Hi everyone!
We have made it in the northern hemisphere to the longest day of the year. Woohoo! Growing up in an often dark/wet/dreich climate creates the benefit of being eternally grateful for daylight. Ask many folks from the uk, and they’ll probably consider it a crime to be inside when the sun is out and - dare I say it - actually be warm - a miracle! Light is really important, and worth celebrating.
To mark this day, I wanted to release the fourth seasonal drawing prompt on my blog, this time for the summer season ☀️. Over the last year I’ve released a quarterly prompt or challenge to encourage time either outside, responding to nature, or tuning in to ourselves.
If you’d like to check the past seasons prompts out, I’ll link them here. I’ve been releasing them seasonally, but of course they can be done any time you feel like a little nudge or guidance to get your sketchbook out and have a play.
Summer Prompts
This season is all about nature journalling. The beauty of this practice is in the discovery, learning and easy creative expression it encompasses.
What is nature journalling?
Quite simply, it’s a sketchbook practice that blends learning about the natural world with drawing. One of my Patreon’s introduced me to the concept, and it’s just been really lovely to get into.
Why nature journal?
If you’re like me and struggle to retain information when you read, this is a lovely way to help embed some nature facts. Somehow, the pairing of drawing, then reading and writing, seems to embed things a little easier. Or, you just want to learn more about the natural world, or practice drawing plants and animals too!
You can do it outside, or you can research from the comfort of your home, depending on your schedule and location.
It’s a great way to practice drawing skills, and gain a deeper appreciation of the natural world, by slowing down and looking closely.
Do I need to be able to draw to do it?
Not at all. (Although I feel very deeply that everyone can draw). It’s great for people of all ages & stages on their creative journey.
What do I need?
You can use any materials you like for this. The baseline you’ll need is a pen/pencil and paper, and you can bring other materials in too, work in a sketchbook, on looseleaf sheets, or make one of these easy pocket size sketchbooks (only takes a minute or two).
I like to use:
watercolours
pen
small sketchbook
drawing pencil
I also went totally rogue, and tried out some ink cap mushrooms on my ipad! Digital drawing can be a fun way to explore nature too 🍄
If you’re heading outdoors for this, you might want to bring a plant / animal ID book with you. It’s a good idea to snap a photo of whatever it is that catches your attention, so you can find out what it is back home, or continue your drawing inside.
If you’re working from home, the naturescot website is a fantastic resource, with great images to draw from, plus full to the brim with facts to include for our writing & fact-finding portion of the page.
Steps
The components that I think are important to include are:
the species name
a few fun facts
a drawing of some kind.
I’d wanted to practice drawing animals and plants this year, so this has been a really lovely thing to try. It’s a new subject matter for me, plus a good way to practice analytical drawing. The point is not to make a masterpiece, but to practice.
And to honour this practice mindset, here are some of my drawings - I wouldn’t say I love the drawing and have so much to learn still, but it’s a start 🐬
A page evolving - bottle nose dolphins
Extra Tips:
I’ve been doing my drawings as continuous line drawings (put your material on the page, and keep drawing until it’s complete - don’t spend longer than 1 minute on the first sketch)
Try drawing details of the species too (e.g fish scale patterns, veins on a leaf etc)
Capture colours
Mix up your materials and use a few together
Facts I go for are usually lifespan / size / habitat / temperament / favourite food
Use materials you enjoy
You don’t have to spend too long, although you can go way more detailed and intricate if you’d like. I kept it simple so it’s something achievable for me to do fairly regularly.
You could even try drawing to nature documentaries - drawing to moving image is always a fun challenge. I’ve been loving Tiny Worlds on apple TV, or the National Geographic youtube channel is great too! There are so many amazing places to find nature documentaries. I’m always looking for more, so let me know your favourites down below!
* BONUS TIP FOR DRAWING TO VIDEO: on youtube you can change the playback speed to 0.25. Simply hit the settings button (the cog icon) / playback speed / select the pace:
Inspiring Scientific Illustrators / Nature Journal artists to check out
* Personal ramble on why I got into nature journalling:
For this season’s prompt, I wanted to share a practice that feels rewarding and peaceful. I came to nature journalling at a time I was feeling slightly disconnected, and wanted to share, incase you feel in a similar place in life too.
As a person who runs a creative business based around nature connection, I have spent much less time outside the last few months than I’d care to admit. Because of a series of events, personal life reasons, my environment, amongst other happenings and many work deadlines, the balance has tipped towards longer desk (or-sat-painting-on-my-floor-days). Why am I mentioning this in a nature drawing challenge prompt? Partly, because without this imbalance, I’d never have started this practice in the first place - and secondly, I think transparency online is important.
As much as I’d love my life to look like painting and then bouncing up hills day in and day out, the reality of my life, in this current phase looks different to that. I have been outside sketching much less these last months. And while I deeply crave more nature time, I think life comes in phases, so I’m not too worried about it.
Right now, my focus is on different types of work and development, in my painting practice, personal life, and in various elements of my business. It’s feeling really rewarding in a different way. It’s also led to me being more resourceful on how I connect to nature in my daily life, and embracing that it is an evolving practice that will come in waves, and different heights of adventure, and lengths of time spent in wilderness.
I’m hoping to share more on these quieter moments of nature connection through writing, painting and creative activities/teaching as we move through the year, as it’s been these wee gaps of 5-minute moments, in the in-between spaces, that have been keeping me grounded. Looking for a flower in my break away from the laptop, watching my many basil plants grow, or sitting with my eyes closed, scribbling in my sketchbook to the sound of birds, and slowly learning their calls, which has been a salve. It’s given me a deeper appreciation for the importance of accessible daily access to nature, which is a theme I’ll be taking forwards into my work this year. I’m looking forward to seeing my drawing skills develop, and to see if this nature journalling practice brings more literal elements to my paintings, or illustration subject matter.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this, you’ll find me creating things over on Patreon, Youtube & Instagram 🌿 If you give this (or any of the other challenges) a go, tag me on instagram or use the the hashtag #outdoorsketchbook. + If you have a nature journalling practice and share your pages on the internet, I would love to see! Feel free to share it with me down below 🦭
One last thing; my latest collection of paintings launches today, which you can check out here. I’ve been filming & sharing the process of these mixed media seascapes over the last few months if you’re curious to see how they evolved, over on my youtube channel.
Best,