nature journaling

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Art of Trees Workshop Images

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We just wrapped up a perfect Sunday: time spent with 13 enthusiastic tree-lovers in the Bay Area’s Holbrook-Palmer Park (California), learning and practicing tree sketching skills for field journaling.

For this Art of Trees workshop, co-instructor Patricia Larenas and I were bless with wonderful students, a beautiful day, and a plethora of interesting trees from which to choose, from the native stately Coast Live Oaks and mighty Coast Redwoods, to the exotic and odd Monkey Puzzles and Japanese Maples, all putting on a great show. The Atherton Arts Foundation was the perfect host, and we are so grateful for Dorothy and team who make it such a welcoming, perfect venue for art education.

Here are images of our pages and happy students.

Please join my email list to learn about future in-person (and online) field sketching and nature journaling classes!

This video shows the progression in Kate Rutter’s journal using the field exercises to zero in throughout the day on a final sketch of a wonderful Coast Live Oak. First sketch for scale and notes and ideas . . . she remarked it was a bit “flat” so she spent time with “oak marks” (love that!) and the next 13 thumbnails exploring and getting to know the oak, its shapes, negative shapes, bark, and finally found a perspective she loved and used in a completed final field sketch.

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Alaska Field Arts Bootcamp – August 19–25, 2023

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Image: Joris Beugels / Unsplash.com

Join me and Jonathan on a unique Arctic journey as we experience the beauty and magic of Alaska’s vast interior, from the Alaska Range to the Brooks Range, crossing the mighty Yukon River and the Arctic Circle in between.

We begin in the legendary gold rush city of Fairbanks on the Chena River, where we’ll get oriented at a local museum and enjoy the Sandhill Crane Festival. The next day the adventure begins when we depart by small planes to a bush airstrip at the Wood River Lodge, where we spend four days and three nights nestled in the huge roadless wilderness of the Alaska Range.

We return to Fairbanks and next day depart for the North by van on our optional Arctic Circle two-day extension. We’ll cross the mighty Yukon River and then the Arctic Circle on our way to the quirky roadhouse camp of Coldfoot, at the base of the Brooks Range.

Photos: Jonathan Hanson

Why August? It’s our favorite time in Alaska: it’s fall in the high north, with willows and alders and birches turning golden and red; blueberries, cranberries, and mushrooms are abundant; snow is often already dusting the dramatic mountains; and best of all, the mosquitoes are pretty much gone.

You will experience a full range of classic interior Alaska habitats and wildlife and seven days of pure immersion in field arts: nature journaling, field sketching and watercolor, animal tracking, birdwatching, reading the weather, using field optics, found pigments and inks, and much more.

Imagine the luxury of doing nothing but exploring wild nature and journaling in a cohort of like-minded fellow journalers . . . and with customized one-on-one feedback and skills-specific tutoring throughout the whole experience. No excuses. Just pure nature journaling growth and mindset.

Suitable For:

  • All journalers, from beginners to advanced, as your Bootcamp experience is tailored to your appropriate level: nurturing, inquisitive, and expansive. Not suitable for non-journalers, so please consider carefully if your travel partner is not a journaler, field sketcher, or nature photographer.

  • A moderate level of mobility, fitness, and health. We’ll be walking up to half a mile on flat sidewalks or dirt trails in Fairbanks; the trails around the Lodge can take you as far as you like within your ability; and we’ll be walking on uneven and potentially difficult terrain around the Koyakuk River and at various stops on the Arctic Extension. We will be in very remote locations away from quick emergency medical help; we will have a satellite phone but keep in mind, response and transport could be a significant wait.

    You will be required to secure trip cancellation and medical evacuation insurance. Trust us, it’s worth it, and very affordable.

What’s included:

  • One-on-one attention in areas in which you would like to improve;

  • Skills-specific mini-tutorials in field arts such as sketching, watercolor, nature writing, animal tracking, reading the weather, and using optics;

  • Orientation day in Fairbanks (museum and Sandhill Crane Festival) and accommodation and meals (lunch and dinner) at the Marriott Springhill Suites on the Chena River (Saturday, August 19);

  • Four days and three nights at Wood River Lodge in the Alaska Range south of Fairbanks (August 20–23);

  • Small-plane flights from Fairbanks to the Lodge and back;

  • Wine and beer happy hour each evening;

  • Use of Swarovski Optics binoculars throughout the Bootcamp;

  • Field kit gift bags;

  • Accommodation and dinner on return to Fairbanks (August 23) at the Marriott Springhill Suites. Fly out on the 24th or join the Arctic Extension, below.

  • OPTIONAL ARCTIC EXTENSION:

    • Van to Coldfoot, driving up the Dalton Highway, crossing the Yukon River and the Arctic Circle (August 24–25).

    • Stopping along the way for sketching and wildlife viewing.

    • Overnight at the classic “haul road” roadhouse Coldfood Camp in the tiny hamlet of Coldfoot (this is the only accommodation on the Dalton, and a true rugged worker’s accommodation, built in the 1970s).

    • Visit to the Koyakuk River and the BLM Interagency Interpretive Center.

    • Return to Fairbanks and stay at Pike’s Landing (or similar) on the Chena River (August 25). Fly out on the 26th.

