Nature Journalling

Recently, I’ve been drawing with a pencil a lot – all animals and the occasional landscape thrown in.   I copy from magazines, books and photos, and just pick up a sketchbook I bought and get started. 

I’ve done lots of birds and more recently dogs.  Some of the animals are even starting to look like the animals they are supposed to be.

This month, my aim is to put more detail into the drawings and fill each page of my sketch book, rather than have just one drawing on each page.   But I wanted to make my pages more than just drawings - what else could I do with them?  I wondered.

In my search on how I might work this, I discovered nature journalling!   I came across this amazing website from a guy called John Muir Laws and it gives LOTS of advice and information about it. 

Needless to say, I became rapidly engrossed.  

In a nutshell, nature journalling is all about collecting and organising your observations of nature, your questions, connections and explanations in a notebook.  You can fill a page with drawings, observations, questions you have about nature and the answers you find, quotes about nature, when and where you saw the animal you’re drawing or the scene etc.  It sharpens your powers of observation and curiosity and get you out into the real world, noticing things, wondering things, observing things and having quiet moments with nature.  You're noticing things you wouldn't ordinarily see on a normal walk, and looking at them in close up and taking time to look at them.  

No, you don’t have to be brilliant at art, or even good at it.

The great thing about it is that you don’t have to be good at art or know a lot about nature to get started.

The important thing about it is to get started.

To get started, get paper or a sketchbook, a pencil, sharpener and rubber.  You can also use colours and do some painting.  (Amazon has lots of sketchbooks to choose from.)  Have a look at the Getting started with nature journaling video on John Muir Laws’ website.   It will give you an idea of what it’s all about and you can see some examples.  He’s also got helpful “How to Draw” tips with videos. 

There are lots of “how to” type tips and advice on John Muir Laws’ website, for families too, which I think is great – you can go out as a family and see what you can come up with on a page. 

For me, I’m not intending to make my nature journalling very scientific.  At the moment, I’m intending to use it to draw and add my thoughts and questions to it.   Well, that’s the plan.  But that’s the thing about nature journalling – to my mind, you can make it as scientific as you want it to be.  Or not scientific at all. You could get painting or use pencil or charcoal.  I use pencil because - frankly - it's easiest to grab at the start and clear away at the finish.  

Some people who do nature journalling are more scientific than others.  But you could include things such as the list below. 

• the date you did the page so you know what time of year it was
• where you were when you did the page
• drawings of birds, animals, flowers, trees, bushes, leaves, grass up close
• your observations of them
• questions you may have about them
• scientific information about them (you can look those up when you get home) 
• a description of what you see
• how you feel about what you see, felt, heard, smelt - tap into your senses
• an idea of the size of what you are seeing - measurements, perhaps, to give you an idea of scale

Anyway, do head over to the John Muir Laws website and see what you think.

In this world where so much seems to be going wrong everywhere, it is wonderful to be able to escape into the natural world, even if it’s just a corner of your garden or on your balcony or at the local park and just be. 

Faith in Nature has info on nature journalling, combining it with mindfulness.   And there's even an International Nature Journalling Week, held at the start of June. 

I also particularly like Alex Boon Art's You Tube Channel.   He's got a video on how to do nature journalling when you can't get outside. 

Enjoy!