Nature Journaling for Beginners
Creating a Nature Journal – an online course for beginners
How would you feel if you knew that you could create a wonderful nature journal with ease and confidence, without stressing about the result and without anxiety holding you back?
A blank page can be the scariest thing, but learning the fundamentals of nature journaling can set you on the road to success and save you from getting dismayed by mistakes and things not turning out as well as you hoped.
Most of us have a go at things on our own, feeling that we should be capable to figuring it out.
But often that isn’t what happens…
BEGIN can save you many hours of unsatisfying results and coming to a stop when it just won’t go right.
It will help you change your feelings about your work from disappointed to ecstatic.
You follow an easy repeatable process that will help you achieve consistent improvement in your nature journaling.
You’ll learn how to include a range of exciting techniques, materials and processes to make it authentic to you. The aim is to get you nature journaling straight away and build your confidence in your own creative skills. It will help you track the nature activity and changes happening in your environment.
This course is entirely online and downloadable for you to keep forever. There is no set timeline or cut-off deadlines, so you can do the activities when it suits you best. Everything is explained in pdf files and templates which you can keep and take with you for easy reference when out in nature, or if you have limited or slow internet access.
You can do this course with the minimum of simple art supplies, there is no requirement to buy an expensive hoard of beautiful art materials (although you might want to once you get started!).
By the end of this course you have learned how to:
- apply the knowledge and techniques of nature journaling and bring more nature experiences into your life,
- confidently tackle landscape, wildlife and botanical sketching on site,
- combine detailed drawing and watercolour painting techniques to develop your own botanical and bird artworks,
- develop your inner artist, with an understanding of colour theory, design and composition principles and decorative art techniques,
- increase your awareness of the natural world and be able to apply critical thinking and scientific principles to record your observations.
BEGIN includes:
- Complete training course in the fundamental principles of nature journaling in step by step lessons, including workbooks, pdf guides and templates to get you started.
- A Nature Journaling Vision Board tutorial to help you define how you will connect with nature in all aspects of your life.
- Video instruction on a variety of relevant subjects.
Course outline
Introduction to Nature Journaling
- The benefits of nature journaling
- How to create your own Nature Journaling Vision Board
- How to begin – getting inspired and defining your project
- How to use nature journaling materials and equipment for field and studio, plus field trip essentials
- Choosing the right type of journal layout and format for your projects
Observing Nature
- Tools, methods and what to record
- Being still in nature, using all your senses
- Learning to see the details
- Data capture, charts, mapping, surveys
- Making a journaling plan – identifying what you want to achieve in each session
Sketching and freehand drawing (graphite)
- Working quickly in the field– the reasons why
- Easy-to-learn sketching techniques and contour drawing
- Drawing basic foundation shapes
- Art techniques to create a realistic 3D effect – shading, line quality, perspective, textures, value scale
- Scientific illustration techniques
- Beginning botanical illustration – how to draw plant life
- Beginning bird illustration – how to draw birds
- Drawing landscapes – how to draw landscapes, linear and aerial perspective, light depth and detail.
Adding colour
- Colour theory basics, colour wheel explained, warm and cool colours, painting white flowers and birds.
- Beginners guide to watercolour and colour pencil techniques for nature journaling
- Colour mixing for realistic natural colours and colour studies
Writing and recording
- Being a citizen scientist – asking the investigative questions of “why” and “how” (as well as what, when and where), and developing your own ideas and hypotheses, researching topics.
- Methods of recording discoveries, data and information.
- Creative writing skills and how to incorporate other texts, poems, quotes and other written elements
Creative journaling
- Applying composition and design principles
- Decorative lettering scripts, borders and embossing
- Modifying your pages with creative mark making and art techniques
- Adding elements – foldouts, envelopes, collage, found objects
Putting it all together
- Evaluating your journal
- Creating artworks from your journal references
- Care and preservation of artworks
Courses start twice a year. Please subscribe to the enewsletter to get the latest info.
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