artwork, but rather an embellishment. The idea of capturing only as much as I see of a bird in motion and doing that many times seems like a worthwhile process. Also, knowing next to nothing about water color painting, I want to try adding color and blending colors as they appear in the outdoor environment.  The little swatches of 'all the colors seen' seems like a good idea, too, as does the bird feeder study. Leaving a little space for scientific identification and including notes about each observation are more things I want to try. There is a lot new here, I think, available in this course, so I simply want to gather insight and practice the skills presented here.