Pricing:

  • Base cost Aug 19-23 only, one person, sharing room – $3,250

    • Single supplement (4 available) – + $580

  • Optional two-day Arctic Extension Aug 24-25 – +$725

    • Single supplement, Coldfoot Arctic Extension (4 available) – + $580

  • A deposit will be required to secure your space. Final payments will be due in June. See FAQ for refund policy (below).

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NEW Journaling Jumpstart Class

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Have you been struggling to get started journaling, and prefer a more structured format—but also with flex-times so you can work on learning when it’s right for you, and have a healthy check-in every few weeks? My new Journaling Jumpstart class will be perfect for you!

Bonus!: includes workbook and supplies—everything you need to start out (if you already have the workbook and supplies but just need more incentive, there’s an option for just the class, too).

We’ll spend eight weeks getting you going on your journey as a lifelong nature journaler by following the lessons in my book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life.

Next 8-week class starts: October 30 and will meet for four Sundays (1 pm Arizona time — October 30, November 13, November 27; December 18), with our “graduation” on December 18.

Pricing begins at $60 with different package options. Click below for details and to register!

Just added: Baja Field Arts Bootcamp!

Join me for a trip of a lifetime February 11–17, 2023 to a private camp in Baja to see the world-renowned gray whales. We will spend three days and two nights camping on the shores of magical Magdalena Bay, with daily small-boat trips to join the whales and other sea mammals and birds, then we’ll spend a full day off Loreto, on the Sea of Cortez side, snorkeling (and journaling!) with sea lions and other wildlife of Isla Coronado. I’ll also be offering an optional one-day extension at the end to head into the interior cañons to view 6,000-year-old rock art and taste local wines in the shade of ancient fig trees at a Spanish mission site (includes hotel in Loreto).

This will be five-plus days of pure immersion in field arts: nature journaling, field sketching and watercolor, animal tracking, birdwatching, reading the weather, using field optics, found pigments and inks, and much more. I’ll also supply everyone with Rite In the Rain journals / paper and pens, and underwater writing slates so we can journal in the boats and while snorkeling!

Imagine the luxury of doing nothing but exploring wild nature and journaling in a cohort of like-minded fellow journalers . . . and with customized one-on-one feedback and skills-specific tutoring throughout the whole experience.

The Field Arts Boot Camp is suitable for beginners to advanced journalers, as your Boot Camp experience is tailored to your appropriate level. Nurturing, inquisitive, and expansive.

No excuses. Just pure nature journaling growth and mindset.

What’s included:

  • One-on-one attention in areas in which you would like to improve;

  • Skills-specific mini-tutorials in field arts such as sketching, watercolor, nature writing, animal tracking, reading the weather, and using optics;

  • Marine biology naturalists and local experts;

  • Accommodations on arrival / last day in at the gracious Hacienda del Sol in Loreto and at a private camp at Magdalena Bay (two-person large tents with two cots and bedding);

  • Twice-daily boat excursions for close-up whale viewing (see details here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70T4OilANQ&t=92s )

  • Vans from Loreto to camp and back (and for the optional Rock Art extension);

  • Wine and beer happy hour each evening;

  • All meals from dinner on Saturday through breakfast on Thursday (or lunch and dinner through Friday if Rock Art extension added);

  • Use of Swarovski Optics binoculars throughout the Bootcamp.

  • Field kits, including Rite In the Rain waterproof paper and pens, and a writing slate for snorkel-sketching.

Pricing:

  • Base cost, one person – $2,550

  • Single supplement, hotel – $200

  • Single supplement, camp (only 2 available) – $300

  • Optional one-day Rock Art extension to San Javier (hotel incl.) – $350

Space is very limited for this amazing trip of a lifetime!

Field Arts Overland Journey — 3,584 miles and 50 journal pages

From the little cabin along the Yellowstone River, near Greycliff, Montana.

Just home from a month of overland travel teaching my Wyoming Field Arts Bootcamp and at the Northern Rockies Nature Journaling Conference in Montana. It was truly a blessing to spend so much time exploring new habitats, meeting and teaching so many wonderful people, weathering some intense storms (including a tree falling on my camp!), and recording my discoveries in my journal. Fifty pages' worth!

- 7 states

- 3,585.4 miles

- 15 days of camping (in 10 locations, nearly all by rivers!)

- 27 days

- 50 journal pages!

Photo courtesy Mary Jo Watters, Wyoming Field Arts Bootcamp July 2022

Finished demonstrations showing “regular” landscape view and an “imagined” cut-a-way view showing the water and creek bottom (and fish!).

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Wyoming Field Arts Bootcamp report

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Jaci E. sketching on Peralta Creek.

As a beginner, I loved all the sessions! I loved the day you taught the “landscapitos” and then we all went out in the meadow to paint. I felt like your one-on-one tutorials in the field were very valuable. You have taught me how I can simplify my journaling which will result in my actually doing more journaling in the future. Thank you for a wonderful experience! – Tammie A., Wyoming Field Arts Bootcamp participant

I’ve just returned to Arizona after a very fun first Field Arts Bootcamp in Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains above Sheridan.

Sixteen participants unplugged from the distracting digital world and spent four blissful days plugged into pure nature: learning, sketching, painting, writing, exploring, investigating, and socializing with like-minded “nature nerds” — it was so much fun we didn’t want it to end!

