Jim

I have always enjoyed learning from nature. I have just recently added sketches and watercolors.  I have often used photographs and video as a way of capturing the moment.  However it does add another level of observation when I uses sketching and watercolors.  I also want to increase my skills in scientific drawings and painting.  So I want to journal with sketches to deepen my understanding of nature, increase my skills as an artists.  I also want to learn how to create a drawing while observing nature directly and not just from photographs.  In looking at the different styles of journals I like combining both text and images including rough sketches.  I also want to take some of the favorite subjects and use my observations to create a detailed drawing including watercolors.  I might do the first level in the sketch pad and create more finished paintings in the album format.    I also like using a nature journal to serve as a memory album for a trip.  I did a little of this on a trip to Alaska this  summer.  One of my drawings is included below.  I may also use it to grow my observations for a particular theme like life in a natural aquarium I am keeping in my house using organisms from area lakes, or a study to study the birds (esp blue jays) at my feeder. I also like drawings that tell a story.  In my drawing I found it  interesting that the Sandhill Cranes and Canada Geese freely intermingled and flew together at the site of the Sandhill Crane Festival in Fairbanks Alaska.    

I love the idea of combining drawings and poems.

I very much like telling a story.  I have been studying geology and fossils and I am intrigued how little bits of evidence can help tell a story.  Next to artists I find that geologists are one of the most observant people I know.