nature journaling

last month, i met someone at an arts meetup with a gorgeous sketchbook full of plants, fungi, and ecological observations. i loved it and felt inspired to do more drawings from life, so when she announced that she was starting a nature journaling club, i signed up right away.

yesterday was our first meeting! about ten of us gathered at the local park, introduced ourselves, then got an overview of nature journaling. in short, a nature journal should include drawings and writing and numbers.¹ the emphasis on the last one came as a surprise to me, as i had come to this with the assumption that the drawings were the key component of the journal. i have way more experience collecting data than i do drawing, so it made me feel a bit more confident in my ability to complete an interesting journal page. i may not be able to recreate an intricate flower, but i can easily measure the diameter and count the petals.

after some quick drawing tips, we were given thirty minutes to complete our first excercise: pick one plant in the park, then fill a page with enough information that someone else in the group would be able to find that exact plant. i picked a little sapling lit by the setting sun. luckily for the person who would have to find it, the sapling was close to an easy landmark: a large tree with a bunch of unique carvings on it. luckily for me, it was also close to a bench.

after 30 minutes, we partnered up and set off through the park to find each other's plants. my partner drew some very elegant clover flowers, and while we admired many clovers on the ground, neither of us were able to find the exact subjects of the drawing. mine... was a little obvious.

when we gathered again, everyone set their sketches on a picnic table for all to see. some included detailed studies of a single leaf, others included maps of their plant's location. one was done with watercolor, another included a bug that landed on the plant during the exercise. all were lovely.