Each day began with an early bird-and-animal-tracks walk, then a delicious breakfast prepared by the chef, Abi Hedrick (who was so attentive, talented, and lovely, we all wanted to adopt her!). An optional morning tutorial was then followed by free time to work on journal entries. Another delicious lunch, followed by an afternoon tutorial (also optional) and more free time.

Tutorial subjects included:

  • Using Field Optics (we provided a loaner 8x32 CL Swarovski binocular for every participant!)

  • Getting Over the Fear of the Blank Page

  • Philosophies of Page Layout

  • Landscapito Drawing Tips and Using Grids for Easy Proportions

  • Watercolors Made Easy: Mixing Colors with a Triad

  • Animal Tracking Basics plus Tracing Tracks and Make Plaster Casts

  • Making a Cyanometer

  • And a “bring it all together” session by the creek to create quick sketches

 

measuring, photographing, sketching, and making paster casts of animal tracks:

 

Putting it all together: creating a “landscapito” of peralta creek (aka “little giggling creek”)

We all sketched the same creek, and it’s fun to see all the different visions and styles:

In addition, everyone got a specially made 14-card “Bootcamp Calisthenics” set (laminated and with a ring binder) for self-guided journaling “workouts” along with an animal track tip card and fun goodies to play with.

By happy hour we were all ready to gather and enjoy wine or sparkling water and share our journals and a cheerful fire in the great room. Dinner was always delicious, and we often went on further explorations afterwards, since dark was not until after 9 pm.

 

happy hours and journal shares:

 

We’ll definitely be returning to the Spear-O Wigwam ranch in the Bighorn Mountains next summer (around the third week of June 2023). I’m also booking new venues for later 2022 and into 2023 and 2024: northern New Mexico (Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu), Arizona, and Alaska, as well as the Midwest and Eastern U.S. and in England.

Bootcamp participants as well as those on my Bootcamp Interest List will get first dibs on slots opening up! Please visit the Bootcamp page here: https://www.exploringoverland.com/field-arts-bootcamps

Scenes from around the ranch (by Mary Jo Watters)

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Chroma Sonorensis: Making ink from mesquite tree sap

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Huge old mesquite tree on the Verde River in Arizona; from the US Forest Service publication Riparian Research and Management - Past present and future Volume 2

Drawing and painting in your journal with locally foraged wild pigments is deeply satisfying—true place-based art.

As part of my Chroma Sonorensis project, I began experimenting with making ink from mesquite tree sap—and I’m really pleased with the results. The mesquite (Prosopis velutina) is endemic to North America and an iconic tree in the Southwestern United States (though it’s now an invasive species plaguing nearly every continent). I grew up with mesquites, and especially love the huge old trees that are the remnants of the once-great bosques (Spanish for forest) that lined our now-dry rivers a hundred-plus years ago.

I gathered strips of bark from a tree in my back yard, where a lot of dark brown sap had leaked after a pruning cut last year. I soaked the bark in distilled water in a glass bowl, and then simmered it over a pan of barely boiling water for about four hours, until the liquid was very, very dark. I filtered the pigment solution through a paper coffee filter (several times, using clean filters each time). I then put the solution into the stainless steel pot and reduced it by at least four times by slow simmering, until only about half a cup of liquid was left—being very careful not to let it get to a rolling boil or burn. Finally, I cooled the liquid and added a very few drops of vinegar, and then decanted into small vials and a glass jar, adding a clove to each container (to help prevent mold).

The ink is a beautiful, rich brown that flows perfectly and adheres easily to the paper. Normally when making plant-based inks you must add a “binder” such as gum arabic (just a little) so the color adheres to the paper. But because this ink is made from sap it has a “built in” binder in the form of the slightly sticky sugars that occur in phloem (one of the heartwood tissue components in trees).

You can try making your own ink from lots of different sources. Berries can produce lovely inks though their color may fade or change color entirely over time. Dark-brown and black inks were historically made from plant-based sources of tannin, or tannic acid. Experiment! Try any tree sap that shows color, walnut hulls (not the nuts but the green fuzzy outer covering of the hard nut), and oak galls, which are not tree fruit but a nodule created by the tree in response to a little wasp (there are many species that do this) that lays its eggs in the oak leaf tissue and the tree actually forms the hard shell in response to the invasion. The baby wasps actually develop inside the round gall. You can read more about iron gall ink here, along with a good description of the ancient recipes for ink, including why vinegar is used.

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Field notes, a historical perspective

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Field notes in the Americas by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, ca. 1820s.

Explorers have been keeping hand-written field notes—with or without sketches—for hundreds of years, if not many millennia (on observing many rock art sites, I’ve been struck by the possibility that early humans were using rock and pigment to record their travels and nature information for hunting and gathering, and sharing their findings with others . . . such as at the large complex at the Neolithic Tweifelfontein in Namibia, which includes a large slab map showing water holes and game; see my field notes from this site at the bottom of this post).

A spread from my book Master of Field Arts showcasing the journals of Charles Darwin, Meriwether Lewis, and Thomas Orde-Lees—as well as a page from my humble journal during a weeklong biological survey of the Sierra los Locos, Sonora, Mexico in 2019. [Click to enlarge.]

