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Nature Journal: Week I Find a site
Nature: Image and Object
Nature Journal
One important aspect of a person trying to make art about nature is to spend time outdoors. We live in a beautiful forested campus and the program takes place in the spring where we will have the opportunity to identify and observe plants and animals changing as the season progresses. This also gives you an opportunity to practice and develop your skills drawing from observation.
Keeping a nature journal gets you to slow down and make close observations – a foundation for artistic and scientific work. For the artist and writer, the field journal provides a way to make a personal connection with nature, observe patterns, help protect it, and to gain a better understanding of the natural world. It is a place for you to record your observations, perceptions, questions and feelings about the natural world. It is a way to study where you live and how the habitats change with the seasons.
When you are in the field, you may be convinced that the details are not important or that you will be able to remember the details later. Unfortunately you can’t. Sometimes you won’t know what is most important until later. For example, did the baby bird have its eyes open or closed? This could be an important clue in telling how old it was. Were the leaves opposite or alternating? This could be an important clue for identifying the plant.
You could approach this journal in different ways. Some people take the journal into the field and make notes and drawings on location. I would like you to make your drawings from direct observation. Other people make notes in a small 3” x 5”spiral notebook or on note cards that will fit into a pocket. Later that same day they combine and transcribe their cryptic notes into a permanent journal in narrative format that is easier to read. During the transcription process, they could refer to the field guides and references like we have in our studio to clarify any identification they could not make in the field. One on-line field guide is enature.com Good book form field guides include:
The Sibley Guide to Birds of Western North America (Sibley)
Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Pojar and McKinnon)
The Beachcomber’s Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest
(J. Duane Sept)
A Field Guide to Mammals (Burt and Peterson)
Bugs of Washington and Oregon (Acorn and Sheldon)
You could refer to a trail map of a park guide for additional information. On line topographical maps are available at terraserver.microsoft.com. Some parks give out species lists for things commonly observed in the park. You could also collect objects (if permissible and not rare) and draw them later.
Hannah Hinchman in A Trail Through Leaves will give you lots of ideas on how to keep a nature journal. Some of the most common types of notes are:
• Site Name, Location, Date
• Time of Day
• Temperature
• Weather Conditions (cloudy, sunny, windy, wind direction, rainy)
• A list of plants and animals observed
• Drawings
• Reflection on what you are seeing:
o Use analogies: once you’ve looked at something closely, you could develop a list of analogies. What does it look (smell, taste, sound, feel) like? (e.g. The Douglas Squirrels chased each other along the branches like tightrope runners. The Douglas Squirrel ate the hemlock cone like a hungry child eats corn on the cob.) These words could be the seeds of a poem to write about the experience
o Pose Questions: Once you’ve thought of analogies, then you could ask why (e.g. why does the Douglas Squirrel eat the cone like a piece of corn? What are they eating in the cone?) You could then do some research to find out what Douglas Squirrels eat. Write the answers in your field journal.
Choose a place that you would like to observe alone once per week for two hours. Record your observations in a way that incorporates both writing and drawing. Each week you will receive specific instructions regarding the drawing techniques to practice.
Use your 8.5 x 11 sketchbook for these assignments. Use pencil, micron pens, natural materials found on the site (e.g. dirt, pigments made from plants) watercolor and colored pencil. You may use charcoal, but it smears and you may want to insert protective sheets between the pages. Each week you will be making approximately ten pages of drawings.
Week I Assignment (Due Friday 4/4): Visit three potential sites for your observations. (forested area, prairie, beach, wetlands, meadow, park, and vista). Choose a place where you feel comfortable being alone. It should be a place where you can observe plants and animals and how they change seasonally. For each place, draw a map that describes how to get to the place. Record the date, time of day, weather conditions and any other relevant factors (moonrise, sunrise, level of the tide etc.). Write a brief description of the place. Write why you think this would or would not be a good place for a 10-week series of observations. Choose your site. Write a paragraph about why.
