Nature sketch
#Nature sketch free
Take a few minutes to reflect on what gets YOU personally excited about nature, then on the first page of your journal, write out a short mission statement to help you stay focused.įeel free to add as much detail as you’d like and really paint a vivid and inspiring picture for yourself… Are you more interested in documenting the life & behaviors of local animals?.Do you want to experience the mental health benefits of connecting with nature?.Do you want to get better at identifying birds, plants & trees?.Do you want to enhance your appreciation of the environment?.Do you want to become a better naturalist?.What do you want to get from your nature journal? It’s important to realize that people don’t all journal for the exact same reasons.ĭepending on what you want to get from your time outside, we can approach nature journaling differently and individually cater your experience to get faster results. I know you’re probably excited to get started…īut before you rush out and immediately start journaling away, you might find it helpful to spend a few minutes clarifying your nature journaling goals. Identify Your Nature Journaling Goals (What Do You Want?) Some people prefer lined paper, others prefer blank, or even graph paper can sometimes be helpful when sketching.Īnd remember to put the dates, time of day & notes about weather at the top of each entry (more on this later).Īll this will help you be more intentional about your nature journaling routines so you can be more aware of patterns outside. You’ll feel a real sense of accomplishment when you completely fill your first journal from cover to cover with observations!įeel free to use whatever type of journal feels good to you. This will make your progress a lot more obvious.Īs you turn the pages, you’ll be able to clearly see how your awareness & observation skills are growing and improving with each new entry. Your previous entries are always directly in front of you to reference back and help you spot trends, seasonal patterns or behavioural relationships of animals. It also keeps all your recent observations closely at hand. Having a dedicated journal that’s entirely devoted to nature will help you solidify your intentions to observe & understand what’s happening outside. If you mix your nature journals with personal reflection journals, it’s a lot easier to get distracted and lose track of your purpose. This might seem like a simple thing, but it can actually help a lot with your overall focus over time. I highly recommend that you start your nature journaling adventure by dedicating a stand-alone journal 100% for the purpose of nature observation. So today let’s explore 12 simple steps and tips to help you use nature journaling to enhance your connection with nature! 1. This is a huge passion of mine with tremendous potential to help people grow along their journey into nature… Appreciate nature and have a more meaningful experience outside.Uncover new ecological perspectives and ask better questions about your environment.Build deeper and longer lasting memories of the natural world.Make better observations about nature through sensory awareness.The result of writing things down is that you instantly see new perspectives and think of new questions to ask… Nature journaling gets the observations out of your head and onto paper so you can record & keep track of the big picture patterns. It’s a simple & effective tool to help naturalists improve their observation skills and see big picture ecological patterns more clearly. Nature journaling is the process of recording your observations about birds, plants, trees & other natural things on paper. This is where nature journaling saves the day as one of the absolute best strategies in your naturalist toolkit. This is why writing your observations in a journal can really help to unlock your brain’s ability to unpack natural mysteries and make amazing discoveries. There are literally thousands of interactions to explore outside between birds, plants, trees, seasons, weather, insects, soil conditions, ecology, mammals and more.īut if you don’t have some way of sorting through all this information, nature can easily feel like an impenetrable wall of green. The first time I tried to observe meaningful patterns in birds & plants, it was like my brain couldn’t fully process all the information coming in through my senses. Nature is filled with amazing things to discover at every turn… but it’s also incredibly complex! One of the most impactful methods I ever learned to improve my experience of the outdoors is nature journaling.