Browsing the field notes of science explorers such as Charles Darwin (1809–1882), Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), Edgar Mearns (1856-1916), and Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783-1840) gives us an incalculable wealth of knowledge of the lands they explored and the human cultures and nature they observed. Darwin’s branching tree of evolution (right) with the scribble “I think . . .” never fails to give me the chills.

From the journals of geographer-explorers such as Thomas Orde-Lees, a member of Shackelton’s Endurance crew on the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1916, and Meriwether Lewis (1774-1805) and William Clark (1770-1838) from their Corps of Discovery, we discover new lands and learn first-hand the astonishing courage and skill needed to push the limits of human exploration.

Their meticulously detailed and illustrated field journals are priceless to humanity, as I mentioned, for their wealth of data, but also as roadmaps of human learning through exploration. Our boundless curiosity coupled with our ability to record what we see is one of the critical attributes that sets apart humans from other species.

Alexander von Humboldt’s journals from his Americas explorations ca. 1799–1800. (from https://humboldt.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/work/?lang=en)

List of bird species observed by Edgar Mearns (1856-1916) at Fort Verde, Arizona, in 1884.

The Importance of Field Notes Today

Field notes are still critical tools for field scientists and explorers, and yet the practice is waning with the advent of computers and pocket devices with 12-mexapixel cameras. You could say that I have been on a mission for the last several years to not only help save the tradition of venerable classic field notes but to also spread the love of recording nature to everyone—from kids to grandparents. John Muir Laws (The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling) says it best: “Keeping a journal of your observations, questions, and reflections will enrich your experiences and develop gratitude, reverence, and the skills of a naturalist.”

In these digitally cacophonous times that are robbing us of the ability to focus intently on one thing for very long, connecting with nature through careful observation and note-taking is more important today than ever in the past. Keeping a field journal may be the key to healing our digitally fractured minds.

I’ve been keeping field journals for almost 50 years, since I was eight years old and my Dad built me a Stevenson screen stocked with an array of weather instruments—every day at 4 pm I would head out with my notebook to record the daily weather and make notes and field observations. That—along with rockhounding expeditions with Dad and wildflower safaris with my Mom—cemented my lifelong love of nature observation, scientific discovery, and exploration (not to mention I’m still a weather nerd).

Grinnell’s narrative journal page from a 1910 field expedition to Pilot Knob. I followed his method starting in college—and still do, albeit with more drawings and color. I keep a small field notebook for jotting quick notes when I’m traveling or moving quickly, in addition to my larger narrative journal (see below).

When I started studying ecology and evolutionary biology in college, my field notes became serious records of natural history data using the Grinnell Method of scientific note-taking (a thorough documentation style, which included four components: a field notebook, a field journal, a species account, and a catalog of specimens; see right).

“Our field-records will be perhaps the most valuable of all our results. …any and all (as many as you have time to record) items are liable to be just what will provide the information wanted. You can’t tell in advance which observations will prove valuable. Do record them all!”

– Joseph Grinnell, 1908

About eight years ago I started adding sketches and watercolor to my field notes, adopting a more “journaling” style and yet still always including the critical metadata and nature data.

Sketches and data from my journals have been used in several books written by me and my husband, Jonathan Hanson. In 2020 I published Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, to encourage anyone who wants to begin keeping a field or “nature” journal, and in 2022 Master of Field Arts, a sort of “master’s degree” for the next level to becoming a lifelong naturalist and explorer.

Obviously we can’t all be Charles Darwins or Alexander von Humboldts, but we can explore the world around us and make observations and fall in love with the process of discovery.

Time and again I return to one of my favorite published journals of discovery, the superbly readable The Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research by longtime friends John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts. Published in 1941, it is the full and shared vision of their scientific collecting expedition aboard the Western Flyer sailing out of Monterey. The book is part travel journal, part philosophical essay, as well as a nature journal and a catalogue of species Grinnell would highly approve of. Steinbeck described the purpose of the journey was

“to stir curiosity”

. . . but my favorite line from the book perfectly captures the larger context of exploration and observation (and recording those observations in our journals):

“It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars, and then back to the tide pool again.”

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Field notes page from our crossing of Botswana in 2019.

Above and below: Studying and documenting a large (and probably 1,000+ year-old) Welwitschia mirabilis in the Ugab River region of Namibia, 2019.

 

I love that my field journal—made for me by my husband over 25 years ago (and my companion on tens of thousands of miles of exploration and field work on five continents) so closely resembles the journal of Meriwether Lewis (right).

Resources for exploring historical and modern field notes:

Start with the Smithsonian Institution’s Field Book Project (scroll to the bottom of the page to access the archives links) at https://siarchives.si.edu/about/field-book-project

The goal of the Field Book Project is to promote awareness of and access to thousands of scientific field notes in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, and holdings at the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Libraries. It began in 2010 as an effort to bring to light these hidden collections with a goal to catalog 5,000 field books and provide online access to those records, a goal graciously funded by the Center for Libraries and Information Resources (CLIR). At this point, the Project has cataloged over 9,500 field books and digitized over 4,000.

Another rabbit hole to explore is the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology’s Archives Field Notes collection: https://mvz.berkeley.edu/mvzarchives/

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This post is an update to my 2019 post, “The art of seeing instead of looking: reasons to keep a nature journal”.

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Toolkit tips: Power of observation

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The power of observation is one of the most important tools in your field arts “toolkit.” Sharpen it regularly!

Here’s an example, which I could have missed had I been just looking and not seeing what was happening:

I noticed recently that when pruning a little scraggly mesquite tree (Prosopis velutina) in our yard that the next month it had sprouted HUGE thorns.

I have to ponder: Do plants have genetic memory?

Prosopis species evolved with Pleistocene megafauna. Are the mammoth thorns in response to predation by mammoths? (Even if in this case the predation was by shears, not megafauna!)

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Book birth – Master of Field Arts

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I am beyond thrilled that my next book, Master of Field Arts is finally finished and I’m expecting copies from the printer around February 9th! PRE-ORDER NOW FOR SPECIAL DISCOUNT AND GIVEAWAYS—save the date for February 19 for a virtual Book Launch Party (details below)!

Master of Field Arts is the next level for nature journalers and field sketchers—a deep-dive into becoming a dedicated master naturalist and field artist. A Master of Field Arts.

Chapters are organized to build your skills and introduce you to new tools and methods, including:

  • Field Arts Méthode

  • Tools for Field Arts

  • Session 1 – Pencil: Humble Sketching Tool

  • Session 2 – Ink: Elegant Linework

  • Session 3 – Cartography: Visualize Your World

  • Session 4 – Vintage Tint: Ochres & Natural Pigments

  • Session 5 – Weather: Read, Record, & Predict

  • Session 6 – Animal Sign: Read & Record Clues of Passage

  • Session 7 – Word Pictures: Natural History Writing

  • Bonus Workshop: Make Your Own Ink & Dip Pen

  • Projects, Templates, & Tools

  • Fieldwork Studies

  • Removable Charts, Tips, & Reminders

178 pages

Spiral binding to facilitate workshop-style learning.

$35 (see below to secure a $5 off coupon)

also available bundled with Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, Field Journal Sketchbook, Field Arts Discovery Kit, or all of the above! Click the PRE-ORDER NOW button below.

This book is a perfect sequel to Nature Journaling for a Wild Life as you grow in your nature journaling practice, as well as for field researchers and expedition leaders who want to ensure their field notes are meaningful, accessible, and useful for their work.

Join us for a Book Launch Party

Saturday, February 19, 2022

10 am MST

  • Selected reading and sneek-peeks of the content

  • Attendees who already have ordered their copy will be eligible for special giveaways during the event—see below! (if you are on our email list you will also get a $5 off code; if you didn’t get it, contact me, or sign up for the email list for instant access (below)!)

  • Giveaways—book customers will be eligible for free cool kit from the Field Arts shop (Discovery Kits, Mini Plant Presses, mini microscopes, and Field Arts Sketchbooks)!

  • Special preview of upcoming exciting new projects

Length:  45 minutes (maximum)

Start time: 10 am Mountain time / 9 am Pacific time / GMT - 7

(Having trouble figuring out time zones?Use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)

Format: online via Zoom

Access: Registration not required for this event. Please use this link HERE to join the event!

Email list subscribers and current customers received a $5 off code for pre-orders in the launch party announcement. Not on the list? Sign up now to get your code instantly!

 
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“Master of Field Arts is a welcome companion to Roseann Hanson’s 2020 book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life. In this second book in her Wild Life series, Hanson gives us an accessible and practical guide to advanced naturalist and field journaling skills. The lessons provide the structure and details to enable you to think and see like a naturalist, and take your observation and ability to investigate nature mysteries to the next level.

“These methods connect you with old traditions of exploration and promote learning from experience. You will learn fundamental skills for journaling and recording, and ways to make your own art materials, a process that more deeply connects you to place. You will also dive deeply into reading the sky and tracks in the dust. As a bonus, Hanson gives us templates and field tools she uses in her own work. This book will help you take your nature discovery, inquiry, and journaling to mastery.”

– John Muir Laws, The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling (Heyday Books)

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Alaska Explorations – Reflections on "pencil miles"

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We recently returned from the high and middle Arctic regions of Alaska—a research trip for Jonathan’s next fiction novel in his Clayton T. Porter series.

For two weeks solid I was able to explore new habitats, learn new species, and sketch and write extensively from early morning until late in the evening—a whopping 27 pages worth! And I can confidently say:

  1. Alaska is a superb natural treasure, as vast and wild and full of wildlife and rich cultural history as anywhere we’ve been in Africa . . . and . . .

  2. “Pencil miles” work, even in the short-term (thanks, Jack Laws).

I’ve posted below all the pages in chronological order.

It’s particularly interesting to note the changes from day one at the natural history museum at the University of Fairbanks, where I jumped into live sketching after several weeks hiatus from any journaling at all. I dove in (after writing the metadata, of course) with the 8-foot-tall stuffed grizzly . . . and it just went all wobbly wonky on me. Too many people around, too many people watching over my shoulder, I just couldn’t find my sketching ju-ju.

But I stuck it out. Then I took a deep breath and centered myself and concentrated on the walrus . . . and after zenning it out, I got it. My sketching started settling.

Over the course of the next 11 days watch how the quality progresses. I even tackled quite a few live-in-the-field animal sketches where I only saw the critter for a very short time. Into the second week, after struggling a little with pen-only live animal sketching, I adopted a purple-leaded pencil* to do these initial one- to two-minute gesture sketches, and left them as-is. Then later, using photos my husband shot as reference, I completed more detailed sketches in camp, using my gesture sketches as baselines. I really like the peregrine and muskox gestures.

I returned completely energized and excited to complete my next book (80% done), Master of Field Arts. I also will be offering several workshops:

* I don’t like graphite pencil for journal sketches because the soft pigment can smudge terribly on my pages. Jack Laws likes a non-photo blue pencil, which I tried but found I didn’t really like, perhaps because the blue pigment is rather hard and unexpressive. Recently I saw Jack using a purple-colored pencil, so I ordered purple refills for my mechanical pencil—and I really like it. Soft and expressive, light enough to not overpower the gestures but with enough character to create really pleasing gesture sketches.

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Quick guide to indexing your nature data

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So — you are committed to making a regular practice of studying nature by recording what you observe in your field notebooks and nature journals.

Now what? What is the next step?

For me, it meant making my data more accessible in the future, so I could find notes and observations from months or even years ago. But how to do that, without just flipping through every page of every journal to find what you need?

I've developed a simple indexing system using little Field Notes Brand notebooks and notations for key species, nature phenomena, and places that works well for me.

I have 36+ years of field notebooks and nature journals and it's great to be able to look up things in the past, as I'm studying something. I am also starting to note and track climate change.

This is one of the most important things we do as naturalist—to study, question, and answer things about nature, over time!

PAGE NUMBERING [SEE PHOTO ABOVE]: I number each of my pages starting with #1 for the first of the year. Since I use a refillable journal, I can have as many pages as I need for the year. If you use bound journals, just make sure each is labeled on the first page with the year and “Volume ___ of ___” leaving the last space blank until the end of the year. I always date every entry and have the metadata, too.

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ENTER YOUR DATA REGULARLY: About once a month I transfer major entry subjects into the index, it doesn't take long. As you can see each page is a letter, for subjects or phenomena. You can also include places, though I separate my notebook into species/phenomena in the first half and places in the second half.

The entries are simple. Using "senita" on upper right as example: p49 01/19 means page 49, January 19th. Since each notebook is a single year, I don't need to put that. This is 2020. [If I have bound journals, I would just note V1 for volume 1 or V2 for volume 2 for that year.

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KEEP YOUR INDEXES HANDY FOR REFERENCE: When looking for a subject—say White-crowned Sparrows—I can browse the yearly indexes for Sparrow, White-crowned. Yes I have to look at each year, but it beats having to thumb through every journal pageI

So I can go back, for example, and see when White-crowns arrive and leave each year . . . is it earlier or later? What is the trend?

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New free Field Arts classes and virtual field trip!

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How are you doing with your New Year’s resolution to improve your nature journaling and field sketching skills?

Here is my lineup of free workshops and field trips in the next few months, I hope you can join me!

  • JAN. 23 – DRAWING WITH GRIDS - 3D Cube Landscapes & More (FREE, online): How to draw “3-D” landscape cubes — in which you envision taking a giant cutter and pulling a cube out of a landscape, showing the sliced edges and details such as soil and creeks and roots. They are challenging—but with a fun new tool ( the new clear Perspex Palette-Easel ) I will show you how to easily capture a very fun view of a landscape. Make your own (I’ll include instructions), or order one from my shop ($13 with a dry-erase marker or $12 without). For information and to sign up click >HERE<

  • FEB. 06 – VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP – WINTER WONDERLANDS (FREE, online): Join me on a virtual field trip sketching winter wonderlands around the world! Experiment with different ways to represent snow and ice . . . from the comfort of your warm studio! We’ll explore using blue for shadows, how to represent animal tracks, and sketch some icicles. For information and to sign up click >HERE<

  • FEB. 20 – Nature Journaling Best Practices – Check-in for beginners (or anyone) ( FREE, online): The hardest part of nature journaling isn’t the sketching and painting—it’s maintaining your practice.

    If you are. new to nature journaling, or struggling with an ongoing practice, join us for a check-in session to share our experiences and frustrations making nature journaling a regular part of our lives.

    The aim of this hour-long session will be to talk about success or struggles, and our community will help find solutions and suggestions.

    For information and to sign up click >HERE<

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Simplify! Learn to paint with three primary colors – January 9, 2021

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Adding watercolor to your field notebooks and nature journals need not be an elaborate exercise in juggling dozens of colors and six different brushes!

I will introduce you to the simple technique of mixing any color you need from a triad — three primary colors (a cyan, a magenta, and a yellow) plus my own preferred “bonus” colors of burnt sienna and a dark blue.

It’s not hard, and it’s fast, simple, and fun!

Use your own paints (I’ll send you recommendations) or order my Minimalist Paint Kit or one of my paint tins with sample paints and paint along.

Length: 2 hours

Start time: 2:00 pm Arizona time (Phoenix) / GMT - 7 

(Having trouble figuring out time zones?Use this calculator: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html)

Format: online via Zoom (you will receive a log-in link)

Cost: NOTE: free shipping has ended as of 1-4-2021; in order to receive paint kits, please also add Priority Mail shipping when you order.

  • $45 without any paint kits

  • $65 with mini paint tin and 5 paint samples

  • $82 with small paint tin and 5 paint samples

  • $90 with Minimalist Paint Kit with mini paint tin and 5 paint samples, water brush, micro-fibre rag, pen, Clear Perspex Palette-Easel with Magnet Strip and dry-erase marker

Access: You will receive log-in instructions after purchasing the class.

SIGN UP HERE: https://www.exploringoverland.com/shop/feral-watercolor-workshop-3356h

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New Virtual Field Trip – Mountains and Mesas – recording posted

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Join me on a virtual field trip from Moab, Utah, to Aspen, Colorado, all along backcountry roads through some of North America’s most spectacular scenery as the colors begin turning fiery yellow and red.

Sketch along or just observe, l narrate as I go to demonstrate why I choose to focus on what subjects and how to quickly capture them in your field notebooks and nature journals.

And in this trip, I introduce an all-new virtual field experience using 360-degree views and embedded videos and images, so you can explore the same trip, at your own pace, and sketch and take notes as you go.

Mountains and Mesas Virtual Field Trip

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Nature journaling for all ages—Vail school kids rock it

Since COVID bombed our spring, summer and now fall, with so many kids going to school virtually, I have been in touch with several groups of middle school students and their science and / or art teachers. They have been using (free) electronic copies of my book Nature Journaling for a Wild Life as a textbook for bio-art classes to learn how to observe and record what they see—and hopefully learn a little about what’s right out their back door.

Three hundred students in four bio-art classes in a Boston science magnet school worked through the eight chapters in April and May, and currently a middle school class in Vail, Arizona, is doing the same with teacher Jana Dawson.

Jana recently shared with me a few pages the kids have completed (one entry a week)—and I’m blown away! The metadata (! yay for metadata!), the excellent observations, and the great sketches—so inspiring.

I’m hoping to meet this group online—which I did with the Boston kids—and hear more about their experiences.

Well done guys! [Pages shared with permission; locations greyed out.]

Journal page by Remy

Journal page by Remy

Journal page by Dex

Journal page by Dex

Journal page by Shae

Journal page by Shae

Journal page by Ella

Journal page by Ella

Journal page by Martha

Journal page by Martha

Journal pages by Martha

Journal pages by Martha

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New Tutorial: Adding pages to my handmade leather journal

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I have just added a short tutorial in which I demonstrate how I lace pages into my simple leather journal using leather shoelace. I've been using this system for over 20 years and it is inexpensive and versatile, allowing me to archive my pages in three-ring binders.

I also include links for more tutorials on how I made my journal and my Minimalist Stand-Up Sketching Kit, as well as printable downloads for weather data to add to your journal.

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Registration opens for nature journaling workshop with the Natural History Institute - July 31-Aug 2, 2020

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Join me and the Natural History Institute for a multi-day workshop exploring nature through field journals—all live online, including unique virtual field trips and your own field experiences.

Friday, July 31 – 5:30 pm to 7 pm

Saturday, August 1 – 9 am to 2:30 pm

Sunday, August 2 – 1 pm to 3 pm

Saturday, August 8 – 10am to 11 am check-in

$110 USD

Keeping a nature journal or field journal can both deepen your connections to the natural world and help you learn more about it. Neither science education nor art training is needed—you will develop the skills of a naturalist and a field sketch-artist along the way.

This 4-session class will introduce the tools and processes of keeping a nature journal, with instructor Roseann Hanson. There will be an optional 1-hour check-in the following Saturday as well. Sessions will be recorded, for review and if you miss a day.

“Your observations, questions, and reflections will enrich your experiences and develop gratitude, reverence, and the skills of a naturalist . . . If you train your mind to see deeply and with intentional curiosity . . . the world will open before you.” - John Muir Laws, artist, naturalist, and author

In this class we will learn how to practice “intentional curiosity” as the core of nature journaling: to ask questions, to dig deeper, to focus our minds both intently and intentionally.

The class will include:

  • The nuts-and-bolts of journal-keeping (paper and ink types, archival systems, how to make entries that you can refer to later, laying out pages, prompts to jump-start observations, and tips on researching science questions sparked by your observations).

  • Easy tips that enable anyone to get started sketching and painting. Roseann will help free you from your inner critic and start sketching and painting. Art in a nature journal is not only lovely to see, but an important component of your skillset because the very act of drawing and painting something from life involves incredibly intense observation. Your brain is wholly occupied by only that thing you are observing and drawing—it is a kind of meditation that results in new insights, deeper understanding, and even reverence and gratitude.

  • Optional supplies package and book add-ons, mailed to you in advance, see below.

Instructor Roseann Hanson, who has been keeping a nature journal for more than 30 years, will be your guide on the journey to becoming a naturalist, nature journalist, and artist.

Optional supplies: Students may purchase my book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life , which includes blank journaling pages, and Minimalist Paint Kit and other supplies prior to the class.

TO REGISTER:

Call or email the Natural History Institute 

(928) 863-3232, info@naturalhistoryinstitute.org

Metadata 101: Weather

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As I write in my book, Nature Journaling for a Wild Life, your field journal or nature journal is so much more than “just pretty pictures.” You record a great deal of information about the world around you—and that information I call “nature data.” This includes observations about what is blooming, what animals you are seeing, what they are doing (feeding, on what? sleeping or flying?), and so on.

There are other data that are also critically important—the “metadata,” which literally means the data that goes with other data. This information includes where you are (latitude / longitude, elevation), the time, sunrise and sunset times, moonrise and moonset times, temperatures, and the weather.

Why do you want all that in your field journal? That information is incredibly useful for giving deeper meaning to what you observe. Say you are exploring in early June in southern Arizona and you note a lot of Ghost Brimstone butterfly activity, which seems a bit early for the region, which is hot and dry during that time and not great for butterflies. You take good notes on their numbers, and do a sketch and describe their appearance. Then you note the weather: cloud cover, cloud types, wind speed and direction, and so forth. If you can, you look up the relative humidity.

Later, you do some research and find out that these butterflies often precede summer thunderstorms in the Sky Island region, moving up from the south with the storms, and sure enough a week later the monsoons start a bit early. Your metadata helps you and others who might access your notes observe that the week before, the relative humidity was in the single digits but when you observed the butterflies, it had jumped up to double digits and there were cumulus clouds on the southern horizon. Bingo: your metadata may help correlate butterfly activity to local storm activity.

I’m often asked about the symbols I use in my field journal for recording the weather—in the image above, note the symbols in the upper right. These are taken from the classic meteorologist shorthand for recording weather at weather stations. When I was in grade school, my dad made me a classic white-louvered weather station and stocked it with high-low thermometer, rain gauge, barometer, and anemometer. We printed out special sheets from the National Weather Service and I instantly became a life-long weather nerd. More than a decade later, when my husband and I became caretakers at a remote wildlife refuge, one of our duties was to record the weather via the weather station (yes, in a white-louvered box) at 4 pm every day. Of course today nearly all official weather stations record the data automatically and upload to servers, but I still love to write mine by hand.

Below is the cheat-sheet I use for the classic weather symbols. I don’t do it exactly as a weather station, just picking and choosing what I want to focus on. I keep a copy of this in the front of my journal. Click on the chart to open / download.

And here are some apps for your phone for looking up other useful metadata:

  • Sunrise / Sunset: Sun n Moon (iPhone), lunasolcal (android)

  • Location: Backcountry Nav (Android); MotionXGPS (iPhone)

  • Weather: MyRadar (iphone, android)

  • Tides: tide alert - NOAA (iphone); tide charts (android)

The National Weather Service has an excellent guide to the symbols and how to use the format for station plots (though you can set it up any way you like for your own data collection, using whatever information you want, or not). Access the page at their website via this link (click on “print version” for a PDF):

https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/stationplot.shtml

You can also create your own page for the front of your journal depicting cloud types and adding their altitudinal ranges and symbols from the charts above. I used Erin Ryan’s Types of Clouds worksheet from SuperTeacherWorksheets.com.

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How to render 3D block maps

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Cartography is one of the oldest field arts—many ancient petroglyphs might actually be maps (there are several at Twyfelfontein in Namibia).

Here is a step-by-step pictorial on how to render a cool 3D map. I did this one from a photo after a visit to Cave Creek in southeastern Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains. The biggest challenge is pulling the "box" out of the 2D image and envisioning the "cut away" part in a way that works in a 3D cube. Thanks to John Muir Laws for the tutorial in his excellent Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling.

Study your photo or live landscape and decide where you want to pull out your 3D box. I wanted to be sure to depict the creek, especially the whimsical spillage off the box (idea stolen from Jack Laws). Getting the landscape right in the box is the …

Study your photo or live landscape and decide where you want to pull out your 3D box. I wanted to be sure to depict the creek, especially the whimsical spillage off the box (idea stolen from Jack Laws). Getting the landscape right in the box is the hardest part, and you will probably have to do 4 or 5 tries before it feels right. That's how many it took me on this one! I used this photo for inspiration; from the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon (FOCCC) on Facebook, by Steve Wolfe.

After studying your photo (or live landscape) and deciding where to pull out your 3D box, use pencil to draw a rectangle on your page. with all the corners and "bottom" included.

After studying your photo (or live landscape) and deciding where to pull out your 3D box, use pencil to draw a rectangle on your page. with all the corners and "bottom" included.

Using pencil still, sketch in the upper corners and limits of the landscape within the box. You can see I drew the right-most upper corner too high and fixed it later. Then I added the general creek location and the background.

Using pencil still, sketch in the upper corners and limits of the landscape within the box. You can see I drew the right-most upper corner too high and fixed it later. Then I added the general creek location and the background.

When I was happy with the placement of the landscape elements, I drew over the main parts in pen.

When I was happy with the placement of the landscape elements, I drew over the main parts in pen.

After the pen dries, erase the pencil lines that marked the structure of the box. Then go back with pencil and add details; I roughed in the rock spires, the slopes, where I wanted to make the darker patches of vegetation, and a few symbols for habi…

After the pen dries, erase the pencil lines that marked the structure of the box. Then go back with pencil and add details; I roughed in the rock spires, the slopes, where I wanted to make the darker patches of vegetation, and a few symbols for habitat types. When happy, I finalized in loose pen sketching, keeping the marks fairly light.

The final step was adding the watercolor, making sure to make the farthest mountains darker and warmer blue in tone so they feel like they are receding (instead of making them green or cooler blue). Don't go crazy on the details for something this size and this simple.

I decided to add the clouds and hawk as a fun whimsy.