Nature Journal
One important aspect of a person trying to make art about nature is to spend time outdoors. We live in a beautiful forested campus and the program takes place in the spring where we will have the opportunity to identify and observe plants and animals changing as the season progresses. This also gives you an opportunity to practice and develop your skills drawing from observation.
Keeping a nature journal gets you to slow down and make close observations – a foundation for artistic and scientific work. For the artist and writer, the field journal provides a way to make a personal connection with nature, observe patterns, help protect it, and to gain a better understanding of the natural world. It is a place for you to record your observations, perceptions, questions and feelings about the natural world. It is a way to study where you live and how the habitats change with the seasons.
When you are in the field, you may be convinced that the details are not important or that you will be able to remember the details later. Unfortunately you can’t. Sometimes you won’t know what is most important until later. For example, did the baby bird have its eyes open or closed? This could be an important clue in telling how old it was. Were the leaves opposite or alternating? This could be an important clue for identifying the plant.
You could approach this journal in different ways. Some people take the journal into the field and make notes and drawings on location. I would like you to make your drawings from direct observation. Other people make notes in a small 3” x 5”spiral notebook or on note cards that will fit into a pocket. Later that same day they combine and transcribe their cryptic notes into a permanent journal in narrative format that is easier to read. During the transcription process, they could refer to the field guides and references like we have in our studio to clarify any identification they could not make in the field. One on-line field guide is enature.com Good book form field guides include:
The Sibley Guide to Birds of Western North America (Sibley)
Plants of the Pacific Northwest (Pojar and McKinnon)
The Beachcomber’s Guide to Seashore Life in the Pacific Northwest
(J. Duane Sept)
A Field Guide to Mammals (Burt and Peterson)
Bugs of Washington and Oregon (Acorn and Sheldon)
You could refer to a trail map of a park guide for additional information. On line topographical maps are available at terraserver.microsoft.com. Some parks give out species lists for things commonly observed in the park. You could also collect objects (if permissible and not rare) and draw them later.
Hannah Hinchman in A Trail Through Leaves will give you lots of ideas on how to keep a nature journal. Some of the most common types of notes are:
• Site Name, Location, Date
• Time of Day
• Temperature
• Weather Conditions (cloudy, sunny, windy, wind direction, rainy)
• A list of plants and animals observed
• Drawings
• Reflection on what you are seeing:
o Use analogies: once you’ve looked at something closely, you could develop a list of analogies. What does it look (smell, taste, sound, feel) like? (e.g. The Douglas Squirrels chased each other along the branches like tightrope runners. The Douglas Squirrel ate the hemlock cone like a hungry child eats corn on the cob.) These words could be the seeds of a poem to write about the experience
o Pose Questions: Once you’ve thought of analogies, then you could ask why (e.g. why does the Douglas Squirrel eat the cone like a piece of corn? What are they eating in the cone?) You could then do some research to find out what Douglas Squirrels eat. Write the answers in your field journal.
Choose a place that you would like to observe alone once per week for two hours. Record your observations in a way that incorporates both writing and drawing. Each week you will receive specific instructions regarding the drawing techniques to practice.
Use your 8.5 x 11 sketchbook for these assignments. Use pencil, micron pens, natural materials found on the site (e.g. dirt, pigments made from plants) watercolor and colored pencil. You may use charcoal, but it smears and you may want to insert protective sheets between the pages. Each week you will be making approximately ten pages of drawings.
Week I Assignment (Due Friday 4/4): Visit three potential sites for your observations. (forested area, prairie, beach, wetlands, meadow, park, and vista). Choose a place where you feel comfortable being alone. It should be a place where you can observe plants and animals and how they change seasonally. For each place, draw a map that describes how to get to the place. Record the date, time of day, weather conditions and any other relevant factors (moonrise, sunrise, level of the tide etc.). Write a brief description of the place. Write why you think this would or would not be a good place for a 10-week series of observations. Choose your site. Write a paragraph